{"id":166879,"date":"2025-07-10T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/166879\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T23:36:11","slug":"former-texas-rangers-star-will-clark-shares-unflattering-thoughts-on-todays-mlb-hitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/166879\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Texas Rangers star Will Clark shares unflattering thoughts on today\u2019s MLB hitters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former\u00a0Texas Rangers<\/a>\u00a0first baseman Will Clark joined\u00a0The Dallas Morning News\u2019 new SportsDay Rangers podcast<\/a>\u00a0with longtime beat reporter Evan Grant and Rangers senior advisor and team historian John Blake.<\/p>\n

They discussed Clark\u2019s time with the Rangers, the 1996 AL West championship, his leadership style and his thoughts on modern hitting in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

Related:SportsDay Rangers Episode 9: The one with Will \u2018The Thrill\u2019 Clark<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some highlights of the conversation, edited lightly for clarity.<\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

After eight seasons with San Francisco, you signed with the Rangers in 1993 going into the new ballpark. Tell us about the circumstances of replacing Rafael Palmeiro and coming to sign with Texas.<\/p>\n

Will Clark: They basically said I should go to free agency. So I went out there and I looked, and it was Baltimore and Texas. One thing about the negotiation always, Texas was very consistent, they laid out their contract, and then they stuck with it, and I really appreciated that, and so I decided to sign with them. I was fairly close to home. I\u2019m from New Orleans, so a lot of friends and family could come see me play. And then it was one of those things where it was a good challenge, because the Rangers had a good foundation for a ballclub and trying to get into the playoffs, and eventually the World Series.<\/p>\n

The Rangers were a team that had never been to the playoffs at that time. You came from a team with a lot of tradition and had success. How much did it weigh on you that you were going to a place that hadn\u2019t known success?<\/p>\n

Clark: It was actually something I really embraced. I\u2019ve been on several teams over the course of my life, going up to that point, where teams kind of under-produced. Especially for the Rangers, I mean, it wasn\u2019t the fact that they didn\u2019t have enough offense. That was without a shadow of a doubt with Juan Gonzalez and Pudge Rodriguez and Jose Canseco was there in \u201994. So there was a lot of offense. It was just the fact that we need to stop the other team. And \u201994, as you will probably get to, wound up being a strike year, even though we were in the brand spanking new ballpark and all the fans were really looking forward to coming out and seeing some games at the ballpark. And then \u201995 came along and all of a sudden, over the course of that strike, I actually had a talk or two with our GM, Tom Grieve, and I told Tom, \u201cWe need pitching and defense,\u201d and over the course of the next year, he got it, and \u201996 became a completely different story.<\/p>\n

\"RangersRangers Rusty Greer, Will Clark, Darren Oliver, and Roger Pavlik, right, all tip their cap to the Texas Rangers fans at the end of the final regular season game at The Ballpark in Arlington on September 29, 1996.(Irwin Thompson)<\/p>\n

All nine starters on that 1996 team had over 500 at bats. Manager Johnny Oates had a lineup and he just played it every day. Rusty Greer said they took the lead from you on playing through injuries<\/a> and you put the onus on the rest of the team to go out and play.<\/p>\n

Clark: That was one of the attributes of a leader, is the fact that it\u2019s like, \u201cHey, follow my direction, because I\u2019m gonna do what I say.\u201d I learned that from some of my veterans in San Francisco back in the day, and coming on board to Texas, perfect example would be like Pudge. For as great as Pudge was, he would, every now and then, come up with an excuse to not play. Johnny [Oates] would tell me that, and I\u2019d walk up to him, and I go, \u201cLook, we need you today. Come out here. Let\u2019s bust our tail today, and then you\u2019ll get an off day down the road. I\u2019ll promise you, you\u2019ll get an off day down the road.\u201d And Pudge would go out there, and he played that day and we normally wound up winning, believe it or not. <\/p>\n

So then you fast forward, and you got a guy like Rusty Greer, who\u2019s a new player. And it\u2019s like, \u201cRusty, the only day you feel really 100% is your first day of spring training. After that, it\u2019s kind of downhill. So you gotta make do with the little injuries and the bruises and you get hit by a pitch.\u201d I don\u2019t have time to take a day off. I need to play, because my presence in the lineup means a lot, and especially Rusty, being a three-hole hitter, he\u2019s setting up the lineup coming behind him, so he needed to be in there. So those are the kind of little things that we did as leaders and veteran players to show the younger guys, \u201cHey, look, you can play and you can be really successful, even though you\u2019re not 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not being able to get over the hump against the Yankees in the playoffs in 1996 and 1998, it had to be really frustrating for the club, especially in 1996 after winning Game 1 in New York.<\/p>\n

Clark: Winning Game 1, and we were actually winning Game 2, late in the game and wound up giving up that lead. Had a few little walks and a blooper or two here and there. But if you look at it, I\u2019m definitely one of those guys that looks myself in the mirror and I\u2019m able to say, \u201cHey, look, I did a good job, or I did a terrible job, you need to do a little bit better.\u201d Both the \u201896 and \u201898 teams, we were really good, don\u2019t get me wrong. We were really good. But I mean the Yankees wound up winning the World Series both of those years. They were a little bit better than us, and they executed at the times that they needed to execute, and we didn\u2019t. So for those reasons, we didn\u2019t win the World Series. But \u201996 especially, that was the first ever championship in Rangers history, going back to when they were the Senators. So it is definitely a source of pride for me, knowing that, coming to Texas and wanting to win, and we won. The first ever time that the Rangers won, and you\u2019re talking about baseball in September instead of talking about the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

What do you think of hitting in Major League Baseball today?<\/p>\n

Clark: Well, to put it mildly, it sucks. Rusty Greer, myself, Juan Gonzalez, Pudge Rodriguez, you talk about four guys right there that are all .300 hitters in one lineup. And now, last year in the National League, there were four .300 hitters in the whole league. So that just speaks volumes for itself, right there. I mean people talk about there\u2019s more velocity and you got to deal with that. That\u2019s bulls—. If you face velocity on an everyday basis, you\u2019re going to get used to it. It\u2019s the fact that guys look at themselves now and they think everything is mechanical. \u201cOh well, my hands didn\u2019t do this, or my feet didn\u2019t do that.\u201d No man, it\u2019s the fact that you\u2019re not adjusting to how they\u2019re pitching you. If they\u2019re pitching you up, you need to get your hands higher. If they\u2019re pitching you away, you need to get a little closer to the plate, if they\u2019re pitching you in, back off the plate. None of that is being done right now on a major league basis.<\/p>\n

It feels like in the game now, everyone is focused on the mechanics of the swing and not what they need to do to get the ball in play or advance the runner. Do you see fewer team at bats?<\/p>\n

Clark: That is so, so correct, right there. I mean, for me personally, I want to see guys that grind and put the ball in play and make the opposition field the ball as much as possible, and they\u2019re going to throw one away here and there, and then that leads to a big inning, instead of being okay with a strikeout, swinging out your ass when you got two strikes, and then just walking back to the dugout like, \u201cOh, okay, that\u2019s okay.\u201d No, it\u2019s not okay. Part of a good hitter is grinding and finding a way to put the ball in play.<\/p>\n

You did set an example for leadership with the team and a lot of that rubbed off on Rusty Greer, and that rubbed off on Michael Young. For 25 years, there was a clear delineation of what it meant to be the clubhouse spokesman.<\/p>\n

Clark: I learned this in San Francisco, and I tried to teach my teammates in Texas was, you go out there and you do a job and you do it, whether you succeed or whether you fail. But people need to know. You have to be in front of your locker every day and answer questions. If you\u2019re the hero, oh yay, everybody\u2019s gonna pat you on the back on how great you did. If you\u2019re the goat, and you just made an error and cost us a ball game, you better be in front of that locker too and accept responsibility. A lot of my teammates did that, and I got to tip my cap to them for doing it.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a grown man, act like a grown man. Don\u2019t act like a little baby and go run and hide. No, stay in front your locker and face the music, whether it\u2019s good music, whether it\u2019s bad music. And guess what? It all has to do with your performance out on the field. And if you don\u2019t want to face the bad music, well then do a good job out on the field.<\/p>\n

Podcast: Should Rangers stand pat, and will Pickens and Cowboys get along?<\/a>5 first-round fits for Texas Rangers in 2025 MLB draft: Needs, dreams and schemes<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former\u00a0Texas Rangers\u00a0first baseman Will Clark joined\u00a0The Dallas Morning News\u2019 new SportsDay Rangers podcast\u00a0with longtime beat reporter Evan Grant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[4805,5,4,5790,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-166879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-podcasts","12":"tag-rangers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-rangers","16":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114831568855987261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}