Jackson Free Press

Will Clark is a New Orleans native who played for Mississippi State University's baseball team from 1984-1985. He helped the Bulldogs to a third-place finished in the '85 College World Series. That year, he was the second pick in the Major League Baseball draft, and the San Francisco Giants chose him. Known to many as "The Thrill," Clark went on to play 15 years in the bigs, mostly with the Giants. Clark spoke with the Jackson Free Press upon his induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

You retired after a good year without a lot of indecision. Why is it that so many other athletes today struggle with making the decision to retire?
When I played the game, I played it for the love of the game, and I think a lot of people play the game now for money, believe it or not. They're throwing so much money at these players now that sometimes it's hard to walk away from it. I was pretty much sort of set in my decision, and I was still able to play a little bit. I had a real solid year, and I wanted to got out on the top of my game.

You are credited with reading Greg Maddux's lips, and that started the thing with pitchers covering their mouth. Do you attribute that to your intensity?
I think it was more observation, and I just so happened to look up there and I read his lips when he was saying "fastball", and I ended up hitting a grand slam literally on the next pitch. It's just one of those things. After I hit the grand slam, I didn't tell anybody. I told maybe a teammate, and the teammate ended up telling the press, and that's how it got back to Maddux and that's why everybody, like you said, now holds the glove over their mouths. It's one of those funny things in baseball that I probably shouldn't have told anybody because I didn't want anybody to find out, and then everybody found out.

Where does being inducted in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame rank among the honors you've received?
You know what, it's the pinnacle of my amateur career, because when I left MSU, I became a professional. It's the pinnacle, and to be recognized by the state of Mississippi in the Mississippi Sports of Hall of Fame after three years of college, it's pretty incredible; it makes me very proud.

What accomplishment of your baseball career are you most proud of?
There's been several of them. I homered in my first at bat off of Nolan Ryan; I got a game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth inning that put us in the world series in 1989. I had some awesome at bats when I was in college. All of that as a whole defined me as a player, so I can't pick out just one. I try to remember the whole thing.