Back in Eugene, Will “The Thrill” Clark keeps growing 

EUGENE, OR – ​​Initially, it feels like Will Clark is a long ways away from his resume.

Minor league baseball is great. But there are limits to what the Emeralds can do for the man who accumulated over 56 career WAR, a .880 OPS and has his number 22 retired by the San Francisco Giants.

At the very least, being a senior advisor for the team and traveling throughout the minor leagues is quite the difference from taking his life’s earnings and retiring off somewhere in the South. He did, after all, play with the likes of Barry Bonds and Pudge Rodriguez.

On this particular day, Clark was dressed in a Black Giants jacket and white baseball pants for his first day in Eugene. If you didn’t know any better, you could confuse the 1200-RBI legend as the manager, simply by how he carries himself.

As a coach — “[Usually,] I would be out in the clubhouse talking to the guys, talking about what they did yesterday, what they are going to be looking for today.”

As a father — “I love having my son Trey at the ballpark, being able to travel and see the world with him is great.”

And as an ambassador — “I like to joke that when a fan says ‘I’m your biggest fan’ well, they are all my biggest fans, I know I stand as an ambassador for the Giants and for baseball.”

But for someone in his shoes, signing autographs, taking photos and being swarmed by fans, it's rare to be bigger than life — yet so positive, always.

Officially, Clark is a traveling official hitting instructor for the Giants and the club’s minor league affiliates. But his responsibilities range far past any title.

“I do all sides of the ball, I instruct and then I evaluate, and see who needs help in what area and who needs help at each level,” Clark said. “Some of the stuff I look at is minute, and some of it is major.”

“For example, a player is dropping his back shoulder and his bat path is way up, that’s why he’s missing high fastballs and sliders away…. Or a missed pick-off play at first, that’s major, that’s a real problem.”

For Clark, the idea of helping teenagers as raw as himself find their way in a profession designed to weed out the weak, is more than enough.

One conversation with Clark will tell you all you need to know about his approach towards his job. On top of everyday instruction, Clark sends player evaluations to Giants’ General Manager Pete Putilla and Director of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi. And predictably, despite his calm candor, Clark isn't one to mince words.

“I’m brutally honest,” Clark said. “One of the things I look at, you know being a hitter, is why are you not hitting a certain pitch. And when you go back and look at it on video tape there are certain things that stand out like a sore thumb.”

“When guys don’t make an adjustment, and you just keep getting beat by the same pitches over and over and over again, and you don’t make adjustments and keep swinging at the same pitches over and over again, I’m gonna make note of that... That isn’t what a hitter is.”

It must be noted that Clark hit above .300 12 times in his 17-year career.

“Of course, I had holes in my swing,” Clark said. “But I worked hard on improving them, I mean if you have a hole you can drive a Mack truck through, well that’s one thing. But if you have a hole that’s two baseballs wide, now a pitcher has to make a really good pitch to get me out.”

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Clark isn’t one to hesitate or appear as someone who he isn’t. What you get is who he is. Jovial, quick-witted, but as he said — brutally honest. So the answer to the first question I asked him this Saturday afternoon wasn’t completely unexpected.

“Yes, I can still play… I swing everyday,” Clark said with a genial grin.

Now, that same love for the game has manifested itself in other ways.

“The best part, I swear, is when you give a player a little bit of advice on their game, and you see that part of their game improve,” Clark said. “Just [the night before] Jonah Cox, he’s pulling off the ball and I go ‘you’ve got to keep that front shoulder down, and stay through the baseball.”

Cox’s next two at-bats? Single up the middle, and a triple to right-center.

“He came in, and was like ‘I felt good’ right there,” Clark said. “And I was like, ‘it looked even better’.”

Occasionally though, there are times where the fire Clark played with for 17 seasons emerges again.

“When it comes to this sport, I’m very serious,” Clark said. “I worked really hard to become one of the elites, and when guys don’t give me that same effort, they do catch the wrath of the Thrill, and I’ll get in their face. Some people get intimidated but I really don’t care, I’m in this sport to win.”

“There's a lot of really good players that we have in our organization,” he said. “But we've got to put in the work to help these guys be as good as they can be.”

And remember, if it really comes down to it, Clark could still step in too.