Ozzie Smith thought the Cardinals were being bullied and he needed to show them how to stand up for themselves. Will Clark thought Smith was behaving like a bully by attacking him from behind.
Clark, Smith and Jose Oquendo were the principal figures in a memorable brawl during a Giants-Cardinals game at St. Louis.
On July 24, 1988, nine months after the Cardinals had defeated the Giants in an intense seven-game National League Championship Series, the teams were playing a Sunday afternoon game at Busch Stadium II.
In the eighth inning, Clark was on first base when Candy Maldonado hit a grounder to Smith at shortstop. Smith tossed the ball to Oquendo at second base in time to get the forceout on Clark. Attempting to prevent Oquendo from completing a double play, Clark slid over the bag and toward Oquendo.
Clark called it an aggressive, clean slide. Oquendo thought Clark could have avoided contact.
“In the old days, they played hard and aggressive and that’s the way I was brought up,” Clark said to the Associated Press.
Said Oquendo to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I was just trying to get out of the way and I didn’t think that was a right slide. He slid late. I was ticked off.”
With Clark on the ground, Smith and Oquendo stood over the baserunner. Oquendo either kicked or kneed Clark.
“When I slid, I hit the bag and bounced off to the side and I was laying against Oquendo’s leg,” Clark said. “He kneed me and said, ‘What are you doing, man?’ or something like that. There’s really no answer to that. I was trying to break up two.”
As Clark began to rise, Oquendo slapped him in the head. “I couldn’t understand what that was all about,” Clark said. “Then I just went off.”
Enraged, Clark got up and grabbed Oquendo.
Approaching from behind, Smith punched Clark in the head. “It was a cheap shot,” Clark said.
Said Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog: “Any shortstop and second baseman would do the same thing.”
Smith took several more punches, connecting with at least a couple, as Clark and Oquendo grappled.
Smith to Cards: Toughen up
”It’s become embarrassing,” Smith said to Mike Shannon of radio station KMOX. “You have a guy like Will Clark … He’s taking liberties. He’s coming down to second base at will, thinking nobody’s going to do anything, doing whatever he wants to do out there … As a competitor, it’s embarrassing for me.
”Sometimes you’ve got to stand up and be a man. That’s been part of our problem around here, guys not taking the initiative to tell people that, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be bullied.’
”I’ve never run from anybody,” Smith continued. “I’ve never been intimidated by anyone and I’m not going to start now. As a team, we have to learn that if that’s the way people want to play, that’s the way we have to play.”
Clark told reporters covering the Giants, ”I thought Ozzie Smith had a little more (class) than to sucker-punch somebody from behind. If you’re going to whup somebody, you might as well whup them face to face.”
A video of the incident shows players from both teams quickly rushed toward the combatants and piled onto one another. Maldonado took a swing at Smith. “That’s the fastest I’ve seen Maldonado run from first to second,” Giants manager Roger Craig said.
Clark and Oquendo were ejected. Asked why Smith wasn’t ejected, umpire Dutch Rennert said he hadn’t seen Smith land any punches.
“I saw Clark swing first at (Oquendo) and both were ejected for fighting,” Rennert said. “… I just saw one punch by Clark. I didn’t know Ozzie hit him. If I had seen Ozzie sucker-punch him, I would have thrown him out.”
Terry gets the message
After order was restored, Mike Aldrete came to bat against Scott Terry. The first pitch from Terry was high and wide. The second was high and inside, near Aldrete’s head. Home plate umpire Randy Marsh ejected Terry for the brushback pitch. Both benches emptied. Smith and Giants catcher Bob Brenly argued near third base, but no punches were thrown.
“By no means was I trying to hit Aldrete,” Terry said. “It was a purpose pitch. He knew it and I knew it.
“The only way the club can protect itself is on the mound. We felt like the Giants were doing things they shouldn’t be doing. We felt they had overstepped their bounds and we were not going to accept that.”
Rennert said Clark’s slide was within the rules. “(Clark) didn’t slide out of the baseline,” Rennert said. “He slid over the base. Straight and direct. A hard slide. Baseball can be a hard game.”
Said Clark: ” If I have the opportunity to do it again, I’m going to go in there the same way.” Boxscore
Previously: 1980s macho match: Whitey Herzog vs. Roger Craig
Previously: How Giants beat John Tudor, Cardinals, 21-2
Smith was a gutless wonder for sucker punching Clark like that. I hate Ozzie Smith to this day because of that garbage.
[…] If there is still bad blood between the two organizations, something that’s debatable in my opinion, it most likely started here. Leonard’s home run trot was designed to infuriate and Chili Davis stoked the fire by calling St. Louis a “cow town” before the series started. Add those elements into a fairly tight series and, well, perhaps it’s not surprising the next season Will Clark and the Wizard got into a scrap. […]
Ozzie hit Clark with his first swing, but it didn’t really seem to phase Clark. He reloaded and swung again, a haymaker, but like most of his at bats, it was a swing and a miss. Both were cheap shots. I’ve never liked Ozzie because of this.
Thanks for the insights. None of the participants, including Ozzie Smith, distinguished themselves in this incident.