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#Every New York team had their own Horace Clarke

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#Every New York team had their own Horace Clarke

The passing of Horace Clarke earlier this week inspired one splendid and loyal reader, Eric Schnipper (aka @drschnip on Twitter) to make a suggestion: “Name the Horace Clarke facsimile for all New York pro teams: a guy … who played for the better part of a decade and epitomizes the era of ineptitude — and, if possible, bridged winning eras.”

(Oh yes, consider us like the dueling pianists at either Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans or your local Howl at the Moon — remember piano bars? Remember bars? Just sit at the bar and put bread in my jar and — voila! — you, too have an Open Mike subject!)

It is a thankless task, sure, because as we all discovered this week a lot of us feel pretty bad about having laid all that ailed the 1965-75 Yankees at the feet of poor Horace Clarke. But, then, little about sports is fair, right? There are always way more lousy teams than good ones, far too many nights you want to punch a wall or kick a TV screen than you want to admit to.

Plus, as most of those repentant Yankees fans also admitted this week: It’s the bad times that make you truly embrace the good. So herewith, one man’s roster of the faces of futility for Our Teams, and let us remember: as Horace Clarke reminded us this week, you can still be proud to say you rooted for them. Losing doesn’t make you a bad person. Honestly.

Mets: Well, since it was Dr. Schnip’s idea, we’ll go with his choice here, and it’s a good one: Ron Hodges. Hodges actually broke in as a third-string catcher on the ’73 Mets and contributed a few key moments to that pennant drive but his great talent was, amazingly, to be a part of every successive (and successively awful) Mets team thereafter, right on through 1984 when they finally got good again. No relation to Gil, Hodges hit .240/.342/.322 and came back for more every year.

Yankees: Yes, this one will hurt every bit as much as Clarke, but it is impossible not to remember that Don Mattingly enjoyed a sublime (and borderline-if-not-better Hall of Fame) career while toiling for some Yankees teams that made Clarke’s clubs look like the ’27 and ’61 crews. Thankfully he got those 25 plate appearances in the ’95 playoffs to ease the sting a little bit.

Giants: Like Mattingly, they not only got to taste the playoffs late in the game but also got to share in the ultimate prize, Super Bowl XXI. Still, for many years it looked like the wonderful bookend careers of Harry Carson and George Martin were going to be wasted, playing for some downright rotten Big Blue teams from 1975-83 or so. For Carson, a nine-time Pro Bowler, that would’ve been especially hard to swallow.

Jets: Oh, my goodness, there are so many to choose from but the one I’ll go with is Richard Caster, who played at a reasonably high level from 1970-77, made three Pro Bowls and never once played for a Jets team with a winning record, let alone one that sniffed the playoffs (7-7 seasons in 1972 and ’74 were the best he got). He was the last favorite target of Joe Namath and finally did get a couple of playoff appearances with the Oilers later in his career.

Rangers
Andy BathgateAP

Knicks: We’ll answer this one with the leap of faith that the Other Side of the bad-era bridge will eventually arrive, meaning we can look at any player since 2000 and give him this “honor.” And there are many candidates. But David Lee was a terrific player and a Garden favorite who played five solid years with the team, including his 2009-10 All-Star year when he averaged 20.2 points and 11.7 rebounds, and never played a single postseason game.

Nets: What I like about this column is that I believe we are honoring Horace Clarke by surrounding him with so many good players. Derrick Coleman belongs here, though there are other candidates, because the Nets never won a playoff series with him on the team, even though he was terrific (if enigmatic) most of his time here.

Hockey: For the Rangers, how can it be anyone other than poor Andy Bathgate, who played at a Hall of Fame level for 12 years and got a total of 22 playoff games (and no series wins)? For the Islanders: Let’s pile on and name John Tavares, just because it feels good to do that. The Devils? John MacLean hung around long enough to sip from the Cup, but he also was quite familiar with Mickey Mouse, too.

Vac’s Whacks

The true gift of Pete Hamill was the sheer number of people whose lives were made better by his words — writers inspired to write, public officials moved to do the right thing, readers comforted by the knowledge that someone had their backs. Godspeed to a genuine giant.


I honestly could get used to noon-time NHL hockey with my lunch every day. Especially when the Islanders take care of business at that hour as professionally as they did.


I must confess: I live in perpetual fear of being optioned to the alternate site.


It’s hard not to like the job Jacque Vaughn (right) is doing with the Nets right now, and harder to figure how much more he has to do to get a shot at coaching the varsity next year.

Whack Back at Vac

Bob Biscontini: Horace Clarke had a higher fielding percentage and OBP than Bobby Richardson, more stolen bases (Clarke 151, Bobby 73) higher lifetime WAR (Clarke 15.7, Bobby 8.1). Writers don’t always get it right and timing screws up perception. R.I.P. Hoss — you hustled on every play, and you were much better than history presents you.

Vac: I had a feeling writing about Horace Clarke’s passing might stir up a few memory banks among Yankees fans of a certain age, but even I have been amazed at the outpouring of affection. I’d like to think he knew how folks felt about him.


Mets
Yoenis CespedesCharles Wenzelberg/New York Post

Roland Chapdelaine: Don’t be surprised if Yoenis Cespedes tries to opt back in, claiming he was kidnapped from his hotel room by three men wearing wild boar masks. After all … this is the Mets!

Vac: I already miss Yo. He was never boring, you have to give him that.


@metsfan49: For all the talk of pace of play, it’s amazing how fast games go when the pitcher throws strikes and the team behind him plays defense. Offense slows the game down.




@MikeVacc:
Crisp baseball will always be the most beautiful kind of baseball.


Neil Ptashnik: Travis d’Arnaud is the next Justin Turner because the Mets have no patience.

Vac: I still give them a pass on Turner, not only because he didn’t project anywhere close to what he’s become while he was here, but also because he was kind of a knucklehead while he was here. But releasing d’Arnaud when they did never, ever made any sense at the time, and of course makes less sense now.

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