WILL CLARK

He earned his nickname, “Will the Thrill”, in his first major league at-bat with the San Francisco Giants, slugging a home run off baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan on April 8, 1986.  Blessed with an elegant batting stroke, he hit .308 with 35 homers in his second season and led the National League with 109 runs-batted-in in his third.  In 1989, he hit .333, second in the league only to perennial champion Tony Gwynn.  He averaged an astonishing .650 batting average with eight RBIs in the 1989 League Championship Series and his bases-loaded single in the eighth inning of the deciding game sent the Giants to their first World Series in 27 years.  That clutch hit stands as one of the most dramatic in franchise history.  In eight seasons with San Francisco he hit for an average of .299 with 176 homers and 709 RBIs.  Inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.