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MARCH 18, 1863–AUGUST 21, 1919

Major League Career

1886–1893

Time as a Red

1891

Position

CATCHER; OUTFIELDER

“NO BALL-PLAYER IN AMERICA HAS HAD TO CONTEND MORE AGAINST ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES THAN BOB CLARK,” the Enquirer opined on February 1, 1890. “He has been the victim of aches and ills of all kinds, yet he has kept a good record behind the bat and did well with the stick.” Clark did possess great talent as a catcher and did, indeed, suffer every season from illness and injuries. When he came to the Reds in 1891 after five years in Brooklyn, he was only 28, and hopes were high that his physical problems were behind him and that he would achieve the potential he flashed whenever he was healthy. He told the newspaper that he’d just returned from nine weeks at Hot Springs and, “I feel better right now than I have in two years.”

Clark was born during the Civil War in Covington, where he lived his entire life. As a teen, he played on amateur teams in northern Kentucky, and if he were sickly as a youth it was not reported. According to an 1888 article in the New York Clipper, he mostly played second base at the time, starring in games against rival Cincinnati teams, in which “he gained quite a reputation.”

That reputation led to a pro contract in 1885 with the Atlantas of the Southern League, where he primarily played catcher and right field. Though he hit just .219, his fielding must have been exceptional, as he was signed by the major league Brooklyn Grays (also called the Trolley Dodgers), who, according to the Clipper article, offered “a liberal outlay of money” to “obtain the prize.”

Like most catchers of that era, he missed games due to injuries, primarily to his hands, but Clark suffered more than his share. He also sat out due to various illnesses. Nevertheless, he remained a key player for Brooklyn, who became the Bridegrooms in 1888. Brooklyn won the American Association championship in 1889, which was Clark’s best year at the plate. He hit .275, 12 points higher than the team’s average. The following year, he missed even more time with injuries and his average dropped to .219 in another championship season, as Brooklyn took the top spot in their first year in the National League. Right before the following season began, Brooklyn, perhaps frustrated with his frequent inability to get on the field, sold him to the Reds.

Despite his February assurances that he was feeling better than he’d felt in years, his pattern of disability continued. He managed to play in just 16 games for a terrible Reds team that finished next to last and could have used an able man behind the dish. In 61 plate appearances, he hit just .111. Clark spent the latter part of the season taking the springs in French Lick, Indiana. That winter, he married the sister of former Baltimore Orioles second baseman Reddy Mack and decided he’d had enough of playing baseball. Instead, he took a job at a liquor store in Covington. But the game clearly was in his blood, and he returned to the National League as a utility player for the Louisville Colonels in 1893, seeing limited action.

During the next few years, he umpired in the Western League, hoping to get a job in the majors. He never got the call, however, perhaps due to a fight in 1896 with catcher Bill Wilson (of the Minneapolis Millers), who tried to grab Clark’s mask during an argument. Clark clobbered him with it. And then continued to pound him.

Perhaps realizing he wasn’t going to make it to the majors as an umpire, he took a job with just as much popularity—working as a tax collector in Covington. He later spent time as a bartender in Newport before taking a job at a chemical factory in Covington. In 1919, a fire broke out at the factory and Clark suffered severe burns, which ultimately caused his death, his string of bad luck continuing right up to the end.