30 November 2014

watty clark was a dodger double dipper

if you were to consult baseball reference, as i have done, and looked at all the players who have suited up for the bridegrooms/grooms/bridegrooms/superbas/dodgers/superbas/robins/dodgers franchise, you might notice that watty clark was a pitcher for the dodgers over the course of 11 seasons - from 1927-1937.  that is true.  however, what that list doesn't tell you is that clark spent about a year with the new york giants during that span.  yes, he was a dodger double dipper.

[this is the eighty-eighth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daaleric young, nick willhitechris gwynn, mickey hatcherdave anderson, don zimmerrafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike madduxjon garland, chan ho parkvicente romogene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moellerdioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirleyrandy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaverted sizemore,  orel hershisertom goodwinjoe fergusoneddie murraymatt lukeken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grotedon suttonralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessensguillermo motajoe beckwithjamie hoffmannbabe hermanjoe medwickjuan castroron perranoskiclyde kingpaul wanerhughie jenningsron negray, broadway aleck smithgeorge smith, johnny cooney, jim faireyfrenchy bordagaraydoc casey, waite hoytluis olmoclyde sukeforthwillie keeler,  harry howellgermany smithjohnny allenmarv rackleybobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworthzack taylorjohn croninart herringbrian falkenborgbill reidy, john andersonvito tamulis, wally hood, jim bruske, bill dahlen, patsy donovan, and jamey wright.]

here's clark's 1990 target card
when i looked at that list to help me figure out who double dipped, i would look for inconsistencies between the 'years' column and the 'from' and 'to' column.  for example, double dipper dave anderson played for the dodgers for 8 years, from 1983-1992.  that's 10 seasons, so i knew (aside from my memory of the bad dodger 1992 team) that there was some double dipping going on.  it got a bit tricky with the players who served in the military during world war ii, but i felt pretty confident that i had identified all of the double dippers.  then along came watty clark, whose time away from the franchise spanned about 12 months, but not a complete season.

clark debuted with the robins in 1927, having previously pitched in the majors for the indians in 1924.  as a dodger, he led the league in losses with 19 in 1929, but he also won 20 games in 1932. overall, clark amassed a record of 84-69 before he was traded to the giants during the 1933 season.

as a giant, clark was 3-4 over the course of the remainder of the 1933 campaign (he did not pitch in the world series in which the giants were victorious), and then had a 1-2 record for bill terry's team in 1934 when the dodgers re-acquired him, almost exactly a year after they had traded clark away.  back with brooklyn, clark was 2-0 in 17 games to finish out the 1934 season.  he pitched for the dodgers into the 1937 season, and finished with a lifetime record of 111-97.

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