opportunity knocks

He surely didn’t want it to happen this way, but Dave Clark became the interim manager of the Houston Astros today when Cecil Cooper was fired. The former Shannon High and Jackson State slugger, who had been the Astros’ third-base coach, will make his big league managerial debut tonight when the Astros host St. Louis. Clark has managerial experience, having won minor league championships in the Class A South Atlantic League (with Pittsburgh’s Hickory club) and the Double-A Texas League (with Corpus Christi, the Astros franchise that was previously located in Jackson). Clark played 12-plus years in the big leagues, hitting .262 with 62 homers.