dual threat
If you’re familiar with Dave Clark, the baseball player, you know he could hit. Over a 13-year big league career, the Tupelo native — now the Houston Astros’ first-base coach — batted .264 with 62 home runs and 284 RBIs. Before that, he was an MVP at Jackson State, and before that, he set a Mississippi high school record with 23 home runs as a senior at Shannon High in 1980. You might not know that in addition to packing a punch at the plate, Clark also packed a wallop as an amateur boxer during his high school days. In a great story on mlb.com, Brian McTaggart details Clark’s boxing exploits, noting that he went 26-0 with 13 knockouts in his career, won two Golden Gloves tournaments as a light heavyweight and was in line for a trip to Moscow for the 1980 Olympics before the U.S. boycott. “I didn’t really know how good I could possibly be,” Clark told McTaggart. “I thought I was pretty good.” But baseball was and is Clark’s true love, and he blossomed at Jackson State, ultimately being drafted 11th overall in 1983 by Cleveland. A 6-foot-2, 200-pound outfielder, he belted 53 homers in his first four minor league seasons, reached the majors in 1986 and played until ’98 before becoming a coach and manager, in both the minors and MLB. He managed Houston as an interim for 13 games in 2009.