[VanillaGorilla]

Duke Snider, Gavvy Cravath, Mickey Mantle, Jim Gentile, Frank Howard, Don Mincher, Ralph Kiner, Frank Robinson, and Fred McGriff. There are the most similar players, in descending order, to newest the newest HOFer, Jack Clark.

It is not surprising that Jack Clark enters this HOF. It is very surprising that it took the Vet Committee to do it.

If this HOF process were an automated feature of OOTP, and all you saw were the results each year, I am sure Clark's wait would have caused a "This needs to be fixed!" pot in the forum.

The fact that Clark did have to wait so long is the result of an incredibly huge long shot on multiple parlays. The stars simply misaligned for him, until now.

It is also notable that Clark is the first player to enter who has all 9 of his most similar players already entered in the HOF.

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Jack Clark was the top pick in the 2046 draft. He was chosen by the Tampa Bay Rays.

He broke in with a .303 average, 40 HR, and 108 RBI in his rookie season. This was good enough to get him the ROY nod.

Clark battled through multiple injuries here, as he did IRL, but his rate numbers were consistently excellent. In 9 of his first 11 seasons he had an OPS above 1.000. His lowest OPS+ in his first 11 seasons was a 147. He had a npa OPS+ above 200 three times.

In 2051, injuries limited him to 121 games, but he still captured the MVP with a slash line of 343/425/697 (npa OPS+ 182). He hit 43 HR and collected 116 RBI and scored 111 runs.

He led the Rays, along with HOFers Nate Colbert, Kent Hrbek, John Romano and Joe Rudi, to a WS win.

8 times he hit 40, or more HR (leading the league with 51 in 2055, one of two seasons in which he broke 50). He has 8 seasons with 100+ RBI.

For his career, Clark carried an amazing slash line of 303/407/623 (*/28th, one spot ahead of Benny Kauff/21st, one slot ahead of Albert Belle and Dutch Zwilling).

Clark ranks 19th on the career OPS list.

He had 2262 career hits, of which 659 were HR (22nd, one fewer than Mike Piazza and Jose Canseco and one slot ahead of Gavvy Cravath).

He drove in 1651 runs (47th, one spot behind Ken Griffey Jr) and scored 1543 (33rd, one fewer than Nap Lajoie and one spot ahead of Vic Saier). He drew 1310 walks (16th).

A 7 time All Star, Jack Clark (finally) enters the HOF at the age of 65.

Black Ink: 16 (9)
Gray Ink: 131 (87)
HOFm: 185.5 (28)
HOFs: 67 (35)

Gorilla Composite: 4.1 (1.8)

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Jack Clark enters his first OOTP HOF.

Notable players joining the league in 2094 include: Joe DiMaggio, Carl Furillo, Steve Yerkes, John Denny, Andy Benes, UL Washington, and Reggie Cleveland.