Giants to retire the Thrill’s number

The Giants announced during the 1989 World Series team reunion Sunday that they plan to retire Will Clark’s jersey, No. 22.

Prior to the 2018 retirement of Barry Bonds‘ No. 25, the team had only retired the numbers of players inducted into the Hall of Fame, but it appears precedent has changed.

Clark will join Bonds and nine other Giants whose jersey numbers have been retired by the team — Willie Mays (24), Juan Marichal (27), Orlando Cepeda (30), Gaylord Perry (36) and Willie McCovey (44) of the San Francisco era, and Bill Terry (3), Mel Ott (4), Carl Hubbell (11) and Monte Irvin (20) of the New York era.

Clark was thrilled by the honor:

“I am so, proud, so happy. To know that you’re going to be up on the world with all the greats, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Barry Bonds and everybody that has come through this organization and worn this giants jersey. It is absolutely unbelievable. It’s something I will never forget. It is my Hall of Fame, so thank you.”

Clark wore the orange and black from 1986 to 1993, slashing .299/.373/.499. He never hit fewer than 25 homer runs in a season while in a Giants uniform.

It was Giants CEO Larry Baer, recently returned from a three-month suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy who made the announcement as Clark’s 1989 teammates watched on. It was Baer’s most significant public appearance since returning to the team in early July.

Julie Parker is SFBay’s San Francisco Giants beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @InsideThePark3r on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of Giants baseball.