CLARK'S PASSION ENDURES : RANGER'S HURTS DETER HIM LITTLE.

Byline: T.R. Sullivan Fort Worth Star-Telegram 

Will Clark is a physical wreck.

He was never a great athlete or a great physical specimen to begin with, even during his glory days in San Francisco. His success relied more on extraordinary skill than physical prowess.

But years of breaking up double plays and playing the game with reckless abandon have taken a severe toll. The physical assets Clark did possess have diminished almost beyond recovery.

It only starts with a painful left elbow, injured last year in a collision with the wall behind first base. Clark won't admit to anything, but it's no secret around the Rangers' clubhouse that the elbow is causing him great difficulty.

There is much more bothering Clark physically, particularly in his legs. Clark won't discuss it, believing to do so is betraying vital information to the enemy. Ask him how he feels and he'll reply with that inimitable shrill, ``Lovely! Peachy!''

Clark fools nobody.

At 32, he can't throw, he has little range at first base and is one of the slowest runners on the team. Even Mickey Tettleton, with his battered legs, can outrun Clark. True offensive power is only a distant memory for Clark.

What remains are quick wrists, superb hand-eye coordination and his much-admired swing. His off-season conditioning program has only served to slow the physical erosion.

But Clark is far from through as a player, because he possesses an infinite passion for the game and an indomitable will to succeed, intangibles that prevail against his physical plight. He is the dominant personality on a team that finally realizes only winning matters..

``He's amazing,'' hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo said. ``I wish I had more like him who have what he has inside.''

Clark is like Pete Rose before the downfall, the Rose who once said, ``I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to keep playing baseball.''

Clark's passion is all-consuming. It is not enough for him just to play; he is ``The Sheriff.'' He is the Rangers' player representative. He must be involved in all things at all times from the moment he walks into the clubhouse.

``He's like an artist,'' club president Tom Schieffer said. ``Have you ever gone into an art gallery with an artist? Not only can he tell you about the subject of a painting, but he can tell you everything about the painting, the whole scene, every detail.''

Clark chairs the pregame dugout muster, the postgame clubhouse round table, and he never misses a conference on the mound. No detail is too small. He questions official scorers' decisions, home-run measurements and negative newspaper articles.

He took the Kansas City clubhouse attendants to task about the postgame food spread last weekend. He needled Rangers conditioning coach Tim Lang for chatting with a friend too close to the Indians dugout. Clark was the chief perpetrator of the Mark Brandenburg clown-suit hazing in Minnesota.

But Clark's passion is performing on the field, even though the aches and pains make it a daily ordeal. His mission is to find a way around the injuries and he usually succeeds.

Clark did so in 1993, when he batted .465 during the Giants' stretch run while playing with a painful right knee. He did so last year, hitting .302 with 92 RBI despite the elbow being a severe problem all season.

He is hitting .292 despite the return of the elbow problem that has left him in a 7-for-32 slump with one RBI in his past 13 games. The power has diminished, but he has an impressive .398 on-base percentage and has 33 walks against 27 strikeouts. The range at first base isn't there, but he went 69 games without committing an error. He remains a smart base runner.

Winning soothes much of the frustration, if not the pain. Clark has a personal stake in the Rangers' championship fortunes. He came to Texas proclaiming his credentials as a winner, not as a marquee superstar. Winning with the downtrodden Rangers would reaffirm that.

But he doesn't take personal defeat lightly. While his teammates celebrated a crucial, 6-3 victory against the Indians in Cleveland, Clark immediately headed to the batting cage for a 20-minute workout after going 1 for 4 in the game. Monday, after leading the mobbing of Kevin Elster and Darryl Hamilton at home plate, Clark celebrated the Rangers' dramatic ninth-inning victory against the Indians by going to the video room to review his at-bats.

Time off to heal the wounds is out of the question.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Will Clark of the Texas Rangers plays hurt but refus es to discuss his aches and pains with reporters.

Daily News File Photo