Don’t invite Jack Clark to the same party with admitted steroid users like Mark McGwire and Alex Rodriguez.
“They’re all creeps,” said the 54-year-old Clark, the former Cardinals and Giants slugger. “All these guys have been liars.”
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Clark said McGwire is “a sad excuse for a player in the industry of baseball. Just seeing him in a uniform makes me throw up.”
And Clark had some unkind words for Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and other suspected users of performance-enhancing drugs.
“All those guys are cheaters — A-Rod. Fake, phony. Rafael Palmeiro. Fake, a phony,” Clark said. “[Roger] Clemens, [Barry] Bonds. [Sammy] Sosa. Fakes. Phonies. They don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
“They should all be in the Hall of Shame.”
Clark, an 18-year veteran who also played for the Yankees, said steroid abusers and suspected users “are all lucky they didn’t end up in jail.”
It’s all comical to a certain point,” he said. “It’s a three-ring circus. It really is. From [commissioner] Bud Selig to Tony [La Russa] to A-Rod to Manny Ramirez to Palmeiro . . . What a joke.”
Clark particularly went off on McGwire, who admitted earlier this week to using PEDs in 1998 when he broke Roger Maris’ home-run record.
“If his hand-eye coordination was so good, why did he feel the need to apologize to the Maris family?” Clark said.
“It’s a shame that he thinks we’re all stupid, that he only did [steroids] because of injuries. That’s such a cop-out, such a lie.”
Clark, a four-time All-Star who hit .267 and belted 340 home runs in 18 seasons, mocked the apologetic and sorrowful tone of McGwire’s admission.
“They’re not really a man’s man,” Clark said. “They’re just whimpering boys who are just sad to watch. They try to put it off on somebody else. I don’t know how they sleep at night.”