Former Cards 1B Jack Clark had a phoner with St. Louis’ flagship station KTRS-AM yesterday and revealed he’s not quite let go of his hostility towards the New York Mets of the mid-’80’s.  From the New York Times’ Ken Belson :

Clark told McGraw Milhaven, the morning host at the station, that the mutual hatred ran so deep that he purposely snubbed the Mets when they played together in All-Star Games.

œI wanted to let them know I wasn™t glad to be there with them and their teammate, didn™t want to be on any team or be a teammate with them, and we were going to battle, said Clark, who provides commentary on some Cardinals games and manages the Springfield Sliders, a summer collegiate league team in Illinois.

Clark took particular aim at Gary Carter, the Mets™ catcher in those years, saying that he œtalked his way more into the Hall of Fame than deserving it. Carter, he said, craved the spotlight, which was œpretty sickening and disgusting to everybody else.

Carter, who manages the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, said he was surprised by Clark™s comments.

œHe™s entitled to his own opinion, but the numbers speak for themselves, and I don™t think anybody can talk their way into the Hall of Fame, Carter said in a statement relayed by the team™s public-relations officer.

In the interview, Clark reignited an old issue when he said that Howard Johnson, a Mets third baseman in those years, used a corked bat. Whitey Herzog, the Cardinals™ manager at the time, made a similar claim.

In 1987, one of Johnson™s bats was X-rayed. The X-rays were negative. Clark appeared not to know that.

œThat just goes to show those guys were trying to cheat and, you know, it didn™t end up working for them anyhow, he said, seemingly glossing over the Mets™ World Series title in 1986. œSo if his was corked, I™m sure a few other guys™ over there were corked, also.

Johnson, now the Mets™ batting coach, said Clark seemed to have forgotten a few key facts.

œIt™s kind of funny, because in my most productive years, I used a model that he gave me, an M253, Johnson said in Milwaukee, where the Mets were playing the Brewers.