Frank Clark of Midland Park after his 300th career victory, with his son, Ryan, an infielder.
Midland Park’s Frank Clark became New Jersey’s 101st baseball coach to reach the 300-win plateau on Wednesday when his team knocked off Hawthorne Christian, 3-2, in Midland Park.
Clark improved his career record to 300-150-3, a gaudy .662 winning percentage that puts the 18-year veteran in an even more select group.
“Reaching 300 wins means I’ve been blessed with amazing administrators, coaches, players and support from my family and parents during my entire career,” said Clark, who clearly seems tickled by the milestone.
Midland Park (7-5-2) is Clark’s third stop in his career. His first six seasons were spent coaching Emerson of Union City. He then moved to Waldwick, where he had eight more successful seasons. Clark is now in his fourth season at Midland Park.
“I learned so much about the game from Fred Hopke,” said Clark. “Fred will always be with me.” Hopke was the hitting coach at Seton Hall University. He died in 2018 at the age of 76. “Coach Hop was the hitting coach at Kean when I was there. I played with his son. He taught me so much about the game. I loved sitting and talking baseball with him.”
Clark has a daily joy at Midland Park not every coach gets to experience. His son, Ryan, is a junior pitcher and infielder for Midland Park. “The fact that I am able to have my son be a part of this with me is hard to put into words,” he said. “I love the game of baseball. I always have and I always will.”
Clark is a familiar face at Diamond Nation in Flemington, too, during the summer travel season. He coaches 17U and 18U teams in the dynamic Complete Performance Baseball Academy organization.
DiamondNation.com updates the NJ Baseball Coaches All-Time Victories List each year in June. The current list has 101 coaches with 300-or-more career victories. We also keep a list of coaches with 100-or-more wins. Our research has been exhaustive, so we are confident that not more than a handful of coaches are missing from the list. We’ll wait until after the season to update the list. Meanwhile, you can reach us at bbehre@diamondnation.com if you believe we’ve missed your coach.