(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in January 2024)
(Photo Credit: Cosmic Fox Media)
When it comes to sliding door moments – this one might top the list. During his senior season at West Babylon HS, Nick Clark had already decided he wanted to attend Adelphi University to play basketball. His dream was to play in the NBA. Despite West Babylon’s outstanding team – they won the Suffolk County Championship in 1993 and 1994 – he did not have plans to continue his career after graduation.
As fate would have it, legendary Adelphi baseball coach Ron Davies, was attending his West Babylon game to watch his teammate, Mike Rayola. Clark had what he described as his “best game of the year” and Coach Davies asked him if he’d be interested in playing baseball at Adelphi University. Clark responded that he was already committed to Adelphi University, but to play basketball and that he was receiving a half scholarship.
“He told me that he would give me the other half to play baseball, and that as long as I could handle it, he would allow me to play both sports.”
Clark decided he would give it a shot. Had that moment not occurred, he likely would have never played a game after his high school career ended, he never would have made 3 trips to the Division-II College World Series, set all sorts of records at Adelphi University, played professional baseball for one season, met Mike Leiderman who changed the course of his life, and laid the foundation for the second act of his career which featured 15 years playing for LI Storm and running one of the most successful indoor facilities on Long Island.
But first let’s take a trip back.
The Early Days
Nick was born and raised in West Babylon. He has two older siblings; a brother and sister.
His fondest memories of watching baseball was the 1986 World Series when he was 9 years old. He cited Wally Backman as his favorite player since he was a middle infielder.
“That’s when I developed my love for the game.”
Nick always played baseball and basketball growing up. During his Little League days, he recalls that he really liked his coach and he worked with them everyday. They won their district championship.
Winning was a common them in Nick’s career. He stated that he was always on winning teams. Even his middle school team went undefeated while he was in 7th and 8th grade.
West Babylon
Nick made the varsity basketball team as a 9th grader and “that’s why I geared more towards basketball in the beginning. Plus the baseball team was loaded.”
As a sophomore in 1993, the baseball team captured the Long Island Championship. The most high-profile player on that team was RHP Billy Koch, who ultimately would go on to get drafted in the 4th round of the MLB Draft by the New York Mets but opted to attend Clemson University. Koch pitched 6 years in the big leagues before retiring following the 2004 season.
“When Billy pitched, there would be 27 scouts behind home plate with a radar gun. You wanted to do your best. In the rare event that somebody made contact, it was usually smoked at me.” Koch was one of only a few high school pitchers to be throwing in the 90s in those days.
West Babylon defeated Smithtown to win the Suffolk County Championship that year, and it was on a memorable play.
Clark recalled playing shortstop in the last inning. There was a runner on 1st base with 2 outs and West Babylon clinging to a one-run lead. Justin Davies, who would go on to get drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays, dropped a fly ball in left field. The runner was sprinting around the bases attempting to score. Davies fired to Clark, the relay man, who fired a strike to home plate to nail the runner and end the game. It was a scene out of a movie, and ironically, it wasn’t the last time that Clark found himself in that exact type of play during his career.
They wound up defeating Massapequa in the Long Island Championship before losing in the NYS Tournament. Incredibly, Billy Koch did not win the Pitcher of the Year, but his brother, Eric, did. They also had Rob Cole, who would go onto pitch at Dowling College.
West Babylon followed that up with another Long Island Championship in 1994, which turned out to be their last since their magical run this past season in 2023.
Clark recalls losing in the 1995 playoff, Connetquot would capture the LIC that season. West Babylon was the smallest Class A school that year.
Overall, it was an incredible high school career for Clark who won two Long Island Championships and also was the first player in school history to notch 1,000 career points. In his senior season, he averaged 25 points per game.
Adelphi University
With the basketball season coming before baseball on the scholastic calendar, it was back to the hardwood.
Going with the pattern of Clark’s teams always winning, the Adelphi men’s basketball team had a great season and reached the Division-II East Regional upstate. Nick played 20 minutes per game as the 6th man on the team.
The flip side of them advancing was that the baseball season had already gotten underway and Adelphi was kicking off their season in Savannah, Georgia.
Clark got on the next flight down and jumped right into the baseball season. Coach Davies asked Clark to play outfield because they had a SS and 2B that were entrenched at their positions.
That year’s team got off to an okay start but caught fire down the stretch.
“We had no superstars,” said Clark. “We had good pitching, played good defense and some timely hitting. We had some real good arms. We just hit a streak and kept rolling. We won the NYCAC, won the regional and went to the College World Series in Montgomery, AL.
As one of the top 8 teams in the country, Adelphi was now facing the true powerhouses in the nation – teams that were from warmer climates and ranked higher. Even so, they reached the winner’s bracket against Kennesaw State. Suddenly he found himself in the same situation as that Suffolk County Championship
“We were up 1 run in the last inning, I was in left field. Our shortstop came in relief, and we put a shift on. I was standing in left center field. The batter rips one down the left field line. I spring over and throw it to our shortstop. He sort of double clutches, and throws it home. Safe. Tie game. We go to extras and lose.”
They went into the losers bracket, they needed to win two games to reach the finals. They won the first, lost the second. Adelphi, a small school from the northeast, finished 3rd in the country. Clark finished the year All-Conference and the team gained some valuable experience heading into the 1997 season.
“The summer of that year, I had to make a decision. My dream of playing in the NBA was dead. I knew my limitations. Baseball became my priority.”
The only issue was the basketball scholarship.
Clark went into the AD’s office and told him that he had decided to focus on baseball and he was hoping that he’d be able to keep his full scholarship. The AD told him, yes he would take care of it.
Just like in Rocky II when Adrian told him “Just Win”, Clark was all in on baseball for the first time. He focused that summer, and went to the batting cage in Plainview every day to work on his swing.
“And that’s when I really took off. Everything started to click.”
Coach Davies switched Clark to SS, his natural position for his sophomore year. He rewarded Coach with 13 HRs, 15 doubles and 61 RBIs and was named 3rd team All-American.
Adelphi went 30-16 and once again reached the Division-II College World Series.
While it’s hard to call it a letdown considering Adelphi was a top-8 team again, they did lose both of their games by a combined score of 39-5 to the University of Tampa and Southern Illinois Edwardsville.
That summer, Clark played in the ACBL with the Northeast Collegians and he entered his junior season with high hopes coming off an All-American season.
“We returned everyone for junior year. Baseball America ranked us 6th preseason, I was ranked as a top-5 player in the country. I was thinking I have to prove myself. We played Queens College in Georgia to kick off the season and they beat us up pretty bat. They were very good. We started to play better after that, but Paulie {Marquadt} got hurt, we had a string of bad luck. We still won a ton of games but we lost early in conference play. We didn’t get a bid. It was my best year to that point, I hit 17 home runs and was first team All-Northeast.
That summer Alan Hahn wrote an article on him called “From Hoops to Hop” which provided some additional exposure for him. All of a sudden, agents started calling him regarding the draft. His whole ACBL team got drafted – except for him somehow.
“The knock on me was that I wasn’t projectable enough because of my size. I came back like I was on a mission. I wanted to get back to the World Series. In the fall alone, I think I hit 16 or 18 home runs. We played Stony Brook, they had a pitcher projected to go in the top 5 rounds and there was a ton of scouts. I hit a home run off him. I hit another home run later in the game, too.
A few months later, there was a big discussion about whether Division-II would be switching to wood bat from aluminum. As a student-athlete representative, Nick flew out to San Antonio to represent the conference.
It was decided that they would switch to wood. Not ideal for a power hitter from the northeast looking to get drafted.
All he did was hit 19 home runs in 38 games, leading the nation with 0.5 homers per game. He also scored an insane 70 runs and drove in 63 runs. Despite dealing with a hamstring injury during the season, he stole 36 bases, too.
Adelphi lost in the conference tournament (surprisingly they only won it once during his 4 years), but they received a bid to The NCAA Regional. They received a huge boost that year from transfer Jeff Tyler who went 12-1 with a 1.50 ERA.
Trailing 4 runs in 5th inning, Clark stepped up with the bases loaded and he recalls the visiting dugout chirping him telling him he’s overrated. All he did was respond with a game-tying grand slam. Adelphi was able to upset No. 1 ranked UMASS-Lowell in their stadium to capture the East Regional yet again and head back to Alabama for the third time in 4 years.
“We knew how to win,” he said.
In the World Series, Adelphi won their first game, 18-15, over Ashland in their first game before losing to Chico St and West Virginia St. They finished with an overall record of 32-17.
When asked how Adelphi was able to have so much success during that period of time in the 1990s, Clark said, “Coach Davies was a great recruiter. And he had a way of making us play relaxed.”
One would think that a SS that has 51 career collegiate home runs (19 with a wood bat), 4 years of a proven track record to go along with the ability to steal 36 bases would be highly-sought after. For some reason, he went undrafted again.
The Next Chapter
“After the draft came and went, I was kind of bummed out,” said Clark. “I got a call about a week later from the Frontier League that they were looking for a replacement for an injured player. Sure enough when I got there, the guy was back after a couple weeks. I ended up playing a few different positions. I didn’t really hit, but I did get a professional home run,” he said.
Around that time, Clark had his wife send out applications for teaching jobs. In August, he got a job offer from Shaw Avenue Elementary School in Valley Stream. He made up his mind that he was ready to begin his teaching career.
“I went into the manager’s office and told him that I was going home to start my teaching career. He told me that they wouldn’t grant my release. I laughed and said, whatever you want to call it – retiring, I don’t care – but I’m going home. He thought I wanted to get traded.”
Clark went home and started his teaching job in September 1999 and he’s been there ever since.
Around that time, his friends were playing in a men’s league and he was playing against the Long Island Storm, who used Adelphi as their home field. To nobody’s surprise, he hit a home run against one of the Storm’s top pitchers.
After the game, he went home and gets a call.
“Hey this is Mike Leiderman and I run the Storm and all I want to do is win. I spoke to Gregg Sarra and he recommended you.”
Clark told him that he wasn’t interested and he just wanted to play in the league with his friends. He hung up the phone.
Leiderman proceeded to call him everyday for the next 6 months until Clark finally relented and said yes.
LI Storm
“I played with them the next season – that first year we went to Vegas, Arizona and Florida. We played everywhere. We won every tournament. Mike recruited the best players in the country. He paid for everything. All he wanted to do was win.
Among their tournaments they played in was one in British Columbia, Canada. Clark called it the most inaccessible place to travel to as they had to fly to Seattle and drive through the border.
“There was absolutely nothing there except this beautiful stadium. I played well – I was good in college but my peak years were for the Storm. After the tournament a scout from the San Diego Padres comes up to me and tells me he wants to sign me today. He says they’ll put me right in High-A. I told him, ‘I don’t know if that’s possible.’ He asked are you married? I said yes. He asked if I have a job, I said yes. He asked if I own a house, I said yes. He laughed and goes, ‘damn.’
Clark went back home, turning down the opportunity to play affiliated ball to continue his teaching career.
The following years were filled with much more winning. Among those highlights was the Storm winning the Stan Musial World Series in 2006 in which Clark was named MVP. Still, the best memory was traveling to Cuba to face the Cuban National Team in 2003 and playing in front of Fidel Castro.
He had many fond memories of this trip but at the top of the list has to be him hitting a HR against a pitcher throwing 98-99 MPH to put the Storm – Team USA during this trip – up 3-0. In the 9th inning, things got dicey and they called on John Mangieri to come in with the bases loaded to face big leaguer Kendrys Morales. With the tying run on base, Mangieri induced Morales to roll over to end the game and preserve the improbable victory.
While there was only 2,000-3,000 people in the stands, the win elevated their profile and the next night the game was on TV and played in a bigger stadium in front of 20,000 fans. While they lost the next night, they did tie the third game which means they had the distinction of going 1-1-1 against the vaunted Cuban National Team – which was regarded as the best international team in the world at that time.
Beginning in 2003, Nick started working for Mike Leiderman at the Storm Baseball Academy and has continued to work there for over 20 years. Since Mike’s tragic passing in 2018, Nick is now the President of the LI Storm and remains booked with lessons every day. He works with some of the top players on Long Island, but also is excellent with communicating to elementary school athletes since that is the age that he teaches in school.
Nick played for the Storm for 15 seasons, estimating that they played 120-140 games per year.
Although Mike Leiderman is no longer around, the existence of the Storm Academy and the LI Storm allows his legacy to live on in perpetuity.
Going back to the opening statement of this article, none of this would have happened if Coach Ron Davies didn’t show up to that West Babylon game in 1995. It launched one of the greatest collegiate careers in Adelphi history and allowed Nick to have so many great experiences during his playing career.
If you’d like to book a lesson, you can call 516-481-2255 or visit their site by clicking here.
