"At 17, Clarkie was an animal, already a man," Trottier said. "It really wasn't fair. He was built like the Marlboro man, V-shaped. Scary. He could run and hit. What a ballplayer. Football, hockey, golf, baseball, just an athlete.
"First game of a doubleheader, I hit a dribbler, struck out and got on base with a fielder's choice. Clarkie hit a rope to center field for an out, then a rainmaker pop-up to the warning track, then in his third at-bat, he hit a three-run homer so hard and so far that I think it's still circling the Earth."
A fine ballplayer, Trottier knew he'd never make it in that game, no matter his full toolbox, though Gillies had a pretty fair shot at it given the Astros' interest. As it turned out, each focused on hockey, together winning the Stanley Cup four times consecutively with the Islanders, from 1980-83.
"A year later (1972-73), I'm playing junior hockey in the Western league against Clarkie, me with Swift Current, him with Regina," Trottier said. "I lucked out in a whole bunch of ways. I had Tiger Williams as a teammate in junior and Clark Gillies in the NHL, two big brothers looking over my shoulder. The hockey gods kind of shone on me.
"One game, Ian MacPhee and I sandwich Clarkie, the three of us go down and when I get up I'm inches from his face. When Clarkie's mad, he just drops his chin and looks at you through his eyebrows. 'I'm going to rip your head off,' he growls at me and I say, 'You've got to catch me first!' "