Photo: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press 1989 Photo: Scott Sommerdorf / The Chronicle Photo: Brant Ward And David Madison / The Chronicle And Getty Images Photo: George Rose And John Storey Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle

Will Clark didn’t want to publicize a story about himself and Kevin Mitchell, feeling obliged to protect his beloved manager, Roger Craig.

Once Clark was convinced of the innocence of the story, with some urging from a reporter, he changed his mind.

“Go ahead, use it,” he said.

Here it is:

“I was on first base, and Mitch was locked in. I mean locked in,” Clark said. “Roger put the hit-and-run on. I looked at the third-base coach, Bill Fahey, and was like, ‘No, take it off.’ He put it back on. I was like, ‘Take it off.’

“He said, ‘Why’?

“’Cuz he’s friggin’ locked in.’”

Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle

“Next pitch, Mitch hits a homer. I came around third and said, ‘I told ya.’”

Now it can be told: Mitchell might not have noticed the hit-and-run sign anyway.

“I didn’t know the signs my whole time in San Francisco,” Mitchell says now. “I’d look down the third-base line, but all they wanted me to do was hit.”

So he did. As did Clark.

Mitchell and Clark were one of the most productive tandems in Giants history and the force behind the 1989 team that won San Francisco’s first pennant in 27 years.

It’s the 30th anniversary season of the 1989 team that beat the Cubs in the National League Championship Series (the Clark-vs.-Mitch Williams duel remains a classic) but was swept by the A’s in a World Series that was interrupted 10 days by the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Sunday at Oracle Park, the Giants will celebrate the 1989 season with a reunion and pregame ceremony that’ll include 23 members of the pennant winners including Clark and Mitchell, the so-called Pacific Sock Exchange, “The Thrill” and “Boogie Bear.”

“So much was going on that year, man,” Mitchell said. “The memories of that team are about being a family, but what really motivated me that year was Will Clark. I fed off him. I was trying to not let him beat me at anything.”

Photo: John Swart / Associated Press 1989

Mitchell led the National League with 47 home runs and 125 RBIs, also leading in slugging percentage, OPS and total bases. Clark scored a league-high 104 runs, drove in 111 and hit .333, losing the batting crown to Tony Gwynn on the final day.

Mitchell won the MVP award, the Giants’ first since Willie McCovey in 1969, and Clark was runner-up. It was one of two times Giants were 1-2 in the voting. The other was Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds in 2000.

“It was really fun,” Clark said. “Not only from a personal standpoint but a team standpoint. Kevin and I got a lot of attention, but it was a combination of a lot of things. There was so much that went right that year.”

The Giants won their division by three games over the Padres and split the first two games of the NLCS in Chicago before closing out the series with three close wins at Candlestick Park.

The finale was tied 1-1 in the eighth inning when Clark took over the moment. The Giants loaded the bases with two outs, and Williams, the wild-haired lefty aptly known as “Wild Thing,” was summoned from the bullpen.

Photo: Otto Greule Jr / Getty Images 1989

“I knew at some point in that series I was going to have to face him,” Clark said. “I didn’t face him the first four days. Kevin and I went over and talked to Dusty (Baker), our hitting instructor. Dusty said, ‘Look, this guy’s got much better control than people think. They call him Wild Thing, but he’s not wild right now.’ Dusty told us to pick a side of the plate and stick with it.”

Then came a quick exchange for the ages.

Mitchell: “We have a job to do.”

Clark: “It’s done.”

Williams got ahead no balls and two strikes.

“I stepped out of the batter’s box and took this big, humongous deep breath,” Clark said. “I jumped back in there and was like, ‘All right, we’re going to stick our nose in here and battle it for all we’ve got.’

“Three or four pitches later, I got a high fastball and fouled it straight back. Oooh, I was all over that one. I said all right, ‘Stay with that same swing.’ And I’ll be darned if that next pitch wasn’t damn near the same pitch, and I was able to get on top of it and hit it up the middle.”

The sizzling liner made Williams duck and scored Candy Maldonado and Brett Butler, giving the Giants a 3-1 lead and making a lively crowd — “62,000 screaming maniacs,” in Clark’s words — erupt. The Giants won 3-2 to clinch the pennant, and Clark was MVP of the NLCS after hitting .650 with two homers and eight RBIs.

Photo: John Gaps / ASSOCIATED PRESS

The single off Williams was Clark’s signature moment in 1989. Mitchell’s wasn’t even at the plate. It was in left field. On April 26 in St. Louis, Ozzie Smith sliced a ball toward the corner, and Mitchell chased it but found himself slightly off track. Channeling his Wiffleball days, he reached up in foul territory with his right hand and snagged the ball out of the air.

Barehanded.

“You’re remembered as the guy who made that catch,” Mitchell said. “I tell people I used to hit, too.”

These days, Clark is a Giants special assistant and ambassador with a variety of duties, often visiting the Bay Area from his Louisiana home and suiting up before games and making himself available to players and fans.

Mitchell lives north of San Diego and teaches hitting to kids. He said a goal would be hooking on with the Giants to work with players, a role other past MVPs have been granted to various degrees.

“I’d like to come up to San Francisco,” Mitchell said. “I don’t want to work for anybody else. I consider the Giants my family. I’d like to come up and talk to people, shake hands, be on the field, help kids, give my advice. That’s my passion.”

For now, Mitchell continues his rehab from a neck operation a few years ago.

“It was a cervical problem that had been going on for decades, and it put me in paralysis,” Mitchell said. “My hands closed up, my legs stopped working. I was in death mode in the hospital, but God is good.

“My neurologist said a lot of people had this surgery and never came back. I battled a lot of anxiety and depression. I have a plate and four screws in my neck right now. There’s still a problem on my right side, a little nerve damage.

“I’m getting better and better. I went from wheelchair to walker to cane and now nothing. I’m walking. I’ve got a limp. But I’m playing golf again, riding motorcycles. I’m blessed.”

Mitchell played with eight teams but enjoyed his most success in San Francisco, and he’ll always be linked to Clark as an all-time Giants tandem, along with Willie Mays-Willie McCovey and Bonds-Kent.

Photo: Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Thus, the Pacific Sock Exchange poster, which shows Clark and Mitchell in spiffy suits and eye black, wearing batting gloves and holding bats on the actual Pacific Stock Exchange floor shortly after the markets closed. The poster was a promotional giveaway.

“That’s when we had hair,” Mitchell said. “We were like salt and pepper. You can’t have food without salt and pepper. Coming to the park hearing his squeaky voice made my day. You loved going to battle with Will Clark every day.”

Clark became a fixture as the No. 3 hitter in 1988, and Mitchell settled in as the cleanup hitter the final two months of that season. By 1989, Craig’s easiest chore was penciling in Clark and Mitchell at 3-4.

“The pitching staff did great, the relief corps did great,” Clark said. “We had a good offensive year, but when we sputtered a little bit, the pitching staff picked us up and vice versa. Plus, we played solid defense all year long.”

Rick Reuschel, then 40, won 17 games and posted a 2.94 ERA. Don Robinson, Scott Garrelts, Mike LaCoss and Kelly Downs also were in the rotation, as was Mike Krukow, who started eight games in his final season. Of course, Dave Dravecky made two dramatic starts (and won them both) amid a courageous battle with cancer.

The bullpen was solidified with the June acquisition of closer Steve Bedrosian, and the lineup included leadoff man Brett Butler, an up-and-coming Matt Williams and No. 2 hitter Robby Thompson, who anchored the defense with double-play partner Jose Uribe.

John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s national baseball writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey