Ruth Mack Clark, 99, daughter of Connie Mack

Ruth Mack Clark was a baseball fan her whole life. After all, it was in her blood.

Mrs. Clark, 99, of Lansdale, daughter of baseball Hall of Famer Connie Mack, died Sunday, June 16, at Souderton Mennonite Home.

Her father, born Cornelius McGillicuddy, was the longtime manager and owner of the Philadelphia Athletics. He led the team to nine pennants and five World Series titles over more than 50 years.

Sports were a big part of Mrs. Clark's life as well. In her youth, she competed in basketball, field hockey, track and hurdles, and tennis. She later developed a "perfect swing" on the golf course, her daughter Alice Cunningham said.

Mack taught his "girlie" the rules of the game in her teenage years, when she drove him to the stadium at 21st Street and Lehigh Avenue that was later named for him. Even in her old age, Cunningham said, Mrs. Clark insisted on watching a baseball game from start to finish.

"If she was watching a Phillies game, she would know if the ump made a bad call - she knew all the rules," Cunningham said. "If she had been a boy, she probably would have been a baseball player."

Mrs. Clark's memory was "sharp as a tack," and she spoke about her father at various Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society events into her 90s, group cofounder Ernie Montella said. A room of retired players would gravitate toward her, enthralled by her stories, he said.

"The word sweet is kind of gossamerlike, it's hard to describe, but it epitomizes her," said Norman L. Macht, author of a series of books on her father, including Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball. "I pestered her with questions over 25 years. Her patience never ran out."

Her marriage to Frank Cunningham ended in the mid-1970s after about 40 years. He died in 1999. She married Richard Clark in 1976. He died in 1996.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Clark is survived by sons Frank Cunningham, William Cunningham, and Cornelius Cunningham; another daughter, Katherine Keim; and many grandchildren.

A Funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Friday, June 21, at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, 920 Sumneytown Pike, Lansdale. Friends may call at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham.

Memorial donations may be made to the Living Branches Benevolent Care Fund., 275 Dock Dr., Lansdale, Pa. 19446.