Spring Training / Padres : Title Game Makes Stoddard Nostalgic

Once upon a time, when there was more hair on his head and less on his upper lip, Tim Stoddard picked better than he pitched. He was a power forward back then, back in 1974 when North Carolina State’s basketball team won a national championship, back when no one knew what a Jim Valvano was.

But years passed, the world welcomed Valvano into its kitchen and Stoddard stopped setting picks. It’s a sad story.

And the Padres are partly responsible, for it was them who ordered Stoddard to end his basketball career. In his early days, just after he graduated from N.C. State and signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles, Stoddard would play winter league basketball, keeping in shape this way. It was his way of jogging, his way of working out, his way of keeping his elbow sharp.

No one minded, either. The Orioles needed a big man for their off-season basketball team, and when Stoddard was with the Cubs recently, the players would get together and play in weekend leagues. Stoddard liked to hoop. He always had.

But, in January, he signed with the Padres for two years, both years being guaranteed. The Padres, wanting to guarantee that Stoddard stay healthy, ordered that he play no organized basketball in the off-season.

This is the sad story.

Not that Stoddard, a relief pitcher, is overly upset by this, but every once in a while, he gets that certain twinge, that eagerness to bang heads underneath. Since it was NCAA championship time on Monday, the twinge was back.

“They won’t let me (play),” he said of the Padres.

Certainly, the Padres have their reasons, reasons that sound logical. General Manager Jack McKeon recalled that Stoddard’s old Orioles basketball team lost forward Mike Flanagan to injury this winter, which means the Orioles’ baseball team doesn’t have pitcher Flanagan this spring.

Case closed.

Stoddard was nostalgic nonetheless Monday, saying that Georgetown appears to be the first dominant college team since his Wolfpack team of 1974, the one that had David Thompson, Tom Burleson and Monte Towe.

“It’s tougher to dominate that way now because of the freshmen rule,” Stoddard said. “Freshmen will go where they can play right away. There’s more balance.”

Pitcher Eric Show constantly shows off around the batting cage, which is sometimes aggravating to players who bat for a living. Show talks a big bat, and he mentioned to hitting coach Deacon Jones on Monday that he had hit three home runs last season to go with his .247 batting average.

Jones said he didn’t care about those allegedly impressive stats and asked Show to go to the batting cage for a minute, just so they could see how good he was. Show promptly ripped pitch after pitch into the outfield, and they left the field laughing.

Later in the afternoon, Show started the Padres’ exhibition game against the Milwaukee Brewers, and came up to the plate with the bases loaded in the second inning against Danny Darwin.

Jones paid close attention.

Show bounced out to the shortstop to end the inning.

“Those (batting cage pitches) aren’t peas at the knees like Darwin was throwing,” Show said.

Add Show: He can still pitch. He gave up no runs and four hits in six complete innings Monday. The Padres went on to lose, 6-3, but Show’s spring training ERA is still 0.00.

“I’m usually terrible in spring training,” Show said.

Said Manager Dick Williams: “It’s the best I’ve seen him pitch consistently.”

Monday’s April Fools:

Relief pitcher Craig Lefferts walked in two runs in a four-run eighth inning by the Brewers.

Said Williams: “He didn’t have a sharp spring last year either.”

Third baseman Graig Nettles made two errors in that same inning. Naturally, all four runs were unearned.

Said Williams: “That can happen to anybody. It was no big deal. He just had an off day today.”

Kurt Bevacqua won an egg-throwing contest held before Monday’s game. He and his partner from the audience, fan Ron Ramirez, managed to hurl an egg back and forth from 25 yards without letting it break.

Somebody said the egg was hard-boiled.

April Fools.

Padre Notebook

Outfielder Carmelo Martinez, on the disabled list because of a hand injury, is expected to begin hitting in the next few days. And when he is able to come back, the Padres will have to release a player, a decision that probably depends how outfielder Jerry Davis does. If Davis plays well (he’ll platoon in left field with Al Bumbry), it’s likely that infielder Mario Ramirez will be sent down. If Davis doesn’t perform, though, it might be him. . . . Second baseman Alan Wiggins, who strained right knee ligaments last Saturday, is improving daily and may just be ready on opening day, April 9 in San Francisco. . . . The Padres’ exhibition record is 10-12. They play their last exhibition game in Yuma today against the Chicago Cubs.