PADRES : Why Success Won’t Change McReynolds : Baseball Is ‘Just a Hobby’ for the Buddy-Boy Who’d Rather Hunt and Fish

The budding superstar is really just a plain old buddy-boy from North Li’l Rock, Ark. And that’s buddy-boy, as in “Hey, buddy-boy, how ‘bout some serious frog-gigging tonight?”

Now, frog-gigging, for all you yankees, is hellacious fun, sort of the Arkansas equivalent to “cruising chicks,” only it’s supposedly better. Three guys hop in a jeep, one driving, one with a flashlight and one with a gig, which is sort of a pitchfork. When they come across a frog, the guy with the light shines it on the frog, and the guy with the gig spears the thing.

They all go home then, cut off its legs, fry them and eat them. This apparently is much, much better than cruising chicks.

And Padre center fielder Kevin McReynolds, the buddy-boy and budding superstar, will vouch for that. He goes frog-gigging every winter when he’s back in North Li’l Rock, and, besides, he certainly shouldn’t be cruising chicks since he’s already married.

Sometimes, though, Jackie McReynolds wouldn’t mind if Kevin would cruise her, because he’s rarely around his wife in the winter. She travels with him to Arkansas, but he’s out the door at sunrise to go duck hunting in nearby Stuttgart, Ark., apparently the duck hunting capital of the world.

This naturally has created a problem because Jackie doesn’t care much for hunting. Since they’ve been married a year now, she thinks it’s time she told him that and has done so. He says he’ll play golf with her this winter so they can be together more.

“But as long as I live, I’ll always hunt and fish,” McReynolds said.

Says Jackie: “To him, duck-hunting is better than sex. . . . When he starts hunting, he goes every day. I don’t see him too much.”

It’s obvious that McReynolds dreads baseball season in many ways then, considering there’s no place for duck hunting in San Diego. Besides, during baseball season, little kids always want his autograph, he can’t wear his “hunting duds” to the ballpark and he has to speak to the media.

And therein lies the problem, because McReynolds is not suited for this big-city superstar role that’s been given him. Partly, it’s Tom Selakovich’s fault. Selakovich is McReynolds’ agent, the kind of guy that says “Kevin has the potential to be one of the greatest . . . He is it, jack.”

Selakovich also compares McReynolds, age 25, to the Mets’ Darryl Strawberry, age 23, claiming the Padres would not make a straight up McReynolds-Strawberry trade if it were offered to them, saying McReynolds should make as much money as Strawberry, too (about $400,000 annually).

And Kevin McReynolds simply isn’t ready for such hoopla, and he’ll tell you this.

“As far as that superstar role . . . Away from baseball, I do what I want,” he said. “I won’t stay in San Diego for the endorsements. I’ll do what I want to do. I ain’t the kind to get dressed up in a suit and tie. I’ve got to get in my hunting duds and get with it.”

Whomever coined the phrase “Superstar” is super-wacko, only because the word is so ambiguous. To be a superstar, one has to have the correct mental framework, the ability to adapt to fear and tension. When there’s two out in the bottom of the ninth, a superstar should want to hit, should want to win the game for his team and should ultimately deliver.

In this sense, Kevin McReynolds is a superstar.

Yet, to be a real, complete superstar, one must be able to answer all the questions and sign all the autographs afterward, for this is also part of the game, part of the obligation.

Kevin McReynolds can’t.

The trouble is his upbringing, where he was raised in a rather sheltered environment, raised by parents who weren’t overly sociable or talkative. When Kevin went over to eat at Jackie’s house before they were married, he was quite certain that Jackie’s parents were flakes. They had actually cooked chinese food and planned to serve it for dinner.

He thought this was strange.

Consequently, Jackie’s parents were in tears when their daughter told them she would be marrying this country boy.

Still, this was not his fault, since he’d been raised in the country and had no choice but to be this way. He had grown up in Camp Robinson, a base for the Arkansas National Guard. It was a small, intimate community, where everyone knew everyone else. There was a lake where you could fish, and 30 miles up the road, you could hunt in a thick forest.

McReynolds hunted often in that forest, more often than his brothers Randy (28) and Terry (22), who still live at home today. McReynolds legend has it that Kevin inherited this craze for hunting from his father Raymond’s grandfather. Kevin loved animals, loved to touch them. Not long ago, he had shot a duck, but hadn’t killed it. So he brought it home and dumped it in the bathtub to scare his mother, Kathryn.

Another time, when he’d been much younger, he and his brothers had found a baby snake and brought it home in a fruit jar. Raymond saw the snake and realized it was poisonous. He quickly ran outside and killed the thing.

McReynolds learned much from Raymond, a small man who was 5-feet 8-inches and 150 pounds when he was 18 and is still the same size today, one year before retirement. Raymond served in World War II, but, even before that, had been a decent ballplayer. He hadn’t been a power hitter, but he had been somewhat talented. The problem was there were no organized leagues to play in.

Raymond also was a quiet man, and McReynolds inherited this from him.

Kathryn, Kevin’s mother, also is quiet, also is country. She raised her three sons and only daughter on meat and potatoes. She was the disciplinarian of the house, too, much more comfortable with a whip than her husband. She would not find a job when her boys were kids, mainly because she did not want to leave them alone until they were ready to face the world.

It turned out that McReynolds was not able to face the world until he left North Little Rock for the University of Arkansas. He says it was only then that he grew up, since he’d finally gone away from home and from Kathryn for the first time. Still, he has fond memories of his childhood, of the home he grew up in even if their house was modest, almost shack-like.

“It wasn’t much,” he said. “There was a little kitchen and a little living room and a little hall and a bathroom and three small bedrooms. It wasn’t very big at all, but it was very comfortable.”

Still, college was beneficial because he’d get to see how good an athlete he was. In junior high school, he’d been so dominant that the football coach had ordered him not to play baseball if he didn’t first play football. He apparently had been able to punt 60 yards in ninth grade and looked to be an excellent quarterback.

But McReynolds wouldn’t budge, saying if he couldn’t play baseball, fine. He just didn’t want to play football, even though poor Raymond was hearing it from everyone in town that he should force his son to play. Finally, Raymond came home one night, telling Kathryn he was going to make Kevin play football. Kathryn talked Raymond out of it, though, and that appeared to be that.

Still, McReynolds was coerced into showing up for one game when he’d been told he’d only punt. It had rained that night, and the other punter on the team, for some reason, was given all the work. Kevin, in a huff, quit the team and never put the shoulder pads on again.

Later, in high school, he’d been intrigued by Jackie, whose dad was in the Air Force, which meant she had many addresses while growing up. Jackie was different than Kevin, only because when she opened her mouth, she spoke.

“Jackie’s never met a stranger,” Raymond says.

At first, Raymond and Kathryn McReynolds did not know what to think of Jackie, a petite blonde. But soon Raymond was hugging her, and Jackie is certain that he rarely hugs anyone. She always jokes with Raymond now, telling him he has big ears.

And in some ways, Jackie has changed her husband, since her outgoing personality has rubbed off a bit. More so, baseball has changed McReynolds, because he’s had to deal with the people who come with the job. To Jackie, this job seemed to be so glamorous, since there would be money and fame.

“But, you know, people have an idea of what our lives are like, that we walk around looking great and have expensive things to wear,” Jackie said. “But, to me, it doesn’t seem special anymore. We’re like anybody else. I can’t believe how people go crazy for autographs . . .

“And I’m conscious now of looking good in public. I went to the grocery store in jeans and a T-shirt today, but I took a shower first. In Arkansas, no way. On airplanes, people ask what my husband does, and I tell them and suddenly, they’re my friends.

“Kevin and I hope we don’t get like Steve Garvey and Goose Gossage, where he’s always recognized. Steve Garvey can’t go to supermarkets.”

Of course, McReynolds will never be like Garvey because he doesn’t play the superstar part very well. Once, McReynolds said to Selakovich: “Remember this, Tom. Baseball is my hobby. Hunting and fishing is my career.”

In a sense, Kevin McReynolds is one of the most remarkable players in baseball. He is so clean, he squeaks. Just the other day, he injured his jaw from chewing his gum too fiercely. Now that he’s not supposed to chew gum anymore, he was asked if he’d chew tobacco, something most baseball people do.

“I have no use for it,” he said. “I don’t see what the big deal is about smoking or chewing tobacco. I don’t see why people do.”

Said Selakovich: “Success will never change Kevin McReynolds. He doesn’t want to be the star, but he recognizes that he is. He realizes he’ll have to give more . . . But I’ll tell you. This is an agent’s dream, to have a player like this who takes care of his body, who the worst thing he’ll do is drink too much iced tea at lunch. He’ll never drink more than two Lite beers at one sitting.”

Even more remarkable is his ability to keep the same, mundane look on his face each day. He never shows emotion, and Jackie says it sometimes drives her crazy.

For instance, McReynolds had hit a three-run home run in Game 3 of last year’s National League Championship series, a dramatic shot that put the game out of reach. The next day, he broke his left wrist while breaking up a double play, and, consequently, never got to play in the World Series.

When it happened, Jackie cried.

So did Raymond.

And Raymond never had told that to his son, but he says it hurt him more than anything else to see his son sidelined.

“It hurt me more than him,” Raymond said. “I talked to him, and said: ‘Isn’t it a shame that you can’t play in the Series?’ He said: ‘Sure, but I won’t worry about it.’ He doesn’t show emotion. If he goes 0 for 4 or 4 for 4, the same expression’s on his face. He gets more excited about a flock of wild ducks.

“And, you know, I looked forward to having a son play professional baseball . . . And a lot of great ballplayers never got to the World Series. He may not ever get another chance. So it hurt me. He doesn’t know that, though.”

Certainly, it hurt McReynolds, too. The night the Padres clinched the pennant, Jackie, Selakovich and Jackie’s parents came back to the house to find McReynolds by himself. Actually, he had accidentally let out Jackie’s parents’ dog, a german shepard who was almost completely deaf.

So they had to go driving around the hills screaming for a deaf dog. Later, McReynolds was in no hurry to go to the team victory party, mainly because he was depressed about his injury. When Selakovich and Jackie finally convinced him to go, the party was over.

Selakovich, though, actually has much influence on McReynolds, not only because he’s his agent, but because they grew up in the same hometown. Selakovich basically convinced McReynolds to turn down a six-year contract offer worth approximately $300,000-plus annually because he thinks McReynolds can get even more if he goes to arbitration next February.

“There are only one or two Kevin McReynolds’ every 10 to 15 years,” Selakovich said. “We think we’ll have more leverage in the arbitration year. Their offer doesn’t satisfy what I envision and what Kevin envisions.”

Padre General Manager Jack McKeon said: “How good is he? I don’t know, and that’s why it’s very difficult to put a figure on him. His agent is gambling that he’s better than anyone expects.”

Still, people apparently expect a lot. When he first came to the big leagues from Triple-A, he hit a home run in his first game. Immediately, he was touted as a savior, and he could not deal with this. His average dropped and he was sent down.

But last year, in his first full season, he showed signs of potential, signs that superstardom is feasible. He has now recovered fully from his wrist injury and has hit .300 this spring.

“Tell the fans of this country that the Mac Attack is back,” Selakovich said.

Asked if he also had a message for the fans, McReynolds shook his head.

Said Selakovich: “Ah, where he’s most relaxed and where he has the most fun is when he’s hunting and fishing. And Arkansas is the capital of hunting and fishing. He’ll always be an Arkansan.”

And never a complete superstar, if such a thing exists.