Padres / Notebook : Ramirez Sent to Vegas to Make Room for Martinez

Long before game time Monday night, Mario Ramirez had thrown his bat, his glove, his hat, his pants, his shirt into a brown Padre bag. He was gone, sent from the majors to the minors, just so outfielder Carmelo Martinez could be activated.

Shortly before game time, Jerry Davis looked over and saw Ramirez’s empty locker and his own empty feeling left. All this meant that he’d made the team, a team that he thinks is pretty good to be on.

“I’m glad to be here, I’m glad to be here,” he said. “And I want to stay. Objective No. 1 was to be here. Objective No. 2 is to stick around. I hope I’m still smiling like this in October. This is a good looking team, good looking uniforms, good looking city.”

He went on to say he was glad to be here four more times.

He talked some more.

“I’m counting my blessings every day,” he said. “I’ll do anything. I’ll pinch-hit, pinch-run. I’m just happy to be here (No. 5). I’m glad to be here. (No. 6) The only pressure on me now is between me and the pitcher. It’s between us two now. There’s no more looking over my shoulder. I’m glad to be here (No. 7).”

Ramirez is not glad to be in Las Vegas, although he doesn’t actually leave until Wednesday. He and his wife, Magaly, have a two-bedroom apartment here, and Ramirez says they have many Puerto Rican friends. He knows no one in Las Vegas. He must start over again, and this bothers him.

His meeting with Manager Dick Williams was a quiet one. Williams told him he’d played well (he started two games at second base in San Francisco for the injured Alan Wiggins), but he had to go. Ramirez says he didn’t say much. But he’d expected this, expected that it would come down between he, Davis and relief pitcher Greg Booker.

“I think it’ll be me,” he had said Sunday in Atlanta. “Because they need their pitchers, I think. And there’s too many infielders . . . And it’ll be hard for me because I’ve had a whole year in the big leagues (last season with the Padres). Now, it’ll be four years I’ve been back and forth between the big leagues and Triple-A.”

He has indeed done this before. Once, he played in Hawaii, where he had to be careful not to stay on the beach too long.

“It makes you tired,” he said.

But he said Williams told him he will be back in September, and maybe earlier if needed. If the Padres do bring him back before September, he’d have to clear irrevocable reversable waivers, which means any team could claim him if they wanted. Williams, though, said Ramirez has cleared such waivers before.

“No discredit to him because he does a good job,” Williams said.

The white Padre pinstriped uniforms were here for the first time. But one of Kurt Bevacqua’s stripes was incomplete, an obvious factory malfunction.

“The only flaw in my game,” Bevacqua said.

Bevacqua is currently filming a segment for CBS’ Sunday Morning, a profile on him the baseball player, on and off the field. He wore a mini-microphone in the batting cage.

“If I’m in the game, I’ll pull it off,” Bevacqua said. “I’d feel uncomfortable with it.”

But he will wear it around the dugout, which may put a damper on some of the normal chatter there. Naturally, it will be edited for television.

PADRES AT A GLANCE

Scorecard THIRD INNING GIANTS--Chris Brown walked and went to second on Jose Uribe’s single to left. Atlee Hammaker sacrificed the runners to second and third, and both scored on Dan Gladden’s single to center. Giants 2, Padres 0.

FOURTH INNING

PADRES--Tony Gwynn tripled and scored on Steve Garvey’s double. Terry Kennedy then homered, which was immediately followed by a Carmelo Martinez homer. Padres 4, Giants 2.

SEVENTH INNING

PADRES--Garvey and Kevin McReynolds singled, and Terry Kennedy walked. With the bases loaded, Martinez homered. Padres 8, Giants 2.

EIGHTH INNING

GIANTS--Goose Gossage hit Chris Brown with a pitch, and Jose Uribe singled to right. Gladden singled to left, scoring Wellman, who had pinch run for Brown. Padres 8, Giants 3.