National League : Mets’ Davey Johnson Says He’s Growing Up a Little Too Quickly

Old before his time: Davey Johnson won’t be 43 until January, but the manager of the New York Mets feels as if age is doing double time on him. And he knows why, too. It’s his job.

“I’m tired,” Johnson told Marty Noble of Newsday in a candid interview in which he appeared to be another victim of burnout.

“Breathing is a chore. My health isn’t bad, but it’s not great. I used to feel like a million dollars. That’s before I started managing.

“I didn’t know it would be like this. I don’t think I had gray hairs before last year.

” . . . When you’re in position, your insides eat away at you, and I guess after five or six years it all goes to your head, and you turn gray.”

After the 1984 season, Johnson signed a contract extension that will take him through the ’86 season.

“I know I’m not signing an extension after this year,” he said. “I used to think there was merit in a long-term contract, for security reasons. In another city, yes. In New York, you need a one-year (contract). It’s self-preservation.

“I still have a burning desire to win and I want this team to win in the worst way . . . but sometimes you get so tired.

“I might talk to Chuck Tanner to find out how he survived . . . There has to be a middle ground between living and dying. That’s what I’m looking for.”

The pain of managing, II: Dick Williams, under fire in San Diego just as he was with Boston, California and Montreal, gave a lengthy defense of his managerial career to Richie Ashburn, the former Phillie who writes a column for the Philadelphia Daily News.

This is what Williams had to say about the Padres: “This Padre club was a perennial last-place ballclub when I took over, and in three years with Jack McKeon we won the National League title. And now everybody’s up in arms with three-fourths of the season gone a year later.

“Well, I’m glad they put the pension in, baby, ‘cause I’ll see you later.”

Williams added that he has another year remaining on his contract and intends to honor it.

Ballard Smith, Padre President, gave a public vote of confidence to Williams last week, but privately, some Padre officials are expressing concern about the deteriorating relationship between Williams and members of the team.

Don’t get him mad, he’ll do more than get even: Davey Johnson is of the opinion that when pitcher Dwight Gooden has a bad outing, the team that faces him next pays dearly. In the most recent example of that, Gooden was knocked around by the Phillies in a 9-7 victory by the Mets, then came back to strike out 16 San Francisco Giants on Aug. 20.

Gooden has given up four earned runs or more in nine of his 58 big league starts. His record in the games immediately after those so-called bad outings: 6-1, 1.65 earned-run average, with 98 strikeouts in 68 innings. He struck out 10 or more in seven of nine starts, and didn’t allow any earned runs in five starts.

Add Gooden: Reggie Jackson, asked by New York Daily News columnist Phil Pepe what he thought of the Mets’ Dr. K, said: “Look up awesome in the dictionary. It’ll say, ‘See Flushing, No. 16.’ ”

Road hazard: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 19 straight games on the road until beating the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0, Saturday night, and are 13-49 overall away from home.

The last time they won anywhere but in Three Rivers Stadium was July 22, when they beat the Dodgers at Los Angeles, 6-3.

Some stats of the streak: Their batting average was .206, their ERA 5.63. They’ve were outscored, 103-45, and outhomered, 16-5. Don Robinson pitched six times and lost each time. Cecilio Guante had four save opportunities, and lost them all.

Manifest destiny: Phillie president Bill Giles told Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer that the National League has plans to add two teams in 1987, Denver in the West, Miami or Washington in the East. As part of the new basic agreement, the league is allowed to expand by two teams without the permission of the Major League Players Assn., Giles said.

Also under discussion is a schedule in which teams would play 20 games against opponents within their division, 6 against teams outside, a departure from the current 18-12 arrangement. Another possibility is a schedule calling for 18 games against division opponents, 6 against teams outside the division, and 6 against American League teams.

Alex Trevino, the runner on third when Brad Wellman of the Giants missed the sign to squeeze and instead hit a bases-clearing triple against the Montreal Expos: “It was the longest squeeze I’ve ever seen.”