Bevacqua Sends a Message to McKeon in Padres’ 4-3 Win

As promised, Kurt Bevacqua called his boss, Jack McKeon, on Tuesday, basically just to find out when they could talk about Bevacqua’s future in baseball.

And, although this may or may not shed light on the situation, McKeon told Bevacqua he didn’t have the time now, but to, by all means, stay in touch.

So that’s what Bevacqua did, in his own little way, touching up San Francisco pitcher Dave LaPoint for a two-run homer in the fourth, driving in the decisive runs in a 4-3 Padre victory over the Giants Tuesday night.

And considering Bevacqua had committed two errors and stranded six base runners in a game Monday night, wouldn’t today be a fine time to dial 283-7294 (the Padre offices) and ask for McKeon?

No.

McKeon plans to be out of town.

Now, if it sounds like McKeon is doing an artful job of dodging Bevacqua, it just isn’t so. He hardly slept Monday night because his son Kasey’s car was stolen right outside their home. Some kid, it seems, used a pen knife to unlock the front door and rev the engine.

After midnight, the highway patrol called. McKeon described the conversation:

“Are you John McKeon?”

“Yes,” said McKeon, awoken by the phone and unable to see straight.

“Do you own a Brown 280-Z?”

“Yeah, it’s out in the driveway.”

“Go check.”

“Carol (McKeon’s wife), will you see if Kasey’s car’s outside?”

“Oh oh,” Carol said as she peered out the window.

“Well, we’ve got it,” said the highway patrol.

“Good,” said McKeon.

“We’re coming over,” said the highway patrol.

Eventually, the cops got there, and one of them showed McKeon how the kid managed to rip off the car. They went inside. They drank coffee. They filled out the reports until it was after 3 a.m.

“We start talking, and this one guy is a ball fan, and he was at the game that night, and he’s telling me how to straighten out the club. He had pretty good advice, too.”

Anyway, McKeon got Kasey out of bed, and they went down to some police lot to see how much damage had been done to the car. The security guard wouldn’t let them in, so they came home. It was after 4 a.m. now. McKeon went to bed, but never fell asleep because he had promised to take some friends to the airport for a 7 a.m. flight.

Eventually, he had to take the car out of the lot, and then he had a lunch appointment and then a meeting with Ballard Smith, team president, and then with Manager Dick Williams and Williams’ coaches.

“If the car didn’t get stolen, I might have fit him (Bevacqua) in,” McKeon said.

Bevacqua, hanging around the dugout prior to Tuesday’s game, said: “Yeah, I called him first thing this morning. I didn’t want him to think I’d wait until after a good game to take advantage of him in negotiations . . . He told me about his car having been stolen. I said I didn’t do it, and that if I did, it wouldn’t have been hard to find it because I’d have dropped it.”

There he goes again, criticizing his own fielding skills.

But he didn’t make an error Tuesday.

And although he hit into a double play in the second inning, he went on to hit that homer.

Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found afterward.

“I don’t know if he’s around,” Williams said. “He might be in the next room playing pinball.”

About that meeting Tuesday with Williams and the coaches, McKeon would only say: “If you want to call it a meeting. I don’t know if I would. We all sat down and talked, talked about players and so forth.”

Still, McKeon, when asked about personnel, said there were about 10 players he’d term untouchables. Also, he said: “I know what I want.”

What?

“Speed. That’s No. 1,” he said. “That is, if I can get it. I know what I want, but another team might not know what it wants. Also a third baseman for the future, whether it’s this year or next year. I mean, we’re going to need a third baseman for the future, and I’m not taking anything away from Graig Nettles. You’ve got to prepare yourself. You’ve got to look to the future.”

Padre Notes Padre President Ballard Smith called a press conference Tuesday to say that he’d talked to his players about Ueberroth’s views on voluntary drug testing. “The outcome of the meeting was that they have unanimously endorsed the concept of voluntary testing, subject to the details being worked out with the (player’s) union,” he said. “And obviously, those details being such things as insuring that the test is reliable and also the confidentiality of the test.” In other words, words that Padre catcher Terry Kennedy would eventually use, it still has to be cleared up with the Players’ Assn. “We want to improve our image in the public eye,” said Kennedy, the Padre player representative. “We know there’s a problem, and we’re willing to eradicate it, willing to discuss a voluntary program if the right channels are used, and that means through the association . . . This is not an endorsement of the commissioner’s proposals. Like I said, we are willing to discuss a voluntary program if the Players’ Assn. agrees to it.” Similarly, the Giants held a meeting with their president, Al Rosen. Jim Gott, Giant player representative, said: “We are definitely willing to get something done. Now, the integrity of the game is being questioned, and we all feel a few shouldn’t dictate that we all are guilty. My own feeling is that Jim Gott is going to submit because I don’t want my name to come up in any way, shape or form down the line for something I wasn’t doing . . . That is the attitude of all the players I’ve talked to. We need to protect our own, but that protection only can go so far.” Said Steve Garvey: “I’ve gone on record for voluntary testing, but he (Ueberroth) originally came out with mandatory testing, and that was entirely too harsh. You have to walk before you run. Anyway, this has to go through the appropriate channels. Once that’s put together, we’ll make the proper progress (toward an agreement).” Tony Gwynn said Ueberroth’s call for voluntary drug testing was a little weird, considering it came so late in the season. “It doesn’t make much sense to agree to a program when we’ll have only one test all year, and that’ll be on the last day of the season.” Also, Gwynn said: “The commissioner jumped over the Player’s Assn., and made the statements to players and to the teams (about voluntary testing). In my mind, that doesn’t make sense, either.” . . . The Giants, trailing by a run entering the ninth, opened the inning with consecutive singles off of Padre reliever Goose Gossage. But Gossage struck out Ron Roenicke and Chris Brown and got Dan Gladden to ground into a force play. “It helps to be a strike out pitcher so you can get them (the Ks) when you really need them,” Gossage said.