THE DIVE OF ‘85: : What Happened to the Padres?

Whether the National League Championship will ever again return to the splendor of San Diego is unknown and depends, perhaps, on how the Padres react to “The Dive of ’85.” Will the team stay pat or will the front office say “drat” and make major changes?

Trades are inevitable, what with a general manager named (Trader) Jack McKeon who says, “I like to go out and dabble. I like being a broker. You’re wheeling and dealing and buying and selling and trading and . . . It’s like being a stockbroker.”

But how much do you go for broke? Do you break up the 1984 nucleus? Is it bye-bye Carmelo? Is it bye-bye T.K.? Is it bye-bye Show? Is it hello Gary Redus? Do you say, “The future is now,” or do you say, “The future ain’t for years”?

Uh, do you fire the manager?

Naturally, McKeon can’t possibly answer the trade question because he just doesn’t know who he can get and who he must give up.

“I’m not going to really tear up the club,” he said Wednesday as he sat in his office, a “1984 Executive of the Year” plaque hanging on the wall. “I don’t anticipate messing up . . . no,

that’s the wrong word . . . I’m not interested in wholesale changes. We’ll make changes,

no question. But what they’ll be, I don’t know. I mean, if I could strengthen (the team) for ’86 or ’87 or ‘88, I might have to do it.

“But I don’t want to mess too much. I want more speed, now what do I do to get it? And if I want to pick up a good, young second baseman or shortstop for ’87 or ‘88, do I do it?”

About 50 plush feet down the hall is the office of Ballard Smith, team president or team boss or the team himself, however you’d prefer to interpret it. You don’t think he’s powerful? He has a pedal under his desk that can open and close his office door. So just try leaving abruptly, and he can easily slam the door in your face. That’s power.

But will he flex his muscles? He did in the Alan Wiggins fiasco, but he seems content with Manager Dick Williams, who, has upset some of his players with his “I’m-not-here-to-make-friends” attitude. Smith, who will be reminded by Williams that this year’s record was the second-best in franchise history, said Wednesday: “I don’t feel we’re looking for a scapegoat. They only place that’s been a topic is in the newspapers. It hasn’t been a topic here. There aren’t too many managers that have a better record. I really don’t believe in making change for change sake.

“Dick and I get along real well. I like him personally, and I have respect for him as a manager.”

Smith, however, seldom ventures to the outer world, which, in this case, is the clubhouse. About a week ago, he made a rare visit to batting practice. Williams saw him, smiled, shook his hand and commented on how much he liked Smith’s new lightweight glasses.

Said Smith: “Yeah, but I had to take them off during the fifth inning last night (referring to a horrendous Padre loss to San Francisco).”

Said Williams: “I don’t blame you.”

Smith is the type who hates to lose at anything--tiddlywinks, Trivial Pursuit, baseball. He injured his shoulder some time ago and works like a madman to get it in working condition. So, he does say he’ll evaluate the ’85 season, which means he will talk to his coaches, his manager, his players, his general manager, his wife, his radio announcers, his mother-in-law (she happens to be the team owner).

“Yes, everyone, including the players, should have a say,” Smith said. “They won’t make the decision. I will, in conjunction with Joan (Kroc, his mother-in-law) and Jack. What decision am I talking about? I’m talking about major changes and if we should make them. Anyone who wants input can have it.”

So, everyone, what went wrong?

McKeon: “Maybe on July 4th, when we had a five-game lead, we felt we could coast.”

Graig Nettles: “Last year, we never had pressure on us, and this year, the Dodgers put it on and we didn’t respond. Maybe guys will think about it over the winter and be ready. Really, last year, the Cub series was the only pressure. When we had two or three months of it this year, that’s when we didn’t handle it.

“The Dodgers . . . they kind of discouraged a few guys. We saw them early and they weren’t very good. Then, we assumed they’d revert back to their old ways, but they didn’t.”

Kurt Bevacqua: “There were a few cases where we didn’t really jell as a unit, personality-wise. You know, guys being upset with others’ attitudes. I won’t name names, but guys just weren’t happy with their roles, and that carried over.”

Andy Hawkins: “We lost the winning attitude, that edge. It was obvious. It could almost be physically felt.”

Al Bumbry: “Earlier in the year, there was a lot of scoreboard watching. ‘The Dodgers are winning, the Dodgers are winning, the Dodgers are winning.’ You always heard it. And we’d lose. Way back in August, there was scoreboard watching, and that’s too early.”

Tony Gwynn: “We lost our confidence more than anything. To this day, I think we have the best team in the division. We just didn’t play that way.”

Williams: “What went wrong? I’ve put my finger on a lot of things. But I won’t tell you.”

It’s no secret.

It started April 25, when second baseman Alan Wiggins disappeared and later was dispatched to Baltimore for pitcher Roy Lee Jackson and a Double-A pitcher who’s about to be named. Without Wiggins, there was little team speed and, thus, few cheap runs. Every good baseball team scores a lot of cheap runs.

Wiggins’ replacements, the platoon combination of Jerry Royster and Tim Flannery, were magnificent, stupendous, miraculous . . . there just aren’t enough words to describe it. They each had their best career seasons, but this is not the point.

The Padres were slow.

As of today, they had only 58 stolen bases and could become the first National League team since 1975 not to reach 60 steals.

McKeon’s reaction is typical, as he states publicly that his No. 1 off-season priority is to acquire team speed. Sources say he likes Cincinnati’s very fast Redus (48 steals in 101 games), who said publicly that Pete Rose, player/manager, should have benched himself this year and who now, for some reason, thinks he’ll be traded.

Rose, though, said, “Anyone interested in outfielders will contact us, not because people like Gary are available, but because we have an abundance of young talent.”

McKeon did say of his team’s speed: “No question, the ballclub became different without Wiggins. But I’ve got to say, ‘Hey, we were in first place on July 5 without the speed.’ If we gain a lead without it, why can’t we maintain it? I’ve got to believe speed played a part in about two, three, four games this year . . .

“We knew what we were getting into when we let Wiggins go. We told him if he got in trouble again (with drugs), he won’t play. We kept our word. We knew it would hurt us in the short run, but we’re sending a message to all our players. If you’re on drugs, we don’t want you. No matter how good you are.”

Some players missed Wiggins.

Gwynn: “He was the catalyst, and that’s not taking anything away from Flannery and Royster because they’ve done great. But he’d create havoc. I think they (the front office) handled it too quickly. They didn’t give him a chance to explain what happened. “

Some players haven’t missed Wiggins.

Bevacqua: “When we lost Alan Wiggins, the only thing we lost was speed. We sure as hell didn’t lose any leadership. We sure as hell didn’t lose any personality. Everybody had a hard time with him. He had an attitude problem. And it makes for bad chemistry when there’s a guy like that. It’s easier to put up with a guy like that when you’re winning. When you’re losing, it could lead to punches.”

Anyway, the speed void will be filled. Adjustments will be made accordingly. For instance, if McKeon trades for a fast guy who turns out to be a center fielder, watch for Kevin McReynolds to move to left field, and Carmelo Martinez either to be traded or moved to third base, where he has played some before.

Padre coaches were instructed to hit grounders to Martinez during batting practice, so the thought is there. McKeon admits it. And Martinez has heard the rumors himself, saying he’d consider playing third, but that he would not be enamored with a platoon situation with Nettles.

“I don’t want that. No way,” Martinez said of platooning. “The way I see it, I deserve another chance (in left field). But I’ve got to work on my body. I’ve got to lose some weight. When I look back this year, I say, ‘I could’ve gotten to a lot more (balls in the outfield) and beat out some ground balls if I’m lighter.’ ”

Now that we know speed burns, how about burnout?

Williams rarely went to his bench early this year (maybe because he didn’t have a bench), and the result was tired minds and bodies. After 81 games, catcher Terry Kennedy had started 74, a miraculous number that may correspond to the fact that Kennedy has only 42 RBIs in his last 117 games (as opposed to 31 in his first 41) and only one home run since July 22.

After 81 games, Martinez had started 72 in left field, McReynolds 79 in center, Garry Templeton 78 at shortstop, Gwynn 79 in right and Steve Garvey all 81 at first base. On the subject of Garvey, doesn’t he need a rest? Williams had said he’d rest him this year, but he did not. The Garv never missed a game.

Garvey, though, said, “As long as I continue to perform up to my standard, it’s no issue. If you saw a drop off, you’d say, ‘Maybe he needs a day off every 10 or 12 days,’ . . . but you need some constants. You need a couple guys who build your base. When we won in L.A., it was the same six or seven guys every day. You need three or four here.”

Garvey, it should be noted, has only one homer since Aug. 23, but he explains that he has been pitched differently.

Williams, in defense of the burnout theory, said, “I thought we’d have more rest at a lot of positions, but one guy got moved (Wiggins), and others haven’t produced.”

Want to know what really went wrong? It might sound overly simple, but the Padres just didn’t hit with men on base.

In the six-week period in which the Dodgers gained 14 games on the Padres without one head-to-head meeting, Garvey, Nettles, Kennedy, McReynolds and Martinez combined for 14 homers.

“All the speed talk and all the pitching talk and all the hitting talk . . . that’s BS,” said Deacon Jones, batting coach. “We had the opportunities. And five guys had off years in run production. The name of the game is knocking them home.”

Why didn’t they? Garvey can’t be blamed since he leads the team with 81 RBIs. Nettles, 41, says of his 15-home run, 60-RBI season: “I’d take two or three more years like this.” Martinez leads the team with 21 homers.

But McReynolds and Kennedy are inexplicable. Here was McReynolds, age 25, the year before he’d be eligible to go to arbitration. It was up to him. Twenty-five homers and 100 RBIs and we’d be talking $700,000 a year. Instead, he has 15 and 75, and his average has been .240 or lower since July 23. His defense has been inconsistent, and Coach Ozzie Virgil blasted him Wednesday for not working hard, saying, “He should be worried about his defense. I would if I were him.”

Are we talking $250,000 now? Or how about $175,000?

“One way or another, I’ll get a contract,” McReynolds said. “It won’t be the end of the world if I get a good one or a bad one.”

Now, certainly, the chances of negotiations reaching the arbitration stage are slimmer, since McReynolds’ statistics aren’t very negotiable. His agent, Tom Selakovich, and McKeon undoubtedly will work out a settlement because McKeon still likes McReynolds’ potential and since McReynolds likes living in San Diego. Besides, McReynolds’ best friend is teammate Greg Booker, who happens to be McKeon’s son-in-law.

Selakovich, though, still is peeved at the Padres for renewing McReynolds’ salary this year at just $150,000. “When your employer pays you like a janitor, you play like a janitor,” Selakovich said. “All season, that (the salary figure) has galled him.”

Also, the Williams-McReynolds relationship is fascinating. Williams doesn’t like McReynolds’ low-key approach, and McReynolds, this season, blasted Williams for being a “front-runner.” Now, McReynolds says it has died down, but Selakovich said, “One way or another, we’ve got to get them together. He (Williams) has got to be a manager that understands people have feelings. He has trouble with younger players, and Kevin, I’ll tell you, has never said anything wrong about anyone. Money is not the problem here. We need Kevin and Dick on the same wavelength.”

Incidentally, some other Padres talk the same way about Williams, though it doesn’t appear to be of concern to Ballard Smith. Pitcher Andy Hawkins, who patched up his previously poor relationship with Williams by starting the season with 11 straight wins, said, “He (Williams) just doesn’t handle people right. That’s not his forte, not his cup of tea. Our friendship is finally to the point where it should be, but it took my performance to get it there. Like it does for anyone else.

“But if I start 0-5 next year, don’t think I won’t hear it. I’ve been through the worst and best of it, so I don’t have to worry anymore. But Pete Rose said it point-blank. He said you have 25 guys and they all have to be handled differently. You can’t do it under one set of rules. Not that people have to be pampered, but personalities have to be reckoned with. They can’t just be swept under the carpet.”

Williams, asked why he doesn’t communicate better, said, “My door hasn’t been closed. That’s a cop-out. I don’t buy that. If they want to use that as an excuse, fine. I go to them when I have to. On the bench, I talk to them. Listen, I just put their names down. And either they can play or they can’t. I’m not here to take them out to dinner. I’m trying to win.

” . . . I say hello. If a player does his job and I do mine, we’ll be fine. And if I don’t do my job, I’m gone. It used to be that way with players, too. Not anymore. I know I’ve done the best job I could. I’ve tried my darnedest. The people who’ve tried to make me a scapegoat is you guys (in the media), and you’ve tried for two months. Well, I’ll be retiring soon with a pension that’ll be outstanding. So I don’t need that BS.”

Williams used to bother Kennedy, too, but Kennedy is emotionally rejuvenated, to the point where he even runs out ground balls. He didn’t for a while, upset over his inept hitting. After a discussion with McKeon and much deep thought, he said he’s a new man, even if the home fans still boo him.

“My lack of hustle was my own fault, a bad habit, a very bad habit,” Kennedy said. “It came out of self pity, out of not being able to iron out my problems at the plate. So I don’t dog it anymore. If they boo me, fine. But they won’t boo me for not running it out . . . I found out it didn’t take much for me to run 90 feet. Actually, it took away my frustration by running hard.”

Any more pouting faces? Oh yeah, pitcher Eric Show used to, and that’s why his teammates rebelled against him in September. Flannery, for instance, saying, “He (Show) quits . . . It’s sickening.” Show, unaware that this hatred existed, asked if he could speak at a recent team meeting, stood up in front of the fellas and apologized, admitting that he has faults and that he’d appreciate help from any of them.

Bingo. Show went out and won three straight games, and his teammates had new-found admiration for him.

“Since that meeting? Whew!” Gwynn said Wednesday. “Now, someone hits a bleeder against him, he goes and gets the next guy, no problem. A lot of guys respected him for saying what he said. To be honest, guys were wondering when he’d just pitch and not let it affect him. Dwight Gooden? John Tudor? They don’t let things get to them.”

McKeon, then, went even further and said of Show: “He’s a good kid, and I think it (the misunderstanding) is over. I ain’t going to trade him.”

Well, at least one guy is safe.