Williams Will Be Back to Manage Padres in ’86

To hear Padre general manager Jack McKeon talk, no one is surprised Dick Williams will be back to manage the Padres next season.

Williams, however, was not offered an extension of his five-year contract, which expires at the end of the 1986 season. The Padres confirmed the decision after a meeting Wednesday between Ballard Smith, club president, McKeon and Williams.

“He knew he was coming back all along and we knew all along he was coming back,” McKeon said Thursday. “At the meeting on Wednesday we went over things about the ballclub, discussed player personnel moves and getting the maximum out of players who had tough years last season. Hopefully we’ll get the pieces put together.

“Naturally I think everyone would like security, but the only time I ever had a two-year contract as a manager I got fired.”

McKeon also said all of Williams’ coaching staff would return next season.

As for an extension of his contract, Williams said: “We still haven’t talked thoroughly on it. I had a half-hour meeting with Ballard Smith yesterday and I’m still talking with the ballclub. When Ballard returns to town, we’ll meet again.”

There had been speculation that Williams’ future with the club was in jeopardy after a season in which there was considerable unrest between the Padre players and Williams.

San Diego went from winning 92 games and the National League championship in 1984 to finishing 83-79 and in a third-place tie in the NL Western Division in 1985. In Williams’ first two seasons with the Padres, the club was 81-81 and finished in fourth place each year.

Since the end of last season, there were rumors that Williams might replace Billy Martin as manager of the New York Yankees. Last weekend, the Yankees hired Lou Piniella to take Martin’s place.

“I have not heard from anyone and don’t anticipate hearing from anyone in regard to another managerial job,” Williams said. “I think that all came out of New York.”

Williams said he “imagines it would be easier” to manage if he had a long-term contract, but added that he had a one-year contract when he received his first major league managerial assignment with the Boston Red Sox in 1967. Williams directed the Red Sox to the American League pennant that season.

Williams has managed in the major leagues for 18 seasons, but he has never lasted five full seasons with a team. He was in Boston, Oakland and California three years apiece, and was finishing his fifth season in Montreal when he was fired and replaced by Jim Fanning on Sept. 8, 1981.