BASEBALL’S WINTER MEETINGS : Williams Is Making a Nice Change

Dick Williams, once likened to “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” took everyone’s breath away Tuesday.

In what some would call a shocking development, Williams, the Padre manager, said: “I know I could be a hell of a lot nicer to you (media) guys, and I will make every effort to do so. And the same applies to the players.”

This can mean one of four things: (a) that team owner Joan Kroc and president Ballard Smith either persuaded him to change his approach or scared him to death during their secret rendezvous last weekend; (b) that Williams now believes that making friends influences people; (c) that his heart, once considered by some of his players to be 10 sizes too small, has grown to twice its normal size; or (d) all of the above.

“We’ll start here and see if we can rectify anything,” Williams said Tuesday. This announcement officially came at an annual winter baseball meeting luncheon for major league managers. As late as last week, though, the Padres nearly had no manager, because Williams, sources said, had told the Padres he was quitting, apparently angry that he’d have no contract extension and that the front office was trying to undermine him. He denied all this Tuesday, and took his place with the other managers.

And in his first public appearance since word of a possible Padre shakeup leaked last week, Williams was charming and charmed. He entered the ballroom by running into a Sparky Anderson handshake and later sat down at a table set specifically for him and the Padre media.

He said hello.

When he asked the waitress for more iced tea, he said please.

He told war stories.

To paraphrase one, he said: They don’t always show everything that goes on at a Lite Beer commercial. You know that one with the golf tournament? Well, there’s a part where Boog (Powell) is shooting with Jim Honochick, and they’re in a sand trap, and Jim (who is a former umpire and supposedly blind for TV purposes) keeps missing the ball. Hours later, it’s dark and there’s a six-foot ditch where Jim has been swinging, and Boog says: “I think we better be moving along sometime soon, Jim.”

To paraphrase another, he remembered last year’s managers’ luncheon when his buddy, Whitey Herzog, said during a group photo: “Let’s get a real good picture because if we don’t sign (Bruce) Sutter, it could be my last one.”

Funny, but this baseball season could be Williams’ last one.

Funny, but most of his players really hope it is.

But what if he’s really changed?

“Listen! I’ve been accused of not getting along with players everywhere I’ve been,” he said. “. . . Everyone has a job to do (referring to the media now) And I’m realizing that more than ever before. I’ll try to communicate with you guys the best I can, and also with the players.

“If that (communicating with players) is a problem, maybe I ought to go out and get somebody and bring them in to talk. . . . Or pull up a stool and sit with them. I’ll try to make every effort to do that.”

Then he smiled a “Grinch” smile and said: “I never had any (player) problems at Oakland. But maybe this era is different, the era of no reserve clause. But we’ll go from here, though, and do the best we can. That’s all I can tell you.”

Though, he would tell people that he has never asked for a contract extension. And that he has never thought about quitting as manager and has maybe never had a better relationship with the Padre front office. And some of his former players, who are hanging around here this week, said they never have had a problem with him.

“Best manager I ever played for,” said Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, the current White Sox general manager who was with Williams in Boston during the late 1960s. “Why? Great instincts. The man’s got uncanny instincts. One day, his rookie year as manager, we were facing the White Sox lefty Gary Peters, who was a son of a gun against lefty hitters. They had a one-run lead, but we had the the bases loaded, one out. So he sends up Jose Tartabull to pinch hit, and no one could believe it because Jose was a lefty hitter, and we had Elston Howard and Jerry Adair (righties) on the bench.

“But Bull was a good fastball hitter, and Peters’ first pitch with the bases loaded was naturally a fastball. He hit a two-run single, and we won. Hell of a manager. All he does is win.”

All his players do is bitch.

“That’s over with, and we’ll go on from here,” Williams said. “ . . . I hope you (media) feel the same way. Whether it works out or not, I don’t know, but I’ll certainly give a 100% effort.”

And before he left, probably not to be seen again until spring training, he said: “Merry Christmas.”