Padre Notebook : Players Aren’t Talking After Chat With Fehr

Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Players Assn., has gone from team to team this spring, explaining baseball’s latest issues, and Monday he made his last stop--with the San Diego Padres.

They spoke for more than two hours.

What about? Mostly collusion and drugs. Fehr says he’s convinced baseball’s owners conspired not to sign free agents this winter, and he also said they’ve collectively decided to keep 24-man rosters (as opposed to 25) to save money.

“Those are clear cases of collusion,” Fehr said after his Padre meeting. “Everyone knows that.”

As for the drugs, he said the Padres were particularly interested in that issue after what has gone on in their recent history:

- Alan Wiggins fought cocaine a year ago.

- LaMarr Hoyt is fighting alcoholism right now.

But Fehr said no drug plan can be implemented until there’s a ruling on the pending grievance regarding voluntary drug clauses in contracts.

Many teams have been asking players to approve drug testing in their new contracts. The players association says that is wrong, and it has filed a grievance that will be heard Wednesday.

“It will start to be tried Wednesday, and I’m sure it’ll be over sometime in the month (of April),” Fehr said. “One or two things will come out of it. The arbitrator will either say the association is right, that you can’t have individually negotiated clauses, that it’s not a benefit to the players, and then the individual testing issue will be over.

“Or he’s going to say ‘You’re wrong.’ We won’t agree with that, but it still will be over. The testing issue ends with this decision as far as I’m concerned. If others don’t want it to end, I guess they can continue talking, but the best solution is a collectively bargained program. . . . We do some things on our own, and the clubs do things on their own, and we contradict one another and overlap, and it’s not effective. We need a comprehensive program. At the moment, there isn’t one.”

Padre players refused to speak about Monday’s meeting. Terry Kennedy, the player representative, told writers to get lost, and Tony Gwynn said: “Guys are sick of talking about it and won’t say anything.”

Still, Gwynn has said that he may not be against mandatory testing.

The Padres played baseball, too, on Monday, but they lost to the California Angels, 5-3. The hero of the game might have been Angel center fielder Gary Pettis, who only went 1 for 5 at the plate.

Pettis did all his work on defense.

In the Padre fourth, Gwynn lined hard to center, and Pettis ran in to grab it. Then, Kevin McReynolds nailed a shot to left-center field, but Pettis ran a long way to grab it. After Steve Garvey’s single, Carmelo Martinez lined one to right center, and Pettis ran a long way again to grab it.

He finished with nine putouts.

“Gary Pettis must have run the equivalent of a 10K race in center field today, and he got to everything,” Padre Manager Steve Boros said. “That was some kind of clinic.

“When I was in Oakland, Pettis made a catch against Davey Lopes that you wouldn’t believe. He jumped up above the fence, hit the fence, was doubled over, but he held on. He’s a phenomenal center fielder, and he may have been the difference in the ballgame today.”

Tony Gwynn’s spring hitting streak ended at 16 games on Monday. But he hit three balls right on the nose, only to have them land right at somebody. . . . Steve Garvey had another hit, lifting his spring average to .346. . . . John Candelaria threw three scoreless innings for the Angels. . . . The rotation is set for next week’s opening series against the Dodgers. On Monday, it’ll be Eric Show (12-11 last year) vs. Fernando Valenzuela (17-10 last year); on Tuesday, Dave Dravecky (13-11) vs. Orel Hershiser (19-3); On Wednesday, Andy Hawkins (18-8) vs. Bob Welch (14-4); On Thursday, Mark Thurmond (7-11) vs. Rick Honeycutt (8-12).

Although Boros hasn’t decided whether his starting second baseman is Bip Roberts or Tim Flannery, Tony Gwynn nominates Flannery.

“If you came down to it today, I think they’d have to go with Flannery,” Gwynn said Monday. “Bip has talent, but he’s still learning at the plate and on the bases. But Bip can play. It’s just that Flannery has had a great spring (he’s hitting .338).”

Kurt Bevacqua, a non-roster player sent home by the Padres this spring, is thinking about calling a press conference this week to officially announce his retirement.