Padre Pitchers Proud of Prowess at the Plate : Home Runs and High Batting Averages a Bonus From Players at This Position

We’re here early for batting practice to see what’s come over these San Diego Padre pitchers.

They can hit.

Team batting instructor Deacon Jones, found near the cage, will not take full credit.

“Shoot, I don’t even talk to them,” he said. “Well, I tell them a few things. I say: ‘Swing at the balls that stay straight.’ ”

Are we seeing straight? The stat sheet says Padre pitchers are hitting a combined .237.

That’s better than the first baseman.

And the shortstop.

And the third baseman.

These pitchers are trouble. They hit doubles. And game-winning home runs.

In the bottom of the 12th inning April 25, reliever Craig Lefferts slammed a homer to beat San Francisco.

In his junior year of high school, Craig Lefferts hit .091.

What did Jones do when Lefferts hit that big one?

“I almost had the big one,” he said.

Some of these guys have awfully big swings, too. Eric Show is one of them. Minnesota drafted him as a hitter out of high school, and he re-tells that story often. He always asks Jones if he can hit with the everyday players. Jones sends him to the showers.

“Eric is a trip,” Jones said. “He’s always bugging me about his hitting. And he gets a little upset when I say he can’t hit with the extra men. But if I do that, I’ve got to let those other pitchers--(Dave) Dravecky and (Mark) Thurmond--do it with him. And then there will be a mutiny with my extra hitters.”

Show does have four career home runs. He can slap that ball around, right?

“Eric just thinks so,” Jones said. “In reality, he can’t. That’s all right. He can believe it if he wants to . . .

“OK. Sure. He can hit--for a pitcher.”

Reliever Tim Stoddard holds a batting record. Since the adoption of the designated hitter rule, he’s the only American League pitcher to get a World Series hit. He did it for Baltimore in 1979.

“It was a high hopper over the third baseman’s head,” Stoddard said. “I was running too slow or it would have been a double.”

Seven years later, Stoddard is striking out a lot.

He shares his theory on hitting:

“I don’t just swing at strikes,” he said. “I just swing. He (the last pitcher to strike him out, the day before) didn’t throw me strikes, so I struck out. What can I say?”

On this particular day, Stoddard is seen rocketing line drives to the outfield. Show winces. Stoddard’s buddy, Goose Gossage, beams.

Show then steps into the cage. He fouls two back.

Batting practice becomes chatting practice.

Gossage: “Get the tee out, Deacon! Eric needs the batting tee!”

Show, pointing to Gossage and then to Stoddard: “You’re Oh for Life and you’re Oh for Life.”

Stoddard: “Doesn’t matter, Eric.”

Show to Stoddard: “You hit the balls into the second deck at 5 o’clock. But you come in the game and swing like this (he closes his eyes and swings off balance).”

Stoddard: “Doesn’t matter, Eric.”

Show has no response.

Stoddard: “A strikeout is a strikeout. I strike out on three lousy swings. You strike out on three pretty swings. Same thing.”

Show is silent.

Stoddard, as Thurmond knocks a line drive: “See Eric. He doesn’t sit there and take 15 pitches ‘til he finds one where he wants it and then grounds to third like you do. Way to go, Thurm. Show Eric how to do it. You’ve become our best hitter.”

Show is looking the other way.

Gossage: “Eric, we’re gonna build you your own field in the back. We’ll call it the ‘Eric Show Baseball Diamond.’ ”

Show is laughing.

Jones is laughing.

He says: “Can you imagine how the other pitcher feels when he gives up a hit to one of these guys? Shame, shame.”

Listen, not long ago, these Padre pitchers were hitting more than .300 as a unit.

If they were a baseball team, this would be their batting order:

LEADOFF--Dave Dravecky, bats right.

He could create havoc on the bases. Two times already this season, Manager Steve Boros has turned to Dravecky as a pinch-runner. Plus, he has some pop. He homered this year against the Dodgers’ Dennis Powell, against whom Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey had trouble getting the ball out of the infield.

His high school coach, Tom Ferrara, says he can handle the leadoff job.

“He was probably the second- or third-best hitter we had (at Boardman High in Boardman, Ohio),” Ferrara said. “A power hitter. When he wasn’t pitching, he’d play outfield and some first base. But, you know, he had the power swing. He’d swing for the fences every time. He didn’t swing for average.”

So that might be a drawback.

Certainly, Dravecky is a little inconsistent. He and Show used to try to outdo each other at the plate--the loser had to buy dinner--but Dravecky won’t bet anymore.

“I’ve lost the last two years,” Dravecky said. “That’s two dinners. I saw the writing on the wall, so I conceded. I told him, ‘You’re the best, Eric.’ But wouldn’t you know it? This year, there’s no bet, and I’m on top.”

NO. 2--Mark Thurmond, bats left.

Stoddard, as you heard, thinks he’s the best. He’s hot, anyway. He has three hits this year (in 10 at-bats), and all were against left-handed pitchers. So there’s no need to rest him against Fernando Valenzuela. He’s a great bunter, too.

Boros likes him. In one game, when the manager was all out of extra men, he sent Thurmond up to pinch-hit for Gossage.

Gossage.

Now, Gossage didn’t like this. He told Boros so. Gossage tends to treat Thurmond like Moe treated Curly. Last year in Pittsburgh, they got into a wrestling match, although everyone said they were joking.

But how come Dravecky looked so serious when he pulled Goose off him?

Anyway, when Thurmond got to pinch-hit for Gossage, it was redemption.

He taped the box score over Goose’s locker.

“He (Gossage) caught hell for three days,” Thurmond said. “He said if he had a gun, he’d shoot himself. I was all over him. He said he wouldn’t take batting practice anymore because it’s a waste of time. He knows he won’t hit again this year, not if people like me are pinch-hitting for him. Really, watching him get upset was enough fun.”

NO. 3--Show, bats right.

The Mickey Mantle of Padre pitchers.

“There’s a lot of talk about how fanatical I am (about hitting),” Show said. “Well, I love hitting probably as much as anything in the game. I always have, even as a kid. But I’ll never become the type of hitter I think I can be. Not enough time to work on it. Then, there are times when I think I could hit for a living. And also times when I don’t think I could. But I don’t have to worry because I’m a pitcher.”

To him, striking someone else out isn’t as cool as hitting one out himself.

“Hitting a home run is probably the best feeling in the game,” he said, “but it makes me mad when I think about all the pleasure I’ve given opposing hitters over the years.”

His high school coach, Bob Porter, agrees that the No. 3 spot is suitable.

“He was my leading offensive player as a senior,” Porter said. “He hit .365 for the season. As a junior, he hit .316. Shoot, he had three doubles, three triples, four homers and 16 RBIs as a senior. I’m looking at the stats right now. He batted third or fourth for me.

“I remember one game, he hit one home run and then drilled another to left center. Well, they had no fence at this field, and he ended up being out at the plate. It was a bad call.”

Show, of course, remembered: “Yeah, the guy who I hit it off was 10-0 in league play. But I never could understand why.”

CLEANUP--Lefferts, bats left (and sometimes right).

By virtue of his 10th-inning blast. And he’s come a long way.

In high school, he was a sickly child, plagued by asthma. His coach, Larry Rudisill, cut him as a sophomore. How could he keep him? The kid was allergic to dirt.

“He’d sit around with that thing (asthma medication) in his back pocket,” Rudisill said.

Lefferts made it as a junior, but Rudisill said, “If he couldn’t have pitched, he wouldn’t have played.”

Batting right-handed, he was 4 for 44.

As a junior, he hit left-handed and improved somewhat.

“I hit .295,” Lefferts said. “So I did better. But I still didn’t hit the cover off the ball. It was easy for me to hit lefty, though. When I was in senior league, we’d go on this little field and play. And you couldn’t hit the way you normally hit because it’d be too easy to hit a home run. So everyone had to hit the other way. That’s how I started hitting left-handed. I’d hit homers lefty.”

Rudisill said: “As a high school kid, you’d have never thought he’d go on to be a professional athlete.”

Kids grow. Lefferts attended the University of Arizona, made it as a walk-on and later was drafted by the Chicago Cubs. His rookie year, he was still hitting left-handed, but moved over to hit right-handed against a Montreal left-handed pitcher.

“I wanted to be a switch-hitter,” he explained.

Now, he sticks to hitting left-handed.

Of his home run, he said: “I think it’ll mean a lot to me after I’m done. Because when I’m done, I’ll be able to look back and say ‘I hit a major league home run.’ I’ve got a video tape of it. I can show it to my kids. . . . To have it win the game, that was the best feeling. I just hope no one’s counting on me to do it again.”

NO. 5--Stoddard, bats right.

The record holder.

“Stoddard has the most power of anybody,” Jones said. “He knocks the wall down.”

If he makes contact.

NO. 6--Andy Hawkins, bats right.

He’s hitting .333 right now, and that includes a multi-hit game against Cincinnati.

His high school coach, Ken Beverly, says he had power.

“He could hit it a long way,” he said. “But he was inconsistent . . . But I’ll never forget. In a tournament near Austin (Texas), the fence was 360 feet down the left-field line, and he hit one over the fence and over the houses and into a street. I said ‘My gosh!’ ”

Hawkins doesn’t fare as well against big leaguers.

“I used to hit a long time ago,” he said. “Now, it’s been a few years of non-hitting. I’m Punch ‘n Judy now. I can’t hit major league pitching. When I got those hits? I was lucky. I don’t expect to hit this pitching.”

NO. 7--Gene Walter, bats left.

You glance at the stance, and you giggle.

“I get crouched over some, I know,” he said. “Some nights I crouch more than others. It just depends.”

There was this game in San Francisco. Giant pitcher Scott Garrelts still had a no-hitter in the third. Walter came up.

Tony Gwynn remembers:

“He’s got the weakest stance, and he’s facing this darn good pitcher that we hadn’t got a hit off. And he’s up there shaking, and I’m saying, ‘Be still, be still.’ And on an 0-and-2 pitch, he rips one.”

A double, his first major league hit.

“He just put it in my swing zone,” Walter said. “And I hit it. Don’t count on it again.”

Walter won’t steal any bases. His double should have been a triple, and when he was on second, Tim Flannery hit a grounder. Third base coach Jack Krol told him to come.

And he wouldn’t.

NO. 8--Gossage, bats right.

Thurmond has embarrassed him thoroughly.

Boros: “I don’t think Goose is that bad. I just think Thurmond’s better.”

Jones: “Gossage . . . I think he’s only up there (during batting practice) because someone told him it’s his turn to bat.”

He’s right.

NO. 9--LaMarr Hoyt, bats right.

He once got a hit off Dwight Gooden.

Accidents do happen.

PINCH-HITTER--Lance McCullers, bats right.

Approached about his hitting prowess the other day, McCullers said: “I can’t hit.”

But these guys can hit. After Lefferts’ home run, after the raucous celebration, Gossage screamed to Boros: “You always use the old balls for our batting practice. We want new ones!”

And they got ‘em.

How the Padre Pitchers Compare (Statistics through Sunday)

Pitchers AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB Ave. Dravecky 15 1 3 0 0 1 2 0 .200 Gossage 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Hawkins 10 1 3 0 0 0 2 0 .333 Hoyt 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Lefferts 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1.000 McCullers 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Show 15 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 .200 Stoddard 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Thurmond 10 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 .333 Walter 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 .333 Totals 59 4 14 1 0 2 7 0 .237

PADRE BATTING

AB R H 2B 3B HR RBIs SB Ave. Team 857 82 210 33 3 21 79 12 .245