Reunion Is Whitson’s Highlight : Padre Sees His Father Before Game, but Exits Early in 11-6 Defeat

Ed Whitson hadn’t seen his daddy in 17 years, and then the old man just showed up on him Monday afternoon. “What a total shock,” Whitson said.

See, Whitson knew three of his brothers were coming down from Tennessee, but his dad had left his mom back when Whitson was 10, so that’s the last guy he expected to see in the back seat of his brother’s car. Ed Whitson isn’t even sure how to spell his daddy’s first name.

“Starll. Starll? S-T-A-R-L-L. I guess that’s right,” Whitson said.

When Ed was growing up, Starll Whitson was a farmer. Baseball? Humbug. Starll Whitson came from a poor family in North Carolina, and he had to work his way through school. So he had never seen a baseball game until Monday. Not one.

“Yeah, this (Brave-Padre game Monday night) was his first professional game, period,” Whitson said. “He’s never watched any kind of ballgame. I know it’s strange, but he just never did get into it. He’s the type of man that never had anything to do with sports. He was never able to play sports. . . . He always worked in the mountains. He was a Mountain Man.”

And Monday night--right there in front of his daddy--Ed Whitson fell off his personal mountain. He had pitched superbly in his first five games as a Padre this year, so well that he earned a spot in the starting rotation. But he gave up seven runs in a little more than one inning Monday, and the Padres ultimately lost to the Braves, 11-6, in front of 8,832 at Fulton County Stadium.

Whitson fell off the mound, too. It had rained throughout the afternoon here, and the red clay on the pitcher’s mound was as slippery “as ice,” Whitson said. He knew he was in for a long night when he slipped warming up in the bullpen and threw a pitch that landed 10 feet in front of the plate and hit the catcher in the knees.

Of the game, he said: “It was like throwing batting practice. I had to throw standing straight up. Being a power pitcher, I couldn’t throw. I had no traction. So I had no control.”

In the first inning, he walked Ken Oberkfell, and then Dale Murphy’s double got Oberkfell to third. A wild pitch got Oberkfell home and Murphy to third, and then a sacrifice fly got Murphy home and it was 2-0.

In the second, Whitson walked three batters, walking in a run, and then reliever Gene Walter gave up a three-run homer to Murphy. Murphy later hit a ball about 440 feet for a homer off Eric Show.

So the Padres trailed, 8-0, after two innings, 9-0 after five innings, 11-0 after six innings.

What must Starll Whitson have thought?

San Diego rallied for six runs--a two-run single by Tim Flannery, a three-run homer by Graig Nettles, a ninth-inning homer by Marvell Wynne. But that just means the box score is respectable. The Padres are now tied with Atlanta for last place in the National League West.

And what did Starll Whitson think?

And how much did Ed Whitson care what he thought?

“He and my mom got separated when there were still seven kids at home,” Whitson said before the game. “I guess it’s been close to 17 years since I really saw him. I guess I saw him for maybe a minute, two minutes. But since I’ve been in the game of baseball, I bet I haven’t seen him four to five minutes . . . I almost didn’t recognize him. I couldn’t believe he was there.

“He retired about three weeks ago and he’s taking some time, being by himself and traveling a little bit. . . . After he stopped farming, he worked in a place called Clockman Mills. I have no idea what he made in there or anything. I have no idea.

“We never communicated over the telephone or nothing. . . . Yep, there was seven kids at home when he left. That was it. I was the third youngest. When he left, I was so young. I had no way to get to him or go see him. Then my baseball career took off. This is my 13th year of being on the road. And in the winter, I only go back home for five to seven days, and that’s all I get to go home for. And he was always working, so we never ran into each other. He didn’t know when I was coming in and I didn’t know where he was at.”

Five years ago, Ed’s mom died.

“Shoot, I’d been on my own since high school,” he said. “I always wanted to (stay in touch with Starll), but there was something . . . I don’t know . . . something that just wasn’t there. I don’t know if he was uncomfortable about coming around. I really don’t know. But now that we’ve met again, we can get our feeling back to the way it was. I’m hoping so. I spent all day with him in my hotel room, me and my three other brothers. And we sat around and talked about old times. It was very pleasant.

“But when he left home, we had to support the family. That wasn’t easy. Me and my two brothers paid for everything we owned in our home. We paid for everything, including our schooling. My mom, she couldn’t work. She had her hands full with seven of us. It was hard enough for her to keep the house clean. It was up to us to do the rest. We’d do anything we could do--mow lawns, dig ditches, it didn’t matter. Like I said, I lived right in the mountains of Tennessee.”

And the Mountain Man--his daddy--finally got to see him pitch.

“Well, the biggest disappointment about the game was that my daddy was sitting there for the first time ever in a ballpark and I pitched like that,” Whitson said. “What will I tell him? I’ll tell him I’m better than that. That’s the only think I can tell him.”

Padre Notes With the Padres going nowhere fast, how long will Manager Steve Boros last? No one in the front office wanted to comment. Boros signed a one-year contract last February, and he said last week he hasn’t even thought about asking for an extension. Asked if he wants to manage in 1987, he said: “Sure . . . This (the hard times) is part of the job, getting a team going through the rough spots. It just makes the good times better. It’s like with Graig Nettles. He’s been up and down. I tell people that we have to suffer through the bad stretches to get to the good part. Well, we’ve got to fight our way through the tough times here to get to the good part. I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to do down the road. Right now, I’m so caught up with the club. My contract for next year . . . I’m not even worried.” . . . Carmelo Martinez slipped while taking a postgame shower in Houston Saturday night, falling hard on his right knee. He was such pain that he was flown back to San Diego Monday to be seen by Dr. Cliff Colwell. Boros said if it’s just a bruise, that Martinez will be back in a matter of days. . . . Eric Show, who gave up a long homer to Dale Murphy Monday, was bothered by a touch of the flu. Dugout coach Harry Dunlop also had the flu and had to miss the game entirely. . . . Boros isn’t sure who will pitch this coming Friday’s doubleheader with Cincinnati, either Show or Dave LaPoint.