Bevacqua Is Back, but Only to Watch as the Padres Win

Guess who showed up at the ballpark Tuesday night?

None other than Tommy Lasorda’s good buddy, former Padre Kurt Bevacqua.

“You don’t think I came here just to see Tommy?” said Bevacqua, who made it a point to go to the Dodger clubhouse to visit with Lasorda.

“Did you get an invitation to my golf tournament?” asked Bevacqua, who chatted with Lasorda outside the Dodger clubhouse. “Yeah, but I haven’t answered it yet,” said Lasorda.

The Padres scored four runs in the eighth to break a tie and beat the Dodgers, 11-8, in a game in front of 9,455 that took 3 hours and 9 minutes.

Kevin McReynolds drew a bases-loaded walk off reliever Ken Howell to drive in the tiebreaking run and Marvell Wynne followed with a triple that cleared the bases.

It was the Padres’ 80th and next to last home game of the season, and this was only Bevacqua’s second game at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium this season.

“This is the longest I’ve stayed,” said Bevacqua, who was on the field chatting with Dodger players at 4:45.

Bevacqua’s other visit to the stadium came during the first week of the season. It was not a memorable one. “They wouldn’t let me in the clubhouse,” Bevacqua said. “So I left and never came back.”

Bevacqua strongly opposes the rule which requires former players to have a pass to enter major league clubhouses. The controversial and quotable Bevacqua played for the Padres for six years before being released after last season.

He tried to make the Padres during spring training, but ended up working as a broadcaster. Bevacqua works for NBC and Cox Cable.

“I’ve let my personality blend in with my knowledge,” Bevacqua said. “I definitely don’t freeze up when I get in front of a microphone. Some people get in front of a microphone and they aren’t themselves. That’s a mistake. Television stations look for individuality and personality.”

Bevacqua said he missed “the camaraderie and the fans. I really don’t miss the game because it started getting to me. It’s big business and politics. I’m not one of those guys who fall into the category of saying, ‘I owe everything to baseball.’ I think I got less than I put in. It might sound egotistical, but that’s the way it is. . . .

“The only thing I can look back on is whether or not I’ve been shortchanged a little. I don’t look into the box score and cheer when I see that a pinch-hitter went 0-1.”

What about the Padres’ terrible season? Does it bring Bevacqua any joy? “There is no sense in dwelling on mistakes made by people who know they made them,” Bevacqua said. “They (Padres) made some moves that they thought would work out and they didn’t.”

Why did he really come to the ballpark Tuesday night?

“I was driving from my office when I saw that there weren’t any cars in the parking lot at the stadium,” Bevacqua said. “I thought it would be easy to get in.”

Padre Notes

Tony Gwynn, returning to the lineup after sitting out Monday’s game, went 1-4 with an intentional walk. Gwynn’s average dropped to .328, which places him three points behind the Dodgers’ Steve Sax (3 for 5 Tuesday) and seven behind Tim Raines of Montreal. Raines, who went 0 for 3 against the Mets Tuesday, is hitting .335. . . . It was an impressive night for the new Padres. Benito Santiago had a home run over the left-field fence, his third, and a double. Randy Asadoor two hits, including a two-run double during the Padres’ four-run rally in the sixth. . . . LaMarr Hoyt (8-11) pitched two innings and gave up one hit and a run to pick up the victory. Lance McCullers pitched the ninth and gave up one run.