A BROKEN SEASON : Padres Started in Turmoil and Never Recovered

Apparently, Steve Boros isn’t public enemy No. 1. He went to the grocery store recently to pick up a carton of milk, and the check-out clerk said: “Mr. Boros . . . It isn’t your fault.”

But that’s for Ballard Smith to decide. Will he procrastinate again? Last year, Smith, the Padre president, waited and waited to get going on the Dick Williams ordeal. Williams had told Smith he was ready to quit as manager, but Smith neglected to tell owner/mother-in-law Joan Kroc. And when Kroc found out what was going on, she . . .

Well, you know.

Smith says he’ll wait until after the World Series to determine Boros’ future as manager. The Padres finished in fourth place (1 1/2 games from last), though Boros had predicted a division title during the spring.

“If you were to show me the quotes that came from me early in the year about what this club could do, it’d be embarrassing for me to hear,” Boros said. “Even though there were things I had no control over, it’s amazing how short we came up to the expectations we had in spring training.”

Obviously, 1986 was the year that wasn’t.

There was the funny business. Williams supposedly quit in November, was brought back by Kroc, but quit for good on the first day of spring training. Boros was brought in on the third day, sat his club down in the outfield grass and said he would be a tough guy.

There was the funky business. On the fourth day of spring training, LaMarr Hoyt--the team’s best pitcher and the MVP in the 1985 All-Star game--was sent to a drug and alcoholic rehabilitation center. Why? To this day, Hoyt says he is no different now than he was then.

In the spring, he had just been emotionally disturbed because his wife had left him and because she had threatened to hire Marvin Mitchelson as her divorce attorney. Then, he happened to be stopped by police while he was wearing one of his old high school jackets, and there happened to be a marijuana joint in the coat pocket. He said he didn’t know it was there.

So the Padres sent him to rehab.

His life came apart then. He lost all of spring training and lost his breaking ball. But his marriage wasn’t lost. He and his wife are back together now, and he swears he’ll be himself again next season.

There was the risky business. Reliever Goose Gossage, upset over a clubhouse beer ban, called Smith “gutless and spineless.” He said Kroc was poisoning the world with her McDonald’s hamburgers. Later, when Smith said he wouldn’t pursue free agents such as Tim Raines, who had a drug history, Gossage said Smith was worse than George Steinbrenner and only “listens to what mom (Kroc) says.”

Gossage was suspended.

He apologized 20 days later and returned.

Finally, there was just the business. The Padres started with 10 exciting one-run games, were in first place for four days in April, were three games back of San Francisco at the All-Star break, but lost 8 of 10 on a July trip to Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis and never recovered.

So that’s where we are. General Manager Jack McKeon promises to be a Jack-of-all-trades.

“After reflecting upon this year, we’re saying, ‘Hey, some of the guys we were counting on, didn’t produce for us,’ ” McKeon said. “I realize you have to be patient in some cases on certain ballplayers. But, on others, where before we felt we didn’t want to move them, this year we’re going to look at it a little bit differently. We may have to move certain guys we didn’t want to move in the past to get what we want.”

So he’ll trade a starting pitcher?

“Uh huh,” McKeon said.

Maybe Hoyt, maybe Dave Dravecky, maybe Eric Show. The Padres’ top priorities are finding a new third baseman and new speed. In the meantime, the current players are wondering.

Many were asked: “Where do you think you’ll be next year?”

Some answers . . .

Hoyt: “In the good ol’ U.S. of A. . . . Well, I could be in Montreal or Toronto. You never know.”

Tony Gwynn: “I hope here. But this is a business, and you never know. I love playing here. I want to play here the rest of my life.”

Carmelo Martinez: “Hey, every time they give me a chance this year, I hit the ball. But that doesn’t mean I be here next year. Know what I mean? I don’t know what’s going on.”

Terry Kennedy: “I’m traded. Hey, I don’t want to back anybody up. I don’t want to platoon. I figure I’ve got a lot of playing time left. I don’t have playing every day out of my system. I’m not going to be able to do it here, so. . . . Listen, I’m not going to wait here until somebody screws up.”

Of those four, Kennedy is the most likely to go. Teams that need catching desperately are Baltimore, the New York Yankees and Philadelphia.

“I think I did a pretty good job in my years here,” Kennedy said. “I caught 53 shutouts. . . . I also had my three kids here. When I first got here, I didn’t like California, and now I don’t want to move. I had this preconceived notion of what it was going to be like here, and it just wasn’t that way. See, I spent my days growing up, watching scenes from Berkeley. And I thought in all of California, people were sticking flowers in the end of guns. And all the dope came from California. Growing up, that’s all you heard.”

And of the four above, Hoyt, too, is the second most likely to be traded--only because he’s a good pitcher with market value. Martinez, whose home run total slipped from 21 in 1985 to 9 in 1986, won’t be dealt unless it’s an irresistible deal. And Gwynn will be back. Put $1 million on it.

Meanwhile, Graig Nettles, 42, says he’ll take a pay cut to come back next year.

“I’d like to try it as maybe a pinch-hitter or part-time player, “ he said. “I just feel like I can still play. I look at my RBIs per at bat (55 RBIs in 354 at-bats or 1 every 6 at-bats), and I think it’s pretty good. I look at it that way. I’ve never thought much about batting average (he hit .218), anyway.

“I know I’d have to take a pretty good pay cut, and I’m willing to do that (he made $900,000 this year). If something can’t get worked out here, I’ll go elsewhere. I’ll go anywhere to play ball. It’s still in my blood. But I’d rather stay here.”

In the other corner, there’s first baseman Steve Garvey, who might be entering his final season. He’ll be 38 in December, and his contract runs just one more year. He says he could make his decision on retirement as soon as this winter.

“I don’t really know if I want to play beyond next year,” said Garvey, who finished with 21 homers, his most since 1980. “But if next year is my last year, people will know before spring training. I think that’s only fair.”

Garvey will likely sit more next year, anyway. Rookie John Kruk starts winter ball Sunday, and he has been ordered by the Padres to play first base. The Garv, however, says of 1987: “I have a strong feeling I’ll be in the same postion I’ve always been in. I think my role will be the same--playing every day and driving in key runs. I’ll take a rest from time to time, but letting my play dictate that.”

The best Padres are Gwynn and Kevin McReynolds. Back in February, Gwynn wrote his season goals on a piece of paper, sealed them in an envelope and locked them in a filing cabinet.

He re-opened the envelope Monday.

He wanted 200 hits and got 211; He wanted to hit .325 and he hit .329; He wanted 10 triples and got 7; he wanted 30 doubles and got 33; he wanted 10 homers and got 14; he wanted 60 RBIs and got 59; he wanted to score 100 runs and got 107 (a team record).

He wanted the batting title and got third. He admitted the race created anxiety. He has high blood pressure as it is. He just tried too hard.

“Yeah, I put added pressure on myself,” he said. “Now, I’m resigned to the fact that, hey, you can’t win it every year. And if you don’t, it ain’t nothing to hold your head down about.

“But I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the off-season. If we don’t come up with a guy with some speed, I might have to lead off next year, and that would be a big challenge.

“Nobody’s talked to me about it, but you look at our club, and see what our weaknesses are, and it’s no team speed. We need a guy at the top of the lineup who gets on base, will steal you a base every now and then and score a few runs. I’m the logical candidate. I scored 100 runs batting second. If I lead off . . . maybe 120?”

McReynolds is bound to go to arbitration again. Last year, he hit .234 with 15 homers and 75 RBIs and asked for $450,000 a year. He lost. This year, he hit .288 with 26 homers and 96 RBIs. He could easily win, unless his agent, Tom Selakovich, asks for the moon, as he has been known to do.

But McReynolds still is team enigma No. 1. He had a bad first half, and the Padres talked about trading him.

McKeon said: “He was a guy you never really wanted to give away, but, on the other hand, you felt sometimes. . . . Well, first of all, his value wasn’t. . . . Well, despite his late season stats, there was nobody. . . . Well, everybody saw him having a mediocre first half and figured they could steal the guy from us.”

Meanwhile, McReynolds has already left for Arkansas, where he’ll fish and hunt and be merry.

“I’m going back with the boys,” he said. “I’m free of California.”

McReynolds, you see, has never figured out why some California men carry purses.

“When am I coming back to California? When’s spring training?” he said. “They’re definitely trend-setters here in California. Everyone wants to be different. I want to be in the everyday walk of life. I don’t want to be anything special.”

Meanwhile, McKeon thinks he has some special kids coming from the minors. Watch for Benito Santiago to be the opening-day catcher and for pitcher Jimmy Jones to be given every opportunity to be in the starting rotation next year. Also, watch for Lance McCullers to be the bullpen stopper, with Gossage setting him up.

Who will be manager? Rumors fly. If it’s not Boros, it’ll be Bill Virdon. Or Larry Bowa. Or McKeon, himself.

Boros admits he has not been a perfect manager. He admits he made a mistake one home game when he let Andy Hawkins hit for himself with the bases loaded. He admits he made a mistake in pitching Craig Lefferts every day, that he tired Lefferts out. He admits he had trouble making lineup adjustments when he switched pitchers after having managed in the American League, where the designated hitter made that unnecessary.

He said he was going to be a tough guy, but when the Padre players are asked what they think of him, they virtually all say, “What a nice man.”

No, it wasn’t all his fault. Who knew that three-fifths of his starting rotation would be useless by midseason? Eric Show and Dave Dravecky had bad elbows, and Hoyt had bad location.

“I don’t think any pitching staff can afford to lose three starters,” Boros said. “We may not have won it anyway, but we’d been close, respectable. And you wouldn’t have all this frustration and disappointment.”

Show, by the way, doesn’t plan to throw again until January. In the meantime, he’ll begin his Hollywood career. He’ll play a senator in a horror movie.

“I only have a few lines,” Show said. “The Christy Mathewson movie? Oh, that’s suspended until it gets the money and a script. It’s kind of funny what you read. I read in the Hollywood Reporter that I’m going to get $350,000 for doing the Mathewson movie. But nothing’s been signed. I tell you, though, if it’s close to that, I’ll be happy as a lark.”

And as for Boros, the madness of 1986 gives him new perspective for the novel he plans to write someday.

“Yes, it’ll help my book,” he said. “It (the disappointment of 1986) makes you realize that however rosy things look, things also have a way of not turning out how you thought. And when you do win, it’s magical. . . . It’s really magical.”