METS MAKE NOISE, NEWS : PLANNING AN ENCORE : Despite Some Off-the-Field Problems, They Say They Won’t Self-Destruct

Sitting at his locker in the training camp of the New York Mets, Keith Hernandez relaxed with a cigarette, ignoring the warning of the surgeon general.

Suddenly, as he worked on a crossword puzzle, the cigarette exploded. Hernandez recoiled, recovered, smiled, shook his head and said, “Not again.”

Oh, those Mets! Can they have fun?

Is this a team riding an exhilarating and joyful high in the wake of its World Series championship and 108 regular-season victories?

Or are exploding cigarettes symbolic of its time-bomb image in the wake of all those winter headlines about competitiveness off the field?

Remember?

--There were the bitter contract negotiations with third baseman Ray Knight and the eventual departure of the Most Valuable Player in the World Series.

--There were the incidents related to or involving Dwight Gooden, including a scrap with Tampa police in which he was charged with resisting an officer and with violence and battery on an officer.

--There was Darryl Strawberry’s wife suing for divorce, claiming that Strawberry physically abused her.

--There were continuing stories dealing with last year’s ruckus between Houston police and Ron Darling, Tim Teufel, Bob Ojeda and Rick Aguilera in a bar there.

Now, in preparing for their attempt to become the first team since the New York Yankees of 1977 and ’78 to repeat as World Series champions, the Mets say that they have put the extracurricular stuff behind them and profited from it.

“Times have changed,” Hernandez said. “There are a lot of frustrated athletes out there. There are a lot of guys looking to get athletes. We’ve become targets because of the money we make. We get a lot of abuse from Joe Blows who didn’t make it.

“A time bomb? I don’t think we’re a time bomb at all. We’ve all learned a lesson, particularly our young guys. We have to avoid trouble at all costs. We can’t let pride take over. We have to swallow it and move away. Forget it and move on.”

Said Darling: “We live life in a fishbowl. You can be bitter about it or deal with it and grow from it. I’ve tried to use my experience of last year as something from which I can grow. I’d be disappointed with myself if I ever let it happen again.”

Actually, the Mets are not supposed to be talking about all this. General Manager Frank Cashen asked them on the first day of spring training to direct any inquiries regarding off-the-field incidents to him.

In the clubhouse, however, the Mets seem to want to put their perspective on them. They talk, and even laugh, about them.

Strawberry, for example, arrived in camp, found his locker next to Gooden’s and said: “Look at that. They’ve put assault and battery next to each other.”

And Hernandez told reporters that he was going to ask Cashen “if we can wear black, 10-gallon hats this year. You know, get to town, rob the bank and get out before the posse catches us.”

The black-hat image should be reinforced by a poster that the five starting pitchers--Ojeda, Aguilera, Gooden, Darling and Sid Fernandez--have made. They are posed aggressively on motorcycles, wearing jeans and no shirts. There are baseballs and broken bats strewn at their feet.

The poster does not carry the Mets’ logo or approval.

Manager Davey Johnson, whose Mets have won 90, 98 and 108 games in his three years, sees no value in perpetuating that image.

“It was a very busy winter,” he said. “We have some young and very competitive players who have to be less competitive off the field.

“I want that to be water over the dam. It’s done. It’s history.”

The Mets, of course, do not have to be off the field to generate hard feelings. The lead on a Times’ story last August pointed out that they were both hailed and hated.

“It’s all part of winning and being from New York,” Hernandez said. “People think New York is a jungle. They don’t even like to recognize it as part of the United States. They love to hate New York.”

Part of it, too, is how the Mets won.

“We led the league in self-congratulations,” Darling acknowledged. “And we probably get more endorsements than anyone else. It’s the New York syndrome. There’s a lot of envy involved.”

So it’s winning the National League’s East Division by 21 1/2 games and being from the city people love to loathe. It’s curtain calls after home runs and a combative arrogance or cockiness that contributed to four field fights last year and biting criticism from players throughout the league.

Mike Schmidt, the Philadelphia Phillies’ third baseman and the league’s MVP, couldn’t wait to talk about it again this year. On his first day in camp, asked about the Mets, he told the Tampa Tribune: “They weren’t what you necessarily call class winners last year. They made a lot of enemies. . . . They flaunted their success.

“You can compare them to the Big Red Machine in the mid-70s. The Reds had Pete Rose, and he set their personality. He was real competitive, a fireball, and he’d do anything to help their club win. The Mets have a Gary Carter personality. I like Gary (who is known as “Kid” because of his exuberance and “Camera” because he always seems to be in front of one), but he sets their tone.

“The Big Red Machine earned a lot of respect because they had a lot of class. They’d say, ‘Man, we gotta play good to beat these guys.’ With the Mets it’s like, ‘We’re gonna beat these suckers.’

“Last year, things went perfectly right for them. They had no injuries or anything like that, but my baseball experience tells me it’s going to be hard for them to win again. If they do, I’ll take my hat off to them. I’ll be the first in line. I’ll be at their playoff game, blowing air horns.”

The Mets, of course, think that’s exactly where Schmidt will be. They had fun with his quotes.

Said Darling: “It seems like there’s a lot of high school grandstanding coming to the fore. All I know is that we haven’t missed a team bus or plane yet. We haven’t forfeited a game. Everyone will get their chance on the field. They should put up or shut up. If they need that kind of talk to get motivated, we must be in even better shape than I think we are.”

Even Johnson took his turn.

“If winning by 21 1/2 games is flaunting it, I guess we flaunted it,” he said.

Johnson, however, would also like his team to address that part of its image.

“We need to avoid confrontations,” he said. “We were willing to confront anyone last year, and I think we carried it a little too far.

“Fortunately, though we were involved in a lot of altercations on the field, nobody got hurt. We can’t keep doing that and expect people not to get hurt.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to turn the other cheek, not retaliate or protect our players. We certainly are. There are just some areas we can have a little better image.

“We’re not the Bad News Bears or the Gashouse Gang. We’re not the Oakland A’s (of the early ‘70s) or the Los Angeles Raiders.

“We’re really a fine group of individuals who have done a great job of playing this game and who have an intense desire to make the most of their abilities.”

That intensity, the Mets believe, stems from a macho manager who doesn’t believe in gearing down. Even last year, at a point in the second half when the Mets were already thinking about playoff shares, Johnson insisted that they sacrifice no momentum.

Can the Mets change? Can they go to white hats? The guess is that once again they will finish first in wins, last in popularity.

Said Hernandez: “Clubs didn’t like us last year and don’t like us now. All that represents is a challenge, no more no less. When the season is over, they’ll have had their chance. The bottom line is we don’t expect to lose. We know we will on occasion, but we expect to win every time we go on the field.”

The Mets’ expectations spring from a pitching staff that led the league in earned-run average last year and remains unmatched for depth, from an offense that was first in the league in runs scored and team batting and now includes Kevin McReynolds, who hit 28 homers and drove in 96 runs for the San Diego Padres, and a reliable defense, though one far short of spectacular.

Ask the Mets why they should be able to repeat when so many other teams have failed and they cite:

--Better and deeper pitching.

--Better and deeper offense.

--A hunger to prove by repeating that they are the great team they think they are and to make up for the fact that many of their key players actually had substandard seasons en route to 108 wins.

Carter and Strawberry, for example, batted .255 and .259 respectively. Hernandez drove in a comparatively modest 83 runs. And Gooden won 17 games, seven fewer than the previous year.

Only second baseman Wally Backman, center fielder Len Dykstra and starting pitcher Fernandez had great seasons. And Dykstra and Fernandez were only in their second years.

Said Hernandez: “We did what we were capable of as a team, but we have a lot of horses who think they can do better. If we had won like St. Louis won the year before with everyone having career years, it would have been pretty scary as to how many games we would have won.”

Hunger? Hernandez came to camp weighing the same as he did at the end of the 1986 season. He normally doesn’t get to that point until the end of spring training. Gooden is down 15 pounds from last year. Reliever Doug Sisk is down 25. Keith Cedro, a conditioning coach who works with the New York Giants, was brought in by management this spring to help work out and run out any tendency toward complacency.

“Most teams come to camp with a handful of guys overweight,” Hernandez said. “There wasn’t one guy overweight here.

“When Davey took over, he weeded out the bad attitudes and got guys who wanted to play. That’s why we won last year. Everyone gave 100%. No one here is a headline grabber. I can’t see anyone fat-catting it.”

With all that, there may be one other reason the Mets will succeed in their bid to repeat.

“We looked at the teams that had failed and concluded there was a pattern of standing pat,” General Manager Joe McIlvaine said. “A new body brings in a fresh perspective and intensity, and we felt that was important. We were determined to change the blend and stir the pot. We feel fortunate that we were able to get a player of McReynolds’ caliber without breaking up the major league club.”

Besides McReynolds, the trade with San Diego also netted left-handed reliever Gene Walter, who will join right-hander Sisk as the set-up men for relief stoppers Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell.

The Mets gave up five players, among them versatile utility man Kevin Mitchell and two top prospects, Shawn Abner and Stanley Jefferson.

In operating one of baseball’s most productive farm systems, the Mets have continually advanced young talent or used it to acquire Hernandez, Carter, Ojeda, Teufel and now McReynolds and Walter, among others.

McIlvaine said: “We’ve traded something like 22 players in three years but I would consider only Abner and Floyd Youmans (who went to Montreal in the Carter trade) as core players.

“And even in his best years, I don’t think Abner will produce the home run and RBI totals that McReynolds will. We have a glaring loss in Knight, but I still think the club is 10% stronger overall.”

McReynolds will play left field in an outfield with Dykstra and Strawberry. He will probably bat sixth, behind Strawberry, who follows Hernandez and Carter in the heart of the Mets’ lineup.

“The one player who should benefit most by McReynolds is Strawberry,” Hernandez said. “He’s never had anyone of that caliber behind him before. If he’s patient and works the count to his favor, he’s going to get his pitch. I mean, pitchers aren’t going to be able to dip around him anymore.”

Johnson agreed.

“I’ve got three guys I can bat cleanup,” he said, alluding to the power potential of Carter, Strawberry and McReynolds. “Anything I do I’m a genius.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t be favored. There’s no reason we shouldn’t dominate again. If we don’t win, it will be my fault.”

The spring search centers on a backup catcher, a backup shortstop and a choice at third base between Dave Magadan, a farm product who hit .311 at Tidewater, and veteran role player Howard Johnson, who is confident he can hit 20 home runs and drive in 70 runs playing full time.

Magadan is the future. According to one source, Manager Johnson opposed losing Knight’s stability and leadership, viewing him as the perfect player to usher Magadan into the majors. However, the front office rejected Knight’s contract demands, citing his tendency toward injury and the availability of an alternative in Magadan or Howard Johnson.

Now, if Magadan isn’t the most closely watched Met, it is only because Gooden is.

Gooden, only 22, was 17-6 with a 2.84 ERA and 200 strikeouts last year. Those are impressive numbers, which pale only when compared to his 24-4 record, 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts of the year before.

Still, there were the personal problems. Gooden eventually pleaded no contest to the Tampa charges and received three years’ probation, with the third year to be waived if he avoids trouble and performs 160 hours of community service.

Gooden has said that he is being persecuted by Tampa police. The Mets believe that his hometown represents something of a wayward environment during the off-season and have talked Gooden into moving to his house on Long Island full time.

Gooden won’t discuss the personal problems, but he does accept questions about his pitching and says he was victimized by his remarkable numbers of 1985 and the $1.32-million contract he received as a reward.

“There is no question I was pressing last year, trying to do too much,” he said. “I had a breakdown then in mechanics, lost some movement off my fastball and tried to throw too many changeups and breaking balls.

“I’ve got to go back to being a power pitcher, rather than trying to fool hitters. I know that if I pitch well, people will forget everything else.”

It is wishful thinking, though, to believe that Gooden will be allowed to forget while operating in the media capital of New York.

As soon as he gave up nine runs and eight hits in the first inning of his first spring start against St. Louis, those “What’s Up Doc?” headlines reappeared.

Gooden, of course, is a catalyst, the tone setter for a vaunted rotation that thrives on intramural competitiveness. The Mets may not be a time bomb, but a lot depends on how Gooden ticks.