IS JOEY CORA STUBBORN, OR IS HE SCARED? : ONLY HE KNOWS FOR SURE

Joey Cora, the Padres’ rookie second baseman, has been as cheerful as a mummy this week, saying pessimistic things such as: “I’m getting sent down to the minors, man. I have one more game before I go.”

For a rookie, he’s pretty astute, because the Padres aren’t sure what to do with him. If only they understood him, they might have made a decision by now.

Cora, a Double-A second baseman only a season ago, is considered arrogant, stubborn and unapproachable by the coaches and manager. Deacon Jones, the Padre batting coach, tried giving Cora advice the other day, and Cora, 22, simply turned his back and walked away. Jack McKeon, the Padre general manager, recently saw Cora demonstrating bunting techniques on a television broadcast and said: “What a joke. He can hardly bunt himself. He ought to take his own advice.”

McKeon and Manager Larry Bowa are debating whether sending Cora down to the Triple-A Las Vegas Stars will do any good. Right now, McKeon thinks maybe so, and Bowa thinks maybe not. A decision will come soon, and Bip Roberts, last year’s opening-day second baseman, likely would be the one to take Cora’s place.

Cora, meanwhile, had no idea he was so unpopular until Wednesday night when a reporter told him he had alienated all of his bosses. Cora had sensed he was about to be demoted, but he had had no evidence until then.

“I can just tell by the looks people give me,” he had said.

But when he heard that his manager, general manager and coaches all considered him a problem, Cora defended himself. Asked about the episode with Jones, Cora said: “I didn’t walk away from him to be rude. I had to go to the field. It was time to go. I’d never do that. The day I do that, I don’t belong here. You’ve got to listen to your bosses.”

So what do we have here? A stubborn rookie or a scared rookie? And how can we tell the difference between stubborn and scared, anyway?

There was a game in Chicago when the Cubs had a man on first and called for a hit-and-run play. Cora saw the runner break for second and immediately went to cover the bag. The batter singled right where Cora had been standing.

If Bowa has told Cora once, he has told him a thousand times to wait as long as possible before running to cover the bag.

In a game at Pittsburgh, with Luis Salazar on third and Cora batting, Bowa called for a squeeze. But Cora missed the bunt attempt, and Salazar was tagged out running for home.

If Bowa has told Cora once, he has told him a thousand times--make contact on a squeeze play, even if you need to hit the ball with your chin.

In a game at New York, the Padres had Stan Jefferson at second base in the ninth inning of a close game. Cora was batting with no outs and was supposed to hit to the right side of the infield, to move the runner. Instead, he grounded to third.

If Bowa has told Cora once, he has told him a thousand times--move the runners or move out of town.

So here’s the problem.

“Joey’s very set in his ways,” Bowa said. “The thing is, he’s been successful every level he’s played at. But he has to make adjustments here, and he hasn’t as fast as we’ve expected him to. . . . The point we’re making here is you’re not locked in (to the big leagues) if you start the season here. He has to be more disciplined. He’s like a runaway train going downhill right now.

“When Joey’s talking to you,” Bowa added, “he nods his head, but you know what you’re saying isn’t sinking in. I’ll say something to him, and when he walks away, it’s like he’s thinking, ‘I know exactly what’s going on. I’ll be all right.’ Ask Sandy.”

First base coach Sandy Alomar should be the closest coach to Cora, because they see each other during winter ball in Puerto Rico and because Alomar’s two sons--Sandy Jr. and Roberto--also are in the Padre organization. Roberto is a second baseman and--according to scouts--probably will be better than Cora.

Alomar says he will do anything to help Cora. Alomar thinks Cora lets bad plays on defense affect his offense and bad plays on offense affect his defense.

“First of all, Joey is a good kid,” Alomar said. “He comes out and works hard and does well one game, but then he goes back to doing everything his way. I don’t know if he listens or not. He nods his head, but he’s not proving it in practice. . . . Is he arrogant? I don’t know. But that’s the way we (the coaches) see him because he doesn’t respond to our questions and the way we approach him.

“When he walked away from Deacon, I don’t know if he didn’t want to listen or if he knew already what he was doing wrong. What we (coaches) say is he’s stubborn. But then, he could be scared to death. But that’s because he hasn’t learned how to handle pressure yet. He probably doesn’t know what failure is. He’s probably afraid to fail.”

So is it stubborn or scared? Joey Cora says scared. Every day, a different coach comes up and tells him to bunt this way and run this way and catch this way and throw this way.

Remember, he’s 22.

“I’m telling you, I’m listening,” Cora said. “I’m trying to do the things they tell me. But there are a lot of things that take time for me to get done.

“Let’s say you’ve been swimming in a pool one way by yourself, and now you’re in the Olympics, and the Olympic swim coach tries to polish you and tell you a lot of things? It takes time to put it all together.”

He says he only seems stubborn. “I’m listening. Sometimes they tell you things that you don’t feel comfortable doing. You’re not confident because you haven’t done it their way before. And I’ve got to practice it before I go out and use it in a game. Like bunting. They’re trying to teach me a new way, but I think too much. It doesn’t come natural to me. If I go to the minors, I’ve got to practice, practice until it becomes natural.”

Bowa hears this and seethes. He asks why a kid would want to go to the minors to work on his game. Wouldn’t he want to stay in the big leagues and work? Cora said this spring that he’s not a fast runner, not a real base-stealer, and Bowa hates that type of attitude. Cora keeps saying that he’s going to the minors, and Bowa hates that attitude as well.

“Maybe in his own mind, he wants to get sent down,” Bowa said. “Maybe this is his way of saying, ‘I can’t handle the pressure.’ Of course, us losing (the Padres are 10-32) isn’t helping him. Because every mistake he makes stands out.”

Cora is batting .253 today, the same average Roberts had at the end of last season. But McKeon is convinced Roberts--who also tried making the jump from Double-A to the big leagues--is the superior player right now, because Roberts knows now he must listen to his elders.

It also helps that Roberts is batting well over .300 at Las Vegas.

As for Cora, he’s obsessed about hitting .300. He has hit over .300 everywhere he has played, and when he goes 0 for 4, he can’t sleep.

“I’ve always been offensive-minded,” he said. “I’ve got to change that.”

So is it stubborn or scared? Shortstop Garry Templeton, the Padre captain, says Cora listens to his advice and that coaches sometimes are too hard on young kids.

“Coaches tend to be too critical,” Templeton said.

Nonetheless, Cora finally appears to be snapping out of his stupor. When he found out the coaches were mad at him before Wednesday’s game, he said: “It’s time I relax.”

Then, he went out and had his best game in weeks, which included a perfect bunt single.

“I guess sometimes you have to do what they (the coaches) want regardless,” he said. “I’ve been around a month, and Larry’s been around 17 years.”

He sounded neither stubborn nor scared.