Ugly Ducking Convention at Wrigley

Remember the good old days with the Padres and Chicago Cubs? OK, so they weren’t really old days. The year was 1984, and the match was that classical National League Championship Series.

This was baseball at its best and most dramatic.

Those Cubbies, villains hereabouts but darlings to so many frustrated fans from Midwestern cornfields to Alaskan oil fields, took at 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series and the Padres came home to die.

But didn’t.

Steve Garvey would come to own that series, hitting that climactic ninth-inning home run to win Game 4, 7-5, and set it up for the Padres to win a championship the Cubs had awaited for so long.

This was surely the start of a marvelous rivalry.

Indeed, when the Padres and Cubbies met for the first time in 1985, the batting cage, dugouts, clubhouses and press box were swarming with media. Obviously, such occasions had become media milestones.

And, get this, the first time they met in 1985 was in spring training . . . in Mesa, Ariz.

The intensity of the rivalry died shortly thereafter. Neither team was to come back to the heights it attained in 1984, and the fans ultimately lost interest in rematches that did not in any way come to resemble The Real Thing . . . the 1984 NLCS.

Unfortunately, the rivalry is back. When the Padres and Cubbies meet today in Wrigley Field, fans will be clamoring for a rematch . . . but not of a classic series of dramatic baseball.

The rivalry has dipped into the nasty realm of beanball warfare. This is baseball’s version of the travesty that is professional wrestling, the depressing aspect being that baseball players are serious and someone could get hurt.

The Cubs’ Andre Dawson was that someone Tuesday, and it caused him to take great umbrage with Padre pitcher Eric Show. One of Show’s pitchers eluded the strike zone and smacked Dawson in the teeth.

Before the game was even over, Show issued a statement through the Padres’ public relations department denying that he had intentionally thrown at the Cub outfielder. It was a properly distressed statement, apologizing to the Cubs, their fans and Dawson. Further, he lamented the practice of throwing at hitters.

Show’s statement came after Rick Sutcliffe and Dawson had taken turns pursuing him through the usual mob scene of players milling around on the field looking for someone small enough to punch. Sutcliffe had taken the first run at Show and triggered the initial melee, and Dawson had taken his turn after he had established that his molars were in place.

It was understandable that the Cubs suspected Show of foul play, because Dawson had hit two home runs off the Padres Monday and another off Show in his first at-bat Tuesday. In fact, seven of his 24 home runs had been hit against the Padres.

When this brouhaha died, Sutcliffe and Dawson had been ejected and Show removed.

It should have died there, but these things have a way of staying alive. It was reminiscent, in a way, of the brawling between the Padres and the Atlanta Braves in 1984.

That time, Pascual Perez hit Alan Wiggins with a pitch to open that game, the Padres concluding it was intentional. They spent the afternoon throwing pitches at Perez, who was usually on his way out of the batter’s box before Padre pitchers were halfway through their windups. It kept up all afternoon, and eventually 14 Padres or Braves were ejected and five fans were arrested after two violent battles.

Tuesday’s incident should have ended at its beginning too, except that the Cubs were obsessed with extracting their revenge . . . as the Padres had been with Perez three years ago.

Benito Santiago was hit by a pitch an inning after the Dawson-Sutcliffe-Show episode. Later in the game, Chris Brown, one of the new Padres, had a pitch thrown behind his head by Scott Sanderson. Understand that Brown had his jaw broken by a pitch earlier this year.

Obviously, the Cubs were not about to buy Show’s contention that it was an errant rather than purposeful delivery. I wouldn’t guess any effort was made to distribute his statement in the Cub dugout.

That the umpires felt the Cubs were perpetrating the situation was manifested in the fact that Chicago Manager Gene Michael, coach Johnny Oates and players Sutcliffe, Dawson, Sanderson, Greg Maddux and Manny Trillo were ejected . . . but no Padre was ejected.

The problem in this situation is that the teams play again today. There is no cooling off period.

Can sensibility and sanity return in the space of one night of sleep?

Sure.

Listen to the Cubs’ Jody Davis: “There is nobody we are mad at except the man who threw the ball. Eric Show is the man we’re after.”

Now that’s an assuring statement. No problem between these teams. The Cubbies simply want Show, so they hit Santiago and throw behind Brown after Show has left the ballpark. Of course, Davis’ statement makes about as much sense as anything involved in these beanball incidents.

For the Padres, Wrigley Field will not be the friendly confines today, regardless of what the locals call it. Of course, the locals--quite likely the fans more than players--will be the ones who make it so uncomfortable for today’s visiting team.

After all, the fans sense a rivalry has been reborn . . . even if it is a rather ugly little brother of that classic 1984 confrontation.