Gaylord Still a Slippery Character : Perry, Others Show Off Old Tricks in Old-Timers Game

Does he or doesn’t he?

It was a question that trailed Gaylord Perry throughout his baseball career, and inevitably, it came up again Saturday night when players of the past gathered at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for the Equitable Old-Timers game.

Did Perry throw a spitter, or a greaseball, or didn’t he?

Perry, 49, who won the second of his two Cy Young Awards with the Padres in 1978, dodged the question as adroitly as he had stayed a step ahead of the umpires in his active days.

“I kept them guessing every chance I got,” Perry said. “I made them believe I threw a spitter, anyway. Making them think I threw it was a big advantage to me.

“The guys it bothered the most were Reggie Jackson and Bobby Murcer. They were always looking for the spitter, and any time they didn’t hit the ball, they would say something was wrong with it.”

While Perry wouldn’t come out and say he had greased up the baseball, one of his old teammates was more candid. Orlando Cepeda, who played first base and left field for the San Francisco Giants when Perry was pitching for them, told how he had discovered Perry’s secret.

“He threw it. Everybody knows it,” Cepeda said. “The first time I figured he threw it, we were in New York, playing the Mets. It was 1964. Somebody hit a one-hopper back to the mound, and when he threw it to me at first base, it was all wet. Not sticky, just wet.

“I went to the mound and said to him, ‘Why is this ball so wet, man?’ He just grinned, and didn’t say anything. Later in the season, I found out it was a spitter.”

Predictably, Perry’s reputation for loading up led to an act that spiced up the Old-Timers game, which preceded the third game of the series between the Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Jay Johnstone, another former Padre and a character who has become a best-selling author, left his second-base position during Perry’s one-inning stint and went to the dugout for a bucket of water. He was preparing to get the ball ready for Perry when Perry picked up the bucket and doused him.

Afterward, Perry said, “It wasn’t a planned play, but I was waiting for him to do something like that.”

Johnstone said, “It wasn’t my idea. I knew something was up when they put me at second base instead of in the outfield. It was hatched up by John Arrix of Capital Sports, which lines up the players for Equitable.

“I had a rubber jacket on, so that saved me as far as the upper part of my body was concerned. My pants got a little wet, though.”

Perry wore a unique uniform shirt, a basic Padre shirt that carried the logos of all eight clubs with which he played in the majors. It was borrowed from Andy Strasberg, the Padres’ marketing director, who promised to have a duplicate made for Perry.

“I’m an avid collector of baseball memorabilia,” Strasberg said. “I had it made up some time ago, and I thought it would be a nice touch to have Gaylord wear it.”

Of his 22 seasons in the major leagues, Perry spent only 1978 and 1979 with the Padres. His performance tailed off in 1979, and on Sept. 5, he jumped the club. He was suspended for the remainder of the season, then was traded.

Ever since, Perry has been reluctant to discuss his abrupt departure, and he didn’t shed much light on it this time.

“I thought I was going to be traded, so I went home,” he said. “That’s all there was to it.”

Perry now lives in Gaffney, S.C., where he coaches the baseball team at Limestone College and serves as East Coast sales manager for Fiesta Foods of Dallas.

Rollie Fingers, 40, who spent four seasons with the Padres and saved many of Perry’s 21 victories in 1978, said he still had thoughts of returning to baseball after an absence of a season and a half. He was released by the Milwaukee Brewers after the 1985 season, and lives in El Cajon.

“I waited for a call all last winter,” Fingers said. “I don’t miss it that much, actually. I got tired of living out of a suitcase. But maybe for the last part of the season, I’d think about it.

“The year the Brewers gave me my release, my arm felt fine, but Bambi (George Bamberger, then the Brewers’ manager) wouldn’t pitch me. I know I could help somebody if they gave me three weeks to get ready.”

In the four-inning game, a home run by ex-Padre Jerry Morales off Fergie Jenkins gave the California alumni a 3-2 victory over the Equitable All-Stars. The teams were managed by Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Eddie Mathews, respectively.

Morales and Jenkins used to be teammates with the Chicago Cubs, and Morales got a kick out of hitting a homer off a man who is headed for the Hall of Fame.

“He threw me a fastball over the plate.” Morales said. “That was nice of him.”