Padre Notebook : Flannery Is Feeling Much Fitter : Infielder, After Ankle Surgery, Ready to Fight for a Job

About those rumors that Tim Flannery’s ankle is falling off: He and Tony Gwynn hurried to camp Sunday, three days ahead of schedule, on a day when even the pitchers and catchers were off.

“I could play in a game tomorrow,” said Flannery. “I just can’t compete in a triathlon.”

Just eight weeks removed from arthroscopic surgery that ground down the bone spurs in his right ankle, Flannery enters his 10th Padre camp with little time to rest. He is in the middle of a fight with Dickie Thon, Mike Brumley and Joey Cora for probably two utility infield positions.

It is a fight that already has Flannery, 30, feeling old--considering that Thon and Brumley just joined the Padres this winter, and Cora just joined the big-league team last season. Flannery has been with the Padres for parts of nine years.

It seemed that this time, the surgery would set him back. Contrary to the word being spread through camp by club officials last week, Flannery can run--just not long distances.

“I won’t be doing our two-mile run, if that’s what you mean,” he said.

Not only can he run--for the first time since he tore ligaments on both sides of his right ankle last May and then tried to play too soon--he can pivot at second base. He can hit off his front foot.

With most of the rest of the team back in San Diego receiving physical exams Sunday, Flannery spent a solitary hour hitting in the batting cage off a pitching machine, and another hour throwing and fielding grounders with Gwynn. Both players had their physicals earlier in the day.

“It feels so much better now than last year,” said Flannery. “Shoot, it felt better the day after surgery.”

But Flannery said he will not push it, not yet. He knows that none of this would have happened if he had not insisted on coming back within a month of the injury last May. Playing most of the season at 50%, he wound up hitting a career-low .228 and damaging the ankle further.

“This time, I am not going to rush it and hurt the team and myself,” he said. “I have got to let it heal this time.”

This time he will ask Manager Larry Bowa to allow him to work a couple weeks at a slow-but-sure pace to make sure the ankle is healed. Then, as soon as games start, if Flannery feels ready, he said he will ask Bowa for as many at-bats as possible.

“Last year I was in tremendous pain. I need to get in as many hacks as possible this spring with it feeling good,” he said. “Already it’s incredible what a difference the surgery has made.”

And about the competition from the other three guys?

“Competition is great. If you are afraid of competition, you are afraid of pressure,” he said. “From the minute you start in the spring till the minute you step off the field in October, there is competition. Then you have competition with the other people trying to get a seat on an airplane to go to your vacation.”

The first wave of spring optimism has hit, landing squarely upon pitcher Eric Show.

“He is really throwing the ball good,” said Bowa. “This may be as good as I’ve seen him throw it.”

Show was noncommittal.

“Everything is fine. What else can I say?” he said. “For the last three or four years, I have thrown the ball real well in the spring. But I remember the last bad spring I had was 1982, and that was a real good year for me.

“So throwing well now really doesn’t mean anything. I’m not sure how to respond to it.”

Padre Notes

In need of a left-handed batting practice pitcher during spring training, the Padres are considering an offer from former major league pitcher John Curtis, who lives in the San Diego area. . . . Although the Padres’ official spring training schedule doesn’t begin until March 4, at home against the Angels, they will play their minor leaguers and perhaps two intrasquad games that week. Also, Manager Larry Bowa has tentatively scheduled at least nine ‘B’ games to make certain that everyone gets some work in almost every day. . . . Bowa said the biggest problem he has with the spring schedule is geographical. All but two other National League teams train in Florida. “I get tired of playing American League teams. It’s a whole different game, a whole different approach to pitching,” he said. “We see a lot of breaking balls in those games, while in the National League, there’s a lot more fastballs. It doesn’t prepare us as well.” . . . Part of the pitchers’ daily routine is taking batting practice, but they had better enjoy it. “Once the regular players get here, any hitting the pitchers do is on their own,” said Bowa, who nonetheless wants to improve the quality of his pitchers’ bunting to improve their quantity of work. “The better they bunt, the better chance they have of staying in a game,” he said. “If there are runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh, and the score is tied, and the pitcher is not a good bunter, he’s done.” The best pitcher-bunters on the team are generally considered to be Eric Show and Ed Whitson.