Padre Notebook : Reliever McCullers and Team Still Far Apart in Contract Talks

Agent Jerry Kapstein met with Padre President Chub Feeney Tuesday night as negotiations on the contract of reliever Lance McCullers continued.

McCullers is one of 15 Padres who are still unsigned. Eight of those players were on the Padres’ major league roster at the end of last season. The Padres have set a Friday signing deadline.

In all 15 cases, they can automatically renew those contracts at up to a 20% decrease from 1987. Feeney said the team has offered raises to six of those eight players.

But, said Kapstein before Tuesday’s renewal of the McCullers talks: “We’re still a long way apart.”

Which is why Kapstein drove to Yuma in the morning. Feeney arrived late in the afternoon.

They spent three hours Tuesday night in a meeting characterized by Kapstein’s assistant, Bob Teaff, as “friendly but businesslike.” No immediate settlement of the contract appeared imminent, and the two men were scheduled to resume talks today.

McCullers led the National League in relief innings pitched last year (123). He finished with a team-high 16 saves.

Kapstein also represents pitcher Greg Booker, another unsigned Padre. Booker is general manager Jack McKeon’s son-in-law, a fact that he wishes people would forget when it comes to his status with the Padres.

McCullers’ 1987 salary was $125,000. Feeney and Kapstein have been negotiating since the beginning of the year.

“My discussions for Lance center around what he’s done over the last two years,” Kapstein said. In his first full season, 1986, McCullers was 10-10 with five saves and started 10 games.

The Joey Cora glasses experiment has died a quick death.

Cora was the Padres’ opening day second baseman last year. But poor hitting (.237) prompted the team to send him back down to Class AAA Las Vegas after 77 games. He hit .276 the rest of the year there.

Last Wednesday, Cora showed up wearing glasses on the field and at the plate.

“But I wasn’t seeing the ball well,” he said.

After striking out twice Sunday, Cora decided the glasses were fine for reading but not so fine for playing. Sans glasses, he had two hits and a walk in Monday’s intrasquad game.

“I had no sense of distance at all with the glasses,” Cora said.

Meanwhile, Cora won his fourth consecutive two-mile, pre-practice run Tuesday in less than 13 minutes. He even beat assistant trainer Larry Duensing, who had been trouncing the players with regularity.

“He smoked me,” Duensing said.

Turns out Cora, 22, was a sprint star in Puerto Rico before he enrolled at Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship. He said his best time for the 100 meters in high school was 10.4 seconds. He also said that if he wasn’t playing baseball right now, he’d be training for the Puerto Rican Olympic track and field team.

“When I was training, I was pretty quick,” he said.

Cora said he wasn’t interested in track at Vanderbilt because the team, which gave no scholarships for the sport and has since dropped it, competed mostly against Division II and III opposition.

“There was no competition at all,” he said.

One of his idols is 100-meter world record-holder Ben Johnson. “He is awesome,” Cora said.

Could a base-stealer learn anything from Ben Johnson, who is especially noted for his fast starts?

“It would be difficult because in stealing you’re starting sideways,” Cora said. “But if I met him, I would ask him anyway.”

Cora stole 15 bases for the Padres last year and 12 in Las Vegas.

“Cora’s more in control of himself,” Padre Manager Larry Bowa said. “He’s not in awe up here anymore.”

Cora is fighting to regain his second base job, but Bowa says Randy Ready has the “inside track.”

None of which means Bowa has given up on the chances of 20-year-old Roberto Alomar to make a breakthrough.

Alomar is the son of Padre coach Sandy Alomar, and Bowa never misses a chance to praise him.

“Tell you what, he’s the best-looking infielder I’ve seen in a long time,” Bowa said, pausing for emphasis. “A loonnggg time.”

“But he’s starting in Triple-A this year, right?” a reporter asked.

“A long time,” Bowa repeated. “He can do some things. He’s solid. There’s no doubt in my mind he can play second right now in the majors. We’ll have to see about hitting once the (exhibition) games start.”

It was only batting practice, and the wind was behind him, but third baseman Chris Brown opened everybody’s eyes with a home run that cleared the center-field fence and the 25-foot canvas screen before landing across a dirt road and on the roof of the team’s offices--on the fly.

The pitcher that served it up was Bowa.

“It was about a 68-m.p.h. fastball with nothing on it--no movement,” Bowa said. “It was the longest one I’ve ever given up.”

Brown, a former Giant, beat the Padres, 1-0, in the 12th inning with an opposite-field hit on opening day last year. “And we went downhill from there,” Bowa said.

Padre Notes

The Padres will play their final intrasquad game today at Desert Sun Stadium. It will be eight innings. Four pitchers on each team will work two innings apiece: Greg Harris, Candy Sierra, Matt Maysey, Dave Leiper, Keith Comstock, Andy Hawkins, Mark Grant and Ed Whitson. . . . A representative of the Players Assn. will address the team today. . . . The exhibition opener is Friday in Yuma against the Angels. The teams also will play each other Saturday and Sunday. Starters for the Padres in the series are, in order: Eric Show, Eric Nolte and Andy Hawkins. The Angels will counter with Mike Witt, Kirk McCaskill and Willie Fraser. . . . Second to Joey Cora in the two-mile run was pitcher Greg Harris, followed by pitcher Lance McCullers.