Padre Notebook : Bowa: Early Wins Important : Young Team Needs to Get in Habit in Exhibitions

In 1984, Padre Manager Larry Bowa went to training camp as a shortstop on a team that observers quickly consigned to infamy.

The Cubs that spring couldn’t hit, field, run, throw, bunt, chew, spit, scratch or swear.

Seven months later, they were the champions of the National League East. The moral on that team: Wins and losses didn’t mean a thing until the games started counting in the standings.

“We were veterans,” Bowa said. “We (the Padres) are not a veteran team.”

Of the more than 40 players in the Padres’ camp, only seven have more than six years of major league experience.

Which is why Bowa says winning will be a much higher priority for his team when it opens its spring training schedule today in Yuma against the Angels at Desert Sun Stadium.

Sure, Bowa has a check list. For instance, he wants his pitchers to keep the ball down. “I don’t care if they give up hits,” he says. “I just want them to keep the ball down. We pitched up a lot last year.”

And once the games begin, he will constantly remind players what he expects from them at all times. He also will write things down and bring them up in front of the team the next morning.

But he says, “I want to win. I think I can be looking for certain things and still want to win. I think you can do both. If you’re experimenting on something and you say, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter if we win or lose,’ why even play?

“Veterans,” Bowa adds, “know how to pace themselves. Veterans know what they need to do. This is not a veteran team. If this was a veteran team, I would be the first to tell you I just want these guys to get ready.”

Losing spring games, he says, will mean little to Keith Moreland, Tony Gwynn or Ed Whitson. “But if you get these young kids to losing and losing and losing, right away you’ve started with a negative.”

Bowa must also watch the young players and how they prepare. “For me to ask them to pace themselves and not peak too early . . . they don’t know what that means,” he says.

Veterans know how to prepare. “Moreland knows where he’s at right now.” Bowa says. “If I went up to a guy like Stan Jefferson (25 years old) or Eric Nolte (23) and asked them: ‘Where are you at right now?’ They’d go, ‘Huh . . . I’m in Yuma.’ ”

Not to say the Padres are proud of the cover of their 1988 media guide, released Tuesday, but they have made it into a poster that will sell for charity.

The cover is a John Martin painting of batting champion Tony Gwynn and rookie of the year Benito Santiago. Martin designed the cover of last year’ s World Series program and is designing this year’s NCAA Final Four program.

The Padres have enlarged the cover to produce 500 limited edition posters, autographed by Gwynn and Santiago. They are on sale for $100 each through the Make a Wish Foundation, at 619-543-9090.

Pitcher Keith Comstock confirmed the reported nationalism that makes it hard for Americans to excel in Japanese professional baseball.

“They take care of you over there,” said Comstock, who played in 1985 and 1986 for the Yomiuri Giants. He was referring to the free housing and schooling provided by Japanese teams for American players and their families.

“But they just don’t want their soil trampled on.” By that, Comstock meant that the Japanese don’t feature Americans breaking the records of Japanese players.

Comstock said American hitters close to the batting title or the home run crown would rarely see good pitches to hit in Japan. He said the strike zone also grew for those players. “If you were an American, you had to go up there hacking,” he said.

He also said he didn’t always understand Japanese managing. In particular, he remembers one time coming to the plate with men on first and third and one out. His manager called time out and said: “If you think you might hit into a double play, strike out instead.”

Comstock’s response: “How am I supposed to know if I’m going to hit into a double play?”

Former Padre Steve Garvey took his mother to the Winter Olympics in Calgary. From there, he went to New York for meetings.

“He’s doing fine,” said La Jolla attorney Jerry Kapstein, who has served as Garvey’s agent. “His options basically are business, politics or a combination of business and baseball management. Hopefully things will crystalize in the next two or three months.”

Kapstein said Garvey is also exploring broadcasting opportunities. “It’s a little different not having him at spring training,” Kapstein said. Garvey retired from baseball over the winter.

Padre Notes

Manager Larry Bowa and veteran pitcher Ed Whitson met behind closed doors Thursday to hash out what Bowa later termed a “misunderstanding.” The exchange stemmed from a reported remark made by Bowa saying that only three pitchers were guaranteed spots in the starting rotation. When Whitson found out he was not one of them, he made a beeline for Bowa’s office. Bowa told Whitson he never said any such thing. “We have six pitchers who have the inside track for five starting jobs,” Bowa said later. Those pitchers are Whitson, Eric Show, Jimmy Jones, Andy Hawkins, Mark Grant and Eric Nolte. Bowa mentioned rookie Greg Harris as an outside possibility . . . Even though Roberto Alomar will start at second base in today’s exhibition opener against the Angels, Bowa says Randy Ready still has the “inside track” at the starting second base job. Ready has a tender throwing arm.