Patience Will Help Roberto Alomar Pass the Time in Las Vegas

I think I’ll write a letter to Roberto Alomar. The address will be Las Vegas, that’s the rub. Roberto does not want to be posted in some desert hamlet. His idea of a neon strip is Interstate 8 in Mission Valley.

Dear Roberto:

I understand you’re unhappy. I understand you’re disappointed. I understand you’re frustrated.

What does a fellow have to do in spring training to make the major leagues?

You have a .360 batting average. You have a 10-game hitting streak. You have fielded everything hit your way.

You figure a locker is awaiting you in the Padre clubhouse in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. You figure you will be at second base on opening day in Houston.

And they send you to Las Vegas.

Ugh.

You shed tears. Your hopes had soared so high. Even the manager, Larry Bowa, had gushed with superlatives, making it clear that he was in your corner.

How could you miss?

Club President Chub Feeney made the call. He punched your ticket for Las Vegas. He cleaned out your locker. He squelched your hopes.

It may be hard for you to accept right now, but Feeney is not the person to blame for this development.

In fact, no person can be blamed.

Roberto, you are being haunted by ghosts of failed past experiments at second base.

You are being haunted by Leon (Bip) Roberts, who was hastened from Class AA to the starting second-base job in 1986. Bip went zero for April, getting his first hit on May 3, and was off the major league roster by the 1986-87 off-season.

You are being haunted by Joey Cora, who was hastened from Class AA to the starting second-base job in 1987. He was sent back to the minor leagues on June 8.

And here you came in 1988, trying to make the jump from Class AA to a starting job at second base.

Roberts, at 22, could not make it. Cora, at 21, could not make it.

This, Roberto, represented a rather hefty historical burden. After all, here you were hoping to make it at 20.

You may not agree, but it probably was not reasonable going into camp even to suggest that you would be a serious candidate. Your situation was different from those of the last two years, when Roberts and Cora essentially were handed jobs, barring complete flops in training camp.

Roberts, you may recall, came to camp cocky and brash. To lightly paraphrase his preseason analysis, he would sizzle and National League catchers would fry.

Discussing his baserunning prowess, Roberts said: “If I get a good jump, I’m gone. I don’t care if it’s Tony Pena. I’m safe.”

Roberts, you will recall, did not get that good start either literally or figuratively and now he is literally gone, still exiled to the minor leagues.

Cora was a bit more cautious. He consistently observed that he would not mind going to Las Vegas for a taste of Class AAA baseball in the Pacific Coast League.

“That way,” he mused, “I’d get to go to Hawaii for free.”

He got that PCL trip, but only after enduring an embarrassing stay in the major leagues.

When Cora was dispatched to Las Vegas, Bowa accepted a share of the blame.

“A lot of it is my fault,” Bowa said. “He just wasn’t ready.”

Bowa has insisted that he did not forget the failed experiments of the last two springs. He probably buoyed your hopes when he warned that players cannot be lumped together, that it should not be held against you that others had stumbled in the same circumstance so recently.

“Actions speak, and up until now with Robby, actions have spoken,” Bowa said.

That was March 15, exactly 10 days before you had your reservations confirmed for Las Vegas.

Feeney had prevailed. He has been very much in the background since he became Padre president last year, and this was one of the first times he had taken a potentially controversial public stance.

This was unfortunate for you, at least to your way of thinking right now.

But Feeney made the right decision. Maybe someday you’ll agree.

As a rookie trying to make the jump from Class AA to the big leagues, a good start won’t make you, but a bad start can surely break you. Feeney doesn’t want to take this chance with you.

Let veterans such as Randy Ready and Tim Flannery get the season started. You can get a taste of Class AAA baseball. If you do well, you’ll be back as soon as Bowa can get Feeney’s arm twisted behind his back. If you struggle a bit in Las Vegas, that’s certainly a better place to struggle than here.

You may not be aware of it, but second base has been a citadel of instability for the Padres. Indeed, this will be the club’s 20th season, and only three second basemen have opened successive seasons at the position--Dave Campbell, 1970-71; Tito Fuentes, 1975-76, and Juan Bonilla, 1981-82-83.

Get your feet on the ground, Roberto, and be patient. Maybe, just maybe, you will start 10 openers in a row . . . and it won’t make much difference that 1988 wasn’t one of them.