Gwynn Gets Boot; Padres Take It on Chin

Since the beginning of spring, everyone has been waiting for a notable Padre leader to unleash his terrible temper, to scream and wave his arms, to snap.

On Sunday afternoon at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, a notable Padre leader did.

Tony Gwynn.

For once in his life, Larry Bowa attempted to stop an argument as Gwynn, one of baseball’s calmest and most considerate players, erupted on home plate umpire Joe West.

In the third inning against the San Francisco Giants, on a disputed strike call, Gwynn turned a month of frustration into a pointing, screaming and stomping match that turned home plate into something out of the World Wrestling Federation.

For the first time in his big-league life, Gwynn was thrown out of a game. Five innings later the Padres meekly followed. On questionable judgment and bad luck, they blew a 5-4 in the eighth inning and lost to the Giants, 9-4.

Afterward eyes were still wide, heads were still shaking, and it had nothing to do with the score.

Said Bowa: “I’ve never seen Tony that mad. I didn’t know he got that mad.”

Said pitcher Mark Grant: “I was inside the clubhouse when somebody told me Tony had just got thrown out. I thought it was a joke, I said, ‘That can’t be right!’ ”

Said a quiet Gwynn: “There’s always going to be pitches like that, and most of the time I back out and don’t say anything. Today, I did not feel like backing out. Something hit a nerve. I lost it.”

Third inning, none out, Tim Flannery on first base after a single, Gwynn down 0-and-1 to Giants pitcher Kelly Downs.

The pitch appears low and outside. Gwynn turns his back to prepare for the next pitch. “Strike” booms home plate ump West.

Gwynn freezes. He spins back around and faces West, as if he can’t believe his ears.

As recounted later by Gwynn and West, the conversation went like this:

Gwynn begins shouting, “That’s no strike, that’s no strike.”

West shouts, “Get back in the box and hit.”

Gwynn raises his voice even louder, finally shouting, “That’s no strike, and if you don’t like it, you can kick me out.”

“Fine,” shouts West, “you’re gone.”

Just about then, Bowa arrives at home plate to protect his star. He is too late, and Gwynn is too angry.

Bowa tries to push Gwynn away. Gwynn pushes back. Bowa bear-hugs Gwynn and shoves him down the third-base line. Gwynn puts his hands around Bowa and flings him off.

Gwynn stalks back after West, screaming and waving his arms. But both the player and umpire are soon engulfed by other players and umpires, and peace is restored.

For his efforts, Gwynn will receive at least a mandatory $500 fine and perhaps top billing on ESPN and This Week in Baseball. As for West, well, you see something new every day.

“I don’t think it was the pitch or the situation that had him most mad,” West said. “I think there was a little bit of frustration over other things there.”

Gwynn admitted as much. It was the pitch, but it wasn’t just the pitch. It was the March 11 finger surgery, and constant battle to feel good again, and slow start which has him hitting .238. Everyone talks about Gwynn’s traditional April struggle, but last April, en route to a .370 season, he hit .333.

Said Gwynn: “There’s been a lot of frustration on my mind. I think I’ve handled it well, I’ve kept it bottled up . . . but today I just lost it.”

As he spoke afterward, in a clubhouse where he had watched the game, Gwynn was packing video equipment he brought from home. He’s been taping his batting practice swings for the past few days and watching them before the game. The harder he works, the worse it gets.

“It’s tough enough to hit real strikes,” he said. “That pitch today was not a strike. For the rest of my life, I will not think that pitch was a strike. I felt it was time to put up or shut up, so I put up.

“Now, I’m going to forget it and get on. No hard feelings.”

The best thing about being Tony Gwynn is, umpire West does not have any hard feelings either.

“Tony has always been a decent player, never said much, and I’m sure that’s the way it will continue to be,” West said. “These things happen.”

After a five-minute delay, Stanley Jefferson was inserted for Gwynn and promptly swung at Downs’ next pitch for strike three. The Padres were leading 2-0 at the time, but things were never the same.

The Giants took a 3-2 lead on Will Clark’s three-run homer in the fifth. The Padres regained the lead on Marvell Wynne’s two-run homer in the sixth. Then, in Bowa’s words, “The roof caved in.”

Taking a 4-3 lead into the eighth, starter Hawkins, who had allowed just four hits and retired seven of the last eight, couldn’t get past the first batter. Perhaps it should have figured considering it was Clark, a career 6 for 14 versus Hawkins at the time.

Clark doubled, and the Giant rally was on.

“I’m not going to second-guess anyone,” Clark said, “but I was not expecting to see Hawkins in the eighth. They had Mark Davis warming up in the bullpen, and he’s been throwing great. I was geared up to face him.”

“Hawkins was doing fine,” said Bowa, who let the pitcher hit for himself minutes earlier in the bottom of the seventh. “We wanted to give him at least one more batter.”

Out ran Hawkins, in ran reliever Lance McCullers.

Candy Maldonado met McCullers with a grounder up the middle that diving second baseman Flannery stopped. Great play. However, instead of getting the sure out at first, Flannery tried to nail Clark as Clark raced toward third. The throw was on time, but late, and Clark was safe. Not so great.

“It was an aggressive play, and would have been a heck of a play if he made it, but I think Tim might look at it later and think he should have thrown to first,” Bowa said. “When you’re tied, you go to third. When you’re ahead, you go to first.”

McCullers seemed to buckle down, getting Jeff Leonard down 1-and-2, but then Leonard plopped a single to shallow left, scoring Clark, moving Maldonado to second, tying the game.

True to the Padres luck, with Chris Speier batting, the Giants then called a hit-and-run. Speier swung and missed, catcher Mark Parent threw to third about 10 feet ahead of the runner. Third baseman Chris Brown stumbled on the base and missed the ball. The ball went into left field and Maldonado scored with the eventual game winner.

Padre Notes

The Padres made the expected move of bringing left-handed reliever Dave Leiper off the disabled list Sunday and sending instant reliever Eric Nolte to triple-A Las Vegas. Nolte, a starter, never felt comfortable in the bullpen, allowing two runs in his only three innings of work this year. “Nolte is a starter, he’ll go down there and start,” Manager Larry Bowa said. “He needs more of a chance then he’ll get here.” . . . Reserve outfielder Marvell Wynne, starting for the first time this season, batting in the No. 6 slot for the second time in his life, drove in all the Padre runs with a homer and two-run double.