Under McKeon, Padres Finding They Must Use a Different Dictionary

Tony Gwynn has been in a bit of a mix-up. The batting average is very average, especially by Gwynn’s standards. The difference between a rut and a groove is about 120 points, or the difference between .250 and .370.

Gwynn himself is quite aware that things are not right, and yet he steps out of the batting cage with a look of frustration on his face, and there stands a grinning Jack McKeon.

“Jack McKeon,” Gwynn mused. “Mr. Optimist. He says, ‘You’re swinging the bat just fine.’ He says that every day. Jack’s the kind of manager who makes you feel good no matter how you’re doing.”

Just like Larry Bowa, huh? Or Dick Williams?

Gwynn laughed.

“We haven’t had it like this around here for a while,” he said. “It’s different.”

The Padres have embarked on a trip that will include 15 games in 14 days, beginning with the doubleheader Friday night in Los Angeles. Given the impetus of a 9-4 home stand, it appeared that the Padres were confronted with a trip of some significance.

However, that would not seem to be the case. It gets back to Jack McKeon. Tony Gwynn’s Mr. Optimist. Maybe everyone’s Mr. Optimist.

What we’re talking about here is a need for a revised glossary, a different way of looking at the game of baseball.

Let’s start with what the Padres are just beginning and go from there:

Road trips are no longer road trips, but rather . . . vacations with pay and play.

“We don’t make any big deal out of road trips,” McKeon told inquisitive writers. “You guys do.”

But don’t the Padres have the worst road record this side of Baltimore?

“That’s in the past,” McKeon said.

You see, nothing from the past is applicable. This is the new now.

Players are no longer benched, but rather . . . rested.

McKeon will take great pains to keep from creating the negative impression that a player is benched for shortcomings at bat or in the field. He does not want his players to be afraid that the slightest malfeasance will cause them to be banished from the lineup.

Indeed, he goes so far as to advise his players in advance when they can expect to have a day off.

The schedule can be altered if an individual has a particularly bad game. He used shortstop Garry Templeton as an example.

“Let’s say Tempy commits four errors on a Monday and I’ve told him he’s off Tuesday,” McKeon said. “I’m more than likely to send him back out there. You don’t want a guy to get down.”

Bench-warmers, in the McKeon system, have become . . . dinosaurs.

Bench - warmers no longer exist. Everyone plays. In fact, in a given week, virtually every one of the 14 non-pitchers on the roster is likely to get at least one start.

“It’s good to go out and get four at - bats,” said Randy Ready, a regular at second, third and left field. “You get the rust off instead of sitting around and coming in cold.”

Everyone thrives, according to this theory.

“It’s good for the guys who aren’t playing a lot,” Ready said, “and it’s good for the guys who are . . . because it gives them a blow.”

A mop-up pitcher is not a mop-up pitcher, but rather an . . . armrest.

“Everyone on the pitching staff has to understand that what he does is important,” McKeon said.

It may not seem important when a Greg Booker or a Dave Leiper is called upon in the fifth or sixth inning with a four- or five-run deficit. But it is.

A manager needs innings in those situations. He needs pitchers, either an individual or a combination of individuals, to get through the game without having to employ closers Mark Davis and Lance McCullers.

Indeed, Mark Davis could well get a save on a Saturday because Greg Booker kept him out of a game on a Friday.

A loss is not always a loss, but sometimes a . . . sacrifice.

Jack McKeon manages for the long haul.

This was underscored when he was discussing the pitching plans for the second half of Sunday’s doubleheader, the Padres’ fifth game in three days. No starter will be available.

McKeon does not concede that this is a loss, but he said he would not wreck his pitching staff for the sake of one game.

“Sometimes,” he said, “you lose one game and then win five because you lost it. I’m not gonna let things get out of whack because of one game.”

It applies to everyday players as well as pitchers. McKeon’s system of resting players occasionally will cause him to field what appears to be a wave-the-white-flag lineup.

“Hey,” he said. “We can win no matter who’s out there.”

That’s optimism.