Padre Notebook : McKeon, the Man Who Wears Two Hats, Likes How They Fit

With everything else having been re-evaluated since Jack McKeon took over as Padre manager May 28, perhaps it’s time to look at the most visible and important part of this rebirth.

Jack McKeon.

Today’s game will be his 46th, the same number of games Larry Bowa managed this season. He won 16 games in those 46 tries. McKeon won 16 games after 29 tries.

So now for some questions.

Is McKeon enjoying himself? Is Mckeon enjoying himself enough to come back as manager next year? And just how is this manager-general manager thing working? We know he’s managing well, but what about the other part of his duties?

One answer is clear. McKeon loves managing.

“Man, I’m just enjoying the heck out of this,” McKeon said Friday, sitting in the 100-degree heat of the Busch Stadium dugout while trying to convince the players it wasn’t a notch above 60.

“Man, isn’t this wonderful weather, just great weather?” said McKeon, 57. “I tell you, this job makes you feel young again, alive again. I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun. I’m having a lot more fun than even in 1984. A lot more.”

Fine, but does he like it enough to continue next season?

“You know what I’ve been saying about that, and that’s all I can say,” McKeon said. “I’ll wait till after this season to think about that.”

Two baseball sources, one within the Padre organization, say he has already thought about it.

Sources paint this scenario about the future of the Padre leadership:

* McKeon and the Padres will decide by early September whether he will return as manager and, if not, whether he will fulfill the remaining year on his general manager’s contract.

* If McKeon stays--which two sources close to McKeon say he is inclined to do--he will ask the Padres to appoint an assistant general manager to negotiate contracts and handle other paperwork. This new position could be filled by someone within the organization with a simple change of job description.

McKeon would not comment on the deadline for the decision, but he would speak on the possibility of receiving front-office help if he stays.

“I’m handling both jobs fine now,” he said. “There’s actually less stress, because I don’t have to worry about what my manager is doing. And once the season ends, I can put on my general manager’s hat through the World Series and winter meetings with no problems.

“But say this: Nobody can handle both manager and general manager jobs during spring training. A manager needs to be with his players and coaches and not have to leave the field at 2:30 every afternoon to negotiate contracts. That’s going to be the hard part, negotiating contracts. From Jan. 15 to March 15, that’s going to be tough.”

McKeon says he knows what it’s like to be the bad guy in negotiations and doesn’t think a manager needs that hassle.

“That’s why I delegate so much authority now and let my coaches run everything,” McKeon said. “You do everything, you’re always the bad guy.”

Not that handling both jobs isn’t difficult for him right now. The June 8 deal with Cincinnati for Dennis Rasmussen was completed at 8 a.m. at McKeon’s house, where Red General Manager Murray Cook finally reached him.

“Yeah, my daughters and wife were worried about the stress, worried about when I’d get the time to do everything,’ McKeon said. “But remember when Whitey (Herzog) said he couldn’t do both jobs here in St. Louis because he likes to hunt and fish? I don’t hunt. I don’t fish. I just do baseball.”

In Case You’ve Been Wondering . . . Top draft pick Andy Benes is getting his clock cleaned with the touring U.S. Olympic baseball team this summer.

Many around the Padre organization have been wondering about his performance lately. Well, the United States Baseball Federation was recently reached, and Benes’ statistics were not that great.

In three appearances in Japan, Benes, a 6-foot 5-inch right-handed pitcher, was rocked for four homers in 12 innings and a 5.11 ERA. The only positive note was that he struck out a team-high 16.

Since then, back on a tour of the United States, he is 1-0 in four games, but he has allowed nine earned runs in 18 innings for a 4.42 ERA. Then again, he had 21 strikeouts.

Two Final All-Star Notes:

Pitcher Mark Davis took home more than memories from last Tuesday’s All-Star game.

He also received: A set of china. A ring. A travel bag. An autographed ball. An autographed bat. Two hats. A couple of T-shirts.

“Yes,” said Davis, “I enjoyed every bit of that game.”

Padre pitcher Mark Grant also has an All-Star memory, and he wasn’t even there. It was provided by Kansas City’s George Brett, a friend of Grant’s.

During interviews before Monday’s workout in Cincinnati, which was eventually canceled by rain, Brett was asked whether he was excited about facing the New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden.

“Shoot, no, I don’t want to face Gooden,” Brett said. “I would rather face, say, a pitcher with a 2-8 record. I would rather face Mark Grant of the San Diego Padres.”

He said this in front of 15 reporters, all of whom laughed.

Grant heard this quote two days later and fumed, “Hey, I’m 2-6.”

He later laughed and explained: “I met Brett this winter at a golf tournament, and we got to be friends. He is in this fantasy baseball league and told me he was going to draft me as one of pitchers. He’s probably just mad now.”