Templeton Reminds Padres of Worth

Garry Templeton took the throw from pitcher Mark Davis, touched second base for one out and quickly flipped to first base for the double play and the end of the Padres’ 5-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

But it wasn’t the end, as pinch-runner Tom Browning continued charging into Templeton, sliding into his ankles and flipping the Padre shortstop head over back pocket and into the dust.

Templeton stood up and stared, then shouted. A threat? A postgame fight?

“Naw,” Templeton said later. “I just asked him if he was all right. I told him, ‘That’s the way to play hard.’ ”

“That’s Tempy,” Tony Gwynn said later. “The professional.”

At age 32, in the last year of his contract, and in a platoon situation as foreign to him as awkwardness, the professional pulled off another one Friday. Templeton hit a two-run homer, singled two other times, scored a run and was in the middle of three double plays as the Padres pulled within 3 1/2 games of the fourth-place Reds in front of 26,046 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Templeton’s 3-for-4 night increased this year’s average to only .230. Since 1985, when he had the best season of any shortstop in Padre history with a .282 average and won the team’s most valuable player award, he has hit just .234. He will be a free agent this winter, and he is making $1 million.

So you think he’s history? Nights such as Friday should tell you to think again. Afterward, Templeton said he wants to return; at least one prominent team leader implied he had better return, and it appears that the Padre management wants him to return, though likely for a small contract.

“He is a great asset to this team, a very positive force, a good man to have,” Manager Jack McKeon said. “A lot of people just look at batting averages, but a pennant contender needs a good all-around shortstop.”

Said Tony Gwynn, who added an inside-the-park homer Friday: “Sometimes the fans look at Tempy and think he doesn’t hit enough or field enough, but tell you what: He’s the only guy on this team who, when he’s not in the lineup, we’re a different club. We’ve got to have him out there. He’s got the leadership and the take-charge that we need. He’s the glue.”

Templeton heard this and chuckled. He has been periodically benched for Dickie Thon, who is hitting .423 in his past eight games and .263 overall. Earlier this year, Templeton’s concentration was so frazzled by, among other things, Manager Larry Bowa, that he moved his locker away from Bowa’s office, down into a corner hidden by a pole.

But he thinks he has survived it all pretty well. And think, even though this is his 12th year, he could play six or seven mores.

“Easy,” Templeton said. “The way I’m feeling now, at least that much.”

And he said he would like for that time to be spent here.

“This has been my home. I like to play here. . . . The end result is that I’ll probably end up in San Diego,” Templeton said. “I mean, if it’s my choice, I’ll end up here.”

It will likely be the Padres’ choice, too, if only because McKeon believes that both Templeton and Thon can co-exist as good fielders and decent hitters and let the rest of next year’s team drive in the runs.

“I feel we’ve got two premium guys there. They respect each other; they both add to the team. I like having them both,” McKeon said.

Templeton said, indeed, he likes Thon almost as much as he likes to play.

Templeton, who has played in 72 of the club’s 103 games, said, “I’ve always said, if somebody is doing a better job, get them in there, and Dickie has been doing a good job lately. To leave him out of the lineup would not be fair. It’s been tough on my concentration, playing one game, having one game off, but I’m getting used to it. I’ll just have to go with it and see what happens.”

What happened Friday was that Templeton, inserted into the lineup in place of the hot Thon only because of one of McKeon’s “gut” feelings, scored the Padres’ third run after a leadoff single in the fourth to give them a 3-1 lead, then cinched it in the sixth with a two-run homer off reliever Randy St. Claire, his third, after Tim Flannery had led off the inning with a walk.

That gave the Padres a 5-1 lead, enough runs so that Andy Hawkins could tire and give up two more runs in the seventh before leaving the game for Mark Davis.

Allowing three runs and seven hits in 6 innings, Hawkins improved his record to 10-8 and Davis, throwing 2 scoreless innings, picked up his 18th save.

“That home run was a key because it gave us room to work with,” McKeon said.

Templeton’s homer was exceeded in rarity only by Gwynn’s, which put the Padres up, 2-0, in the third. With one out, Gwynn hit a looper to right field that Paul O’Neill chased as it bounced to the wall.

O’Neill, in 93 games this year, had committed just two errors. It was therefore surprising to see him slip on the warning track and fall on his face in the dust. It was even more surprising to see him grab the ball while on his knees, attempt to throw, and watch it slip off the back of his hand behind him, back to the wall.

By this time Gwynn was rounding third--no doubt with a smile--and then scoring easily for the Padres’ first inside-the-park home run since Sept. 23, 1987, in Cincinnati by John Kruk. O’Neill was not given an error because it was ruled that, from his knees, he had no chance to throw Gwynn out anyway.

“First time I’ve done that since Little League,” Gwynn said. “It’s easier in Little League because the bases are closer together. Coming home, I was so tired I almost lost it. I would rather hit one out of the park.”

Padre Notes

The Padres’ No. 1 pick in the June draft, pitcher Andy Benes, is making his first visit to San Diego this weekend during a 10-day break from his schedule with the U.S. Olympic team. The former Evansville University (Ind.) star pitcher and his wife and parents flew to town Thursday afternoon and arrived at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium just in time to miss Houston scoring three runs off Eric Show in the top of the first inning. They visited the zoo Friday afternoon, and then Benes pitched in the Padres’ bullpen for 15 minutes before Friday night’s game. Pitching coach Pat Dobson watched, and approved. “He’s got good arm action, he doesn’t use much effort, and his ball still has good zip,” Dobson said. “He throws hard and doesn’t have to strain a gut to do it, and that’s a good sign.”

Dobson, a former minor league pitching instructor who has seen his share of young arms in bullpens, said if he had to assign Benes a level in the Padre organization, he would stick him at double-A Wichita. “I think you could get a good reading on him there. It’s not too easy, and if he has success, the big leagues would not be too far away,” Dobson said. “For whatever reason, double-A can help show you the big-league future of a lot of pitchers.” Benes, 20, who won’t formally join the Padres until their minor league pre-training camp in mid-February, said he doesn’t care where he goes. “I’ll go wherever they tell me, “ he said as he glanced out at the stadium mound. “It will be nice to throw here every fifth day . . . but I can’t be impatient. I know I’m not anywhere near being here.” Benes said that although he is enjoying his Olympic experience--which began at a tryout camp in mid-June and will continue through the conclusion of the Games in early October--it’s not quite what he expected. “At first it was real tough, two workouts a day, and now there’s a lot of traveling, one-day stops everywhere,” said Benes, whose roommate, Gregg Olsen, grew weary of the routine and quit the team to pitch in the Baltimore Oriole organization. Benes said he will stick it out. “I gave them my word, and I’m not going to quit,” he said, later adding: “It’s going to start being a lot better, as we get to the world championships and the Games. It’s going to start being worth it, and being something I’ll remember for an awful long time. That’s the reason I’m there.”

Wearing a pair of shoes given to him by Lance McCullers, and using a bat from Dave Leiper, Benes even took a few minutes of batting practice Friday. Using a wood bat for the first time in years, Benes, who is 6-feet 5-inches, drove a ball to the warning track. “Keep hacking, young man!” shouted Tony Gwynn from the Padre bench. Benes will leave town Sunday, and Padre fans won’t be able to see him again until Aug. 14, when he pitches in an Olympic exhibition in Charlotte, N.C., that will be televised on the USA network. Once the Olympics begin, considering that he probably will be that team’s No. 1 pitcher, local fans will see a lot.