Hurst at Home With the Padres : After They Agree to Contract Change, He Signs for 3 Years and $5.25 Million

The San Diego Padres, for whom nothing has come easy since the invention of the Big Mac, spent the wee hours Thursday pushing and shoving and finally barging their way into a contract with Boston free agent pitcher Bruce Hurst.

At 3 a.m. EST Thursday, the red-eyed and wrinkled Padre management team finally changed a simple contract clause and Hurst agreed to a 3-year deal worth $5.25 million with incentives that could push it to $5.6 million.

One of the biggest transactions in club history, the agreement combines with the club’s earlier acquisitions of slugger Jack Clark and pitcher Walt Terrell to perhaps move last year’s third-place Padres into the role of preseason favorites in the NL West Division.

“I’d say the odds are pretty good on us for next year, wouldn’t you?” team owner Joan Kroc said in a rare interview.

Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn figures the odds are better than that.

“This makes us the team to be reckoned with right off,” said the two-time defending batting champion. “Before we ever touch a bat or pick up a ball, you’ve now got to look at us as serious contenders. “

Hurst said simply: “I’m not a savior. I just want to be a cog in a machine. I just want to pitch for the Padres as long and hard as I can.”

As a two-time All-Star and one of baseball’s top left-handed pitchers, Hurst was considered the game’s most attractive free agents this winter and certainly one of the toughest to court. He had spent his entire 13-year career in the Boston organization, with a career 88-73 record and 4.23 ERA, including a career-best 18-6 and 3.66 last season. The Red Sox organization included his friends, mentors and memories of appearances in two playoffs and a World Series.

So how did the Padres get him? Just as everyone suspected, he essentially chose the team for the three reasons many choose a home--location, location, location. The parents and families of both Hurst and wife, Holly, live about 500 miles east of San Diego in the St. George, Utah, area.

“The only obstacle we had was that we weren’t as close to Utah as San Diego,” Boston General Manager Lou Gorman said.

Hurst, 30, a Mormon and devout family man, said: “There’s truth in that. It was tough leaving Boston, I’ve got a lot of friends there, it’s a big part of me. But blood is thicker than water. And I wanted to be where we could raise our children near our families and home.”

Of course, he said also wanted to go where he could win, and he said the Padres convinced him they could.

“San Diego does have winning tradition--the approach is different than in Boston, but the tradition is still there,” he said. “I look around, and I see where were can win. We can win a lot.”

Thus, in the end, the surprising thing wasn’t so much that the Padres acquired him. It was that they lived to tell about it.

After 3 weeks of dickering, it was a deal that was:

--Quietly agreed upon Wednesday morning before Dick Freeman, the Padres’ interim president, entered an owners’ meeting here.

--Suddenly called off Wednesday afternoon when Freeman left the meeting and changed a clause in the contract pertaining to whether Hurst would be paid during projected labor strife in the 1990 season.

--Fought over late Wednesday night when a frustrated Freeman threatened to end all negotiations.

--Finally worked out when Freeman, in a series of late phone calls, convinced Padre owner Joan Kroc and club lawyers to change the offending clause.

“The deal is done,” McKeon told his attending entourage in a phone call from his suite. “Now good night .”

They awoke for Thursday morning’s press conference to another surprise--they already had lost the free-agent pitcher Hurst was going to replace.

Andy Hawkins, who has spent his entire 11-year pro career with the Padres, signed a 3-year, $3.6 million deal with the New York Yankees. Hawkins was 14-11 with a 3.35 ERA for the Padres in 1988, and overall was 60-58 with a 3.84 ERA.

“I’m glad to go somewhere where they are really interested in me,” said Hawkins, who reportedly was insulted at the Padres’ 2-year, $1.6 million offer and felt snubbed because his negotiations were overshadowed by talks with Hurst. “I’ve got no regrets whatsoever in leaving San Diego.”

Understandably, the manner in which the Padres accomplish things is not for everyone.

At one point Wednesday night, McKeon leaned back on a chair, which broke, and McKeon nearly fell through a window on the 47th floor. Another time, a disconsolate Freeman threatened to leave Atlanta early to visit his ailing mother in the Midwest, and he would have gone if he didn’t get tied up with a phone call and missed his flight.

In the end, Kroc didn’t get to bed until 1 a.m. on the West Coast. McKeon slept for 2 hours before going to church Thursday morning.

In suburban Boston, Hurst held an appropriate celebration. He sent Holly and their three children to McDonald’s for breakfast.

“Got to keep that stock up,” Hurst said of the company founded by Kroc’s late husband, Ray.

Said a tired Freeman: “I can’t think of one funny thing in all of this.”

Earlier Wednesday, Freeman had been advised by Kroc’s lawyers to change the contract language so that Hurst would likely not be paid in the case the owners decided to “lock out” striking players during the 1990 season.

Hurst’s agent Nick Lampros was incensed by this change and insisted on a more relaxed “lockout clause,” increasing Hurst’s chances of payment during a work stoppage.

“So all talking stopped,” Lampros said. “We were going to get up in the morning and take a look at the teams interested in us (Padres, Red Sox, Angels) and maybe pursue other avenues.”

But around midnight, McKeon talked with Freeman. He suggested that he give the negotiations one more try before leaving. Freeman said he was thinking about the same thing.

“I didn’t want to leave without one more shot at it,” Freeman said.

So he spent the next 90 minutes talking with Kroc and the lawyer, and around 1:30 a.m., he finally convinced them to change the clause to its original form. He then called Lampros, and agreement was just hours away.

“I was surprised they changed the contract so quick for us,” Lampros said. “I guess the organization is really committed to winning.”

“Bruce is an exceptional young man,” Kroc said. “And for exceptional young men, you make exceptions.”

With such an exception comes ramifications that will be noted throughout the league.

For one thing, the signing sends a distant, yet ominous signal to the rest of the division. Many baseball people believe that where Hurst goes, Atlanta slugger Dale Murphy cannot be far behind. The men, both Mormons, are best friends and have often spoken of playing together.

Kroc Thursday approved the pursuit of Murphy and his $2-million contract, saying, “Would we go after Dale Murphy? You bet. Dale has the qualities that we are looking for in a baseball player and a person. I’m definitely interested.”

The timing of a Hurst acquisition, just when the Padres were talking about trading for Murphy, “couldn’t have come at a more perfect time,” said one Padre official. “We’ve always thought if we get one, we can get them both.”

Hurst was reportedly going to phone Murphy Thursday and talk about the trade. The Padres would give up any number of young stars for the Braves outfielder, including catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. and outfielders John Kruk, Shawn Abner and Shane Mack.

The Padres also now have the only staff in baseball with five starters who last year pitched at least 200 innings each. Its combined 1988 record was 70-54 with a average 3.61 ERA.

Introducing, in possible order of rotation: right-hander Eric Show (16-11, 3.26 ERA in 1988), lefty Bruce Hurst (18-6, 3.66), righty Ed Whitson (13-11, 3.77), lefty Dennis Rasmussen (16-10, 3.43), righty Walt Terrell (7-16, 3.97 ERA).

“No question, the best staff I’ve ever had,” said McKeon, who has spent 30 years around pitchers. “I could have won a pennant on some of my clubs with this staff.”

As compensation for signing Hurst, the Padres have to forfeit their No. 1 draft pick next year to the Red Sox.

The Padre ticket office at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium was busier than normal Thursday.

According to Dave Gilmore, director of ticket operations for the Padres, approximately 100 season ticket packages were sold after Bruce Hurst’s signing was announced.

“Sales have been very brisk,” Gilmore said. “Probably walk-up sales today have been double what we normally expect this time of year, and phone calls are at least that. There’s definitely some interest.”

Gilmore said the Padres sell approximately 50 season ticket packages on a normal day. He said 7,748 half- and full-season ticket packages were sold as of Dec. 2 and approximately 1,000 have been sold since.

“That’s 15% ahead of last year at the same point,” Gilmore said.

According to Phylis Curtis, assistant to season ticket manager Tom Mulcahy, this rush was bigger than when the Padres traded for Jack Clark, but not as big as when they acquired another player a few years back.

“When we signed Steve Garvey, it went crazy,” Curtis said.

Jeffrey Parenti contributed to this story.

Strong-Armed

Bruce Hurst’s pitching statistics in his past eight seasons in major leagues with Boston.

YR W-L ERA 1981 2-0 4.30 1982 3-7 5.77 1983 12-12 4.09 1984 12-12 3.92 1985 11-13 4.51 1986 13-8 2.99 1987 15-13 4.41 1988 18-6 3.66