Padres Get Set to Hit the Hype

And so today it begins. The pitching. The hitting. The . . . television specials with cameras fixed on their sweat. The national magazine covers that will make it look as if they never sweat. Then there will be the TV commercials, no telling how many TV commercials, the ones that prove a man can actually pick out and purchase and drive away an automobile while in full baseball uniform.

And the questions. Always just one more question, not just from the usual group of writers and bold fans but from people who don’t know a stirrup from a sanitary. The “fair-weather guys,” the players call them. What about that pennant, Tony? Smile and tell us about those upcoming playoffs again, OK, Jack? What about 1984, Timmy baby, is this anything like 1984?

And so it begins today for the 1989 Padres: spring training, but not a normal spring training.

After their fine finish in 1988 and smart winter acquisitions, today begins 42 days and nights in a desert containing no visible signs of common sense. A desert where the biggest danger is not the heat but the hype.

The 1989 Padres: Can anybody beat them? Will anybody ever beat them? Is this sport’s next true dynasty?

Will their sanity survive until opening day so we can find out?

“To be honest with you, there is going to be a lot of pressure on us from the very beginning, a lot more than some of the guys on this team have ever felt . . . and I can’t predict how we’ll handle it,” said Tony Gwynn, the center fielder and defending National League batting champion.

Because of last season’s finger injury, Gwynn will be allowed to begin training today at the Ray A. Kroc Baseball Complex at 9 a.m., when the 17 pitchers and six catchers also start.

Although a couple of other position players also will show up today, the remainder of the 42-man squad is to begin work Wednesday, with the first “game” scheduled for next Sunday against a group of Padre minor leaguers and the first spring game March 3 in Yuma against the Angels.

But, as Gwynn noted, the games might not be this team’s biggest spring test. The problem might be handling the rest of the stuff.

“Personally, I don’t handle tough situations like this too good, and I don’t know how the rest of the club is going to react,” Gwynn said. “It’s like, Jack (McKeon, the manager) made all these great moves this winter, and we’ve had a couple of months to sit back and think about what kind of team we have and now. . . . Now we’re all together and it’s time to do it. There will be some pressure there.”

McKeon’s acquisitions, which included pitchers Bruce Hurst and Walt Terrell and first baseman Jack Clark, definitely will make the Padres’ lives easier. But Gwynn says they could make this spring tougher.

“Face it, last year was easier in that we were able to sneak up on people,” said Gwynn of the team’s 67-48 record after May 28, second best in the National League during that time. “This year, we sneak up on nobody. Now, everybody is shooting for us. Everybody is going to be talking about us.

“In all the time I’ve been here (six years), I can’t remember a year when we have been picked to win like this year. Not even before 1984 did they pick us to win. People who are going to wonder what these predictions are going to do to us, I’m just like them. I don’t know either.”

Time for a word from veteran infielder Tim Flannery who, not surprisingly, said the Padres needed to look at it a different way.

“Wait a minute,” Flannery said. “ We didn’t win the thing last year. We don’t have to repeat, do we? When you realize that everybody is going to forget those picks about two weeks into the season, you realize there shouldn’t be any pressure.”

And if there is?

“Hey, if we can’t handle the pressure now, if we don’t like being on TV or being in the newspapers now, then we might as well forget about playing past September,” Flannery said. “We’ll never make it that far.”

On the contrary, Flannery said, this spring should be fun.

“Look at it this way--in the past, we’ve been so young, it’s like we’ve always been playing for 1992,” Flannery said. “When they hear that, some guys have said, ‘Well then, I won’t play hard until 1992.’ Not anymore. When management assembles a team that gives you something to dream about, something to believe in, your concentration level rises, and it’s so much easier to get ready. You get caught up in it, and it makes you better.

“And the rest of that stuff, the publicity and stuff, you don’t even notice.”

McKeon tolerates the media for as long as they can tolerate his old stories, and he tolerates promotions people as long as their promotions don’t upstage his promotions. But he is nonetheless making certain this spring that his players don’t notice. The team will be off-limits during the daily 3 1/2-hour workouts, and the club will not require anyone to stay late for television or promotional work.

“This team’s marketing effort is going to be on the field,” McKeon said. “We will learn to discipline ourselves so that there are no interferences.”

Not that he doesn’t think his players shouldn’t listen: “Whatever people say about us, hey, it’s nice. It’s a tribute to all the work we did this winter. We should enjoy it.”

Said reliever Mark Davis: “It is nice. Tell you what, it’s going to be a lot more fun than just playing for pride. It’s good that for once, somebody besides ourselves think we can do it.”

No matter. Tony Gwynn is taking no chances.

“I’ve already got my sign written out now,” Gwynn said, laughing. “As soon as I get to camp, I’m going to tape it on my locker.

“The sign says, ‘The finger is fine.’ ”

Padre Notes

Two days before the opening of camp, Manager Jack McKeon cast some light on the club’s two possible platoon situations. If the season started today, “Garry Templeton would be my shortstop (instead of Mike Brumley) and Randy Ready would be my third baseman (instead of Tim Flannery),” McKeon said. . . . McKeon also has brought up the possibility, considered only quietly until now, of starter Ed Whitson eventually moving to the bullpen. “There’s no question he’s my starter right now,” McKeon said. “But down the road, the bullpen may be the place where he can extend his career. I’ve talked to him about that, and it is a possibility we both recognize.” This is one of the reasons rookie pitcher Greg Harris will likely be kept on the final roster, in preparation for eventually replacing Whitson. . . . The Padres’ first two of six spring “B” games, usually involving fringe roster members, are at Yuma March 3 and 4 at 10 a.m., before the the Padres’ first exhibition games with the Angels.