Padre Notebook : Kruk Happy to Be Making Strides on the Bases

Contrary to what a second straight Desert Sun Stadium record crowd would like you to believe, the big news Sunday was not the Padres’ 5-1 victory over the Angels and a three-game sweep of an opening series of the exhibition season.

It was not starter Eric Show’s three innings without an earned run, or reliever Pat Clements’ three innings without an earned run, or reliever Mark Grant’s three innings without an earned run (the staff has not allowed an earned run in 22 of 27 innings).

The big news was a squeeze and a slide and a John Kruk smile.

With one out in the eighth inning, and Kruk on third base, Grant suddenly squared to bunt against Angel pitcher Stewart Cliburn. Kruk charged from third. The ball met the bat and bounced in front of the plate and Kruk slid home with a run.

The same John Kruk who a couple of weeks ago could barely walk.

“Today was fun,” Kruk said afterward, the first time he’s used the word “fun” this spring. “I figured I might as well find out now what I could do with my knee. And I found out.”

He can do, well, darn near everything. In his first full nine innings of the spring, he collected two singles, knocked in a run, played first base flawlessly, and generally did not look like a man who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in January and reported to camp with a limp. That was two weeks ago, and there was immediate speculation that he had severely damaged his trade value--Atlanta was interested in him as part of the package for Dale Murphy--and maybe even damaged his chances of being in the Padres’ starting lineup opening day.

Sunday, in front of 6,431, he acted as if his only problem is remembering which knee was hurt in the first place.

“Yeah, I had some soreness in the first couple of days of camp, but the knee has gotten better every day,” Kruk said. “I’ve been in the trainer’s room every morning around 7 o’clock, working on the bikes and the weights and things. It’s helped me feel strong, stronger than I’ve ever felt before. Not just my knee, but all of me.”

Then came his first game Sunday and his first test. “I guess I’m going to be an NFL player, playing only on Sunday,” he said.

“I wanted to see if I could slide, because I’ve always just slid on my right knee. I’ve never known any other way. That was what I was worried about.”

Worry not.

“I decided just to do it, not even think about it,” he said. “And I didn’t feel a thing. I’m glad.”

So may be the Atlanta Braves. Or the Seattle Mariners. . . .

“Kruk is fine,” Manager Jack McKeon said, repeating a phrase he used even when Kruk didn’t seem to be fine. “We weren’t running him out there to test his knee. We aren’t in the business of being a rehabilitation center. We tested his knee, and found it fine, a long time ago.”

Padre Notes

Although a 3-0 exhibition record means as much as a 29-0 record--nothing--at least one player is finding it hard to keep the excitement bottled up. “I’ve never seen so many people here for one opening series,” Tony Gwynn said after a three-day draw of 17,336. “I was down at the hotel front desk and a Padre fan comes in and asks for a room and the lady says, ‘No rooms,’ and the guy asks for a room at any another hotel in town and the lady says, ‘No rooms anywhere in town,’ and the guy asks where the nearest room is, and she tells him, ‘El Centro,’ and he says, ‘Fine, I’ll stay there and be back tomorrow.’ ” El Centro is about an hour west of Yuma. “Now that’s crazy,” Gwynn said, “but that’s the way it is around here. People getting that excited, it can’t help but make us excited.” . . . The Padres boarded buses after Sunday’s game for the annual trip to the Phoenix area, where they will play games for the next 10 days. All team members are required to ride on the bus because, a couple of years ago, utility man Kurt Bevacqua drove his car off the road in the middle of the desert and, with his passenger, catcher Bruce Bochy, needed rescuing. “It’s not worth it to take that chance again,” Manager Jack McKeon said. . . . McKeon used the impetus of the huge crowds to make a pitch for bigger facilities here. “I think if we had the proper seating (Desert Sun Stadium officially holds 6,874), we’d get between 6,000 and 7,500 in here every game,” McKeon said. “We need more seats, better seats and more hotel rooms here. We need to take care of all of our good fans who are coming over here. We have an advantage over all other teams in spring training because we are so close to home, and we need to capitalize on that.” A Padre spokesman said the Caballeros de Yuma, the service organization which runs the park for the city, will meet after spring training to discuss improved facilities.