Schulze Gets a Good Start With Padres

Just the other day, Padre Manager Jack McKeon was musing about his latest trade, actually hoping, he said, that pitcher Walt Terrell would fare well in New York.

You see, the Yankees still are being ripped apart by the New York tabloids for dealing away Jack Clark to the Padres, and now have tried their hand again by swapping third baseman Mike Pagliarulo and pitcher Don Schulze for Terrell.

“I want him to do well,” McKeon said. “If you have too many one-sided deals, a team won’t deal with you.”

Well, after the Padres’ 9-4 victory over the Dodgers Saturday night, pardon the Yankees if they wad up McKeon’s phone number and throw it away.

It was enough that Pagliarulo was diving all over the infield once again, killing any Dodger hopes of rallies. But there on the mound, making just his seventh major-league start since the end of the 1986 season, was Schulze.

He was the throw-in, remember. When the trade was almost consummated, McKeon coyly said to Yankees, “Oh, by the way, could you guys throw in a pitcher? We need someone to take Terrell’s spot in the rotation.”

No problem, Yankee General Manager Syd Thrift said. We got the perfect guy for you. Schulze.

Hee-hee-hee-hee.

Schulze, though just 26, was headed for his 14th team and seventh organization, packing his bags for his 13th city, ninth state and fifth big-league club.

No wonder the guy’s staying at Hotel 8 around the corner from San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, making sure not to send his laundry out overnight.

Schulze’s biggest claim to fame was an exhibition game played in Davenport, Iowa, in 1981. Pitching for Quad Cities in the Chicago Cubs organization, which had made him a first-round draft pick the previous year, Schulze hit a home run.

He strolled around the bases just like anyone would do, but when he rounded third, he was startled to see a guy in a chicken outfit, who then tackled him. You know the mascot. The Famous Chicken, who still the San Diego Chicken then.

The crowd giggled, and even the players had to laugh. Only when Schulze lifted himself from the ground did they detect that something was wrong.

Holding his left shoulder in pain, Schulze immediately went to the trainer’s room and later to the hospital. X-rays revealed a separated shoulder. He went on the disabled list.

He returned three weeks later but never again was the same. The following year, in September 1982, Schulze decided to do something about it. He filed a $2 million damage suit against The Chicken Co., which handles the business affairs of Ted Giannoulas.

The suit eventually went to federal court in October 1985, but a Davenport jury cleared Giannoulas of any damages. Schulze and his lawyer appealed, and a year later, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court upheld the ruling.

That was the extent of Schulze’s fame in pro baseball.

That may be changing.

In his first start for the Padres, Schulze (pronounced SCHULZ-ee) allowed just two runs in six innings Saturday, winning his first National League game since 1987.

Still refusing to talk about the Famous Chicken incident, Schulze was more than happy to discuss his latest outing, in which he allowed seven hits--all singles.

“I had a pretty good sinker tonight,” he said, “and Benny (Santiago) just went with it. I just tried to keep it down and get some ground balls, and you saw what happened.”

Schulze, without the slightest hint of nervousness, mowed down the Dodgers in the first five innings, allowing four harmless singles. Even when he ran into adversity in the fifth, he escaped.

Mike Scioscia led off with a single to center. Pitcher John Wetteland, trying to move him to second with a sacrifice bunt, fared even better than planned. When he dropped the ball in front of Santiago, the catcher elected to go to second. But his throw sailed to the right of the base, and everyone was safe.

With the top of the order awaiting and no one out, now surely would be the time, the Dodgers thought, to rid themselves of this pest once and for all.

Alfredo Griffin couldn’t do it, popping up a bunt into the mitt of Santiago.

Not Willie Randolph either, hitting a fly ball to center field.

And when Kal Daniels hit a bouncer back to the mound, there was Schulze pounding his fist into his glove in jubilation, running off the mound.

If he was ecstatic with the way he got out of this jam, you can just imagine how he felt the bottom of the inning when the Padres scored five runs--two more than their total in the previous 24 innings.

They opened the inning with consecutive singles to center by Chris James, Pagliarulo and Santiago, scoring one run. That brought up Schulze, who until this game had not batted since Aug. 8, 1987.

Schulze surprised his teammates in batting practice by hitting several balls into the left-field seats, but when they asked him if he was going to try to hit one during the game, Schulze muttered, “They told me not to worry about anything else I do up there, but get down those bunts.”

Schulze did just as instructed, laying down a bunt to the right side of the mound. Wetteland and Eddie Murray ran toward the ball. Wetteland picked it up and, when making his throw, tripped over Murray. Schulze, running hard to first, tripped over the bag, tumbling down the line. And second baseman Willie Randolph, covering first, completed the three-ring circus by dropping the ball.

That brought up Bip Roberts, who lost his starting job at third when the Padres acquired Pagliarulo and was starting at shortstop only because of Garry Templeton’s knee injury. And in midst of these trying times, Roberts arrived to the ballpark in a sullen mood, grieving during the day over the death of his wife’s grandfather in Los Angeles.

Roberts stepped to the plate and watched Wetteland fall behind three and one in the count. Knowing Wetteland would have to come to him with a fastball, Roberts just had to make sure it was a strike.

It was, and Roberts swung away, slapping the ball into right field. James scored. Pagliarulo scored. Roberts would later drive in Shawn Abner in the eighth for the biggest RBI night of his career.

It was just the beginning for the Padre offense. Roberto Alomar sacrificed, moving Santiago and Schulze into scoring position, and Tony Gwynn was intentionally walked, loading the bases.

Jack Clark drove in one run with a sacrifice fly to center, and the Padres made it 5-0 when Roberts scored on reliever Mike Morgan’s wild pitch to the backstop.

The Padres told Schulze to call it a night when they pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the inning. He watched an exchange of two-run homers, by Jack Clark in the seventh and Franklin Stubbs in the eighth. The Padres scored twice more in the bottom of the eight, and Schulze walked into the clubhouse as a winning pitcher in this league for the first time in two years.

Oh, and about the Famous Chicken?

“Schulze told us that if he ever saw that thing again, he’d strangle it,” one of his teammates said.

Is this true?

Schulze only smiled.

Padre Notes

Padre pitcher Eric Show, still holding out faint hope that he will not have to undergo back surgery for a bulging disk, will seek out two more medical opinions Monday. But from all indications, Show will have to undergo surgery sometime in the next couple of months, which would require a rehabilitation of six to eight weeks. “I’m open to anything right now, even acupuncture,” Show said. “But the most important thing is getting myself healthy, and being ready to go by next spring. If it takes surgery, that’s what I’m going to have to do.”