For Sale: One Baseball Team, $100 Million, or Best Offer : Padres: Joan Kroc says she’ll sell only to a ‘high-class, genuine, no-tight-purse-strings owner.’

The telephone began ringing a few minutes before 6 Wednesday morning, and by the time Jerry Kapstein left his La Jolla office in the evening, it hadn’t stopped.

Calls from all parts of the country, from all walks of life. Men. Women. The rich. The not-so rich. The famous. The anonymous.

“Let’s just say I got many, many calls,” Kapstein said.

The news of Joan Kroc’s announcement that she will sell the Padres crossed the continent Tuesday, and those who had been unaware of her intentions immediately jumped into the ring. Oh, the estimated asking price of $100 million is a little steep, but it was not enough to deter folks from calling Kapstein, who will negotiate the sale.

“It’d have to be somebody immensely interested in baseball or needs the ego satisfaction, and there are plenty of those people around,” said San Diego developer Harvey Furgatch, “but it’s not me. I love baseball, but who wants to deal with those players? What a headache.”

But there are plenty apparently willing to inherit the thrills and anguish of owning a major league baseball team. And one party, according to sources, has been involved in serious negotiations for at least a week and could acquire the team before the baseball winter meetings in December.

Kapstein, who has promised anonymity to prospective buyers, revealed no names but said that one of the potential ownership groups is from San Diego.

“I just can’t comment,” Kapstein said, “(except) to say that I’ve talked to people in the community and people outside the community. We want to do things promptly, but we don’t have an arbitrary clock or timetable. If it takes a lot of time, so be it.

“I can say the sale will be conducted before next season, and it will be handled with dignity, but I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you when something like this will be finalized.”

Kroc, whose late husband, Ray, purchased the team in 1974 for $12 million, said Wednesday that it will not necessarily be sold to the highest bidder but to a person or group that will treat the team the same way the Kroc family did during its 15-year reign.

“It will be a high-class, genuine, no-tight-purse-strings owner,” Kroc said. “Only quality people of integrity need apply. Without meeting that first criteria, there’s no amount of money that can buy the club.”

The last time Kroc put the team up for sale in 1987, former Commissioner Peter Ueberroth advised her that she should contact George Argyros, a Newport Beach businessman who also owned the Seattle Mariners. Argyros arranged to purchase the team for an estimated $50 million-$65 million, but the deal was aborted.

“We’re not going through that again, I promise you that,” Kroc said. “That all started with the commissioner. I never heard of Argyros, but it was at his (Ueberroth’s) recommendation that he get involved. And that was very, very unfortunate.”

This time, Kroc said, she’s going to have to be assured that the ownership group plans on keeping the Padres in San Diego past their current lease, which expires in March 31, 2000, and also be willing to spend money to keep the club competitive.

“The No. 1 criteria,” Kapstein said, “is an owner who can carry on ownership with the same dedication to people, the community and the team. The community will never be able to replace Joan Kroc, and I don’t pretend to find someone identical, because she is irreplaceable. But I would like to find someone who is at least of the same cloth, and that is very, very important to all of us.”

The Padre front office, which was caught off-guard by Kroc’s announcement Tuesday, spent the day Wednesday squelching speculation that the club’s decision-making will be a standstill until the sale is complete.

“I want to assure our fans that it’s business as usual for the San Diego Padres,” President Dick Freeman said in a prepared statement. “Joan Kroc has established a quality reputation for this ballclub, and our job is to maintain and build upon it. So we’re going to do what it takes to meet our priorities of improving the club and bringing a championship to San Diego in 1990. And we’re going to do it in a businesslike and financially responsible manner. There’s a lot of pride in what was accomplished both on the field and at the game in 1989, and we want that winning tradition to continue next season.”

Said Kroc: “We still have a business to run. He’s (Freeman) going to have carte blanche to negotiate contracts and anything else that makes sense.”

The Padres are involved in negotiations with reliever Mark Davis, who’s eligible for free agency at the conclusion of the World Series, and have an Oct. 31 deadline to exercise the option on shortstop Garry Templeton’s contract. They also might be interested in potential free agents, such as pitcher Mark Langston, whose price tag is expected to exceed $8.5 million for three years. The Padres understandably could be hesitant taking on hefty contracts considering that it could devalue the franchise’s market value.

“I’m not sure it’s not an over-inflated price, anyway,” said Harry Ornest of Los Angeles, who recently failed in his bid to purchase the Texas Rangers. “George Bush’s son paid $32 million for 58% of the Rangers, and he got 125 acres and a stadium to go with it. I’m not suggesting they won’t pay $100 million, but let’s just say I’d be surprised.

“You got to remember, too, because of their lease, they have to stay in the city until the year 2000. The Mariners and other franchises that were recently sold had the built-in intangible that if things didn’t go well, you can move it. You don’t have that option with the Padres, and that might make it a little less attractive.

“I’m not interested right now, but I’ll leave the door open. I think you’re going to see a lot more ballclubs go up for sale real quick. You don’t know what baseball faces in penalties for collusion, and they’re looking at a strike next season.

“I’ll be very curious to see what happens.”

Join the club.

THE TEAM’S VALUE

Appraiser predicts Padres will fetch between $85 million-$100 million. D2A