Roll the Film! Padres Picture Big Year in ’90

Excuse me, but would it be gauche or even un-American to be talking baseball on the eve of the National Football League’s conference championships?

It shouldn’t be, not around here.

After all, it has been seven years since the local football heroes were party to any activity in January. It is interesting to ponder how many Super Bowls will be played in San Diego before San Diego plays in a Super Bowl.

This then leaves us to contemplate how many World Series the Padres might be in before the Chargers make it to a Super Bowl.

You see, I am ready for the baseball season to start. Spring training is little more than a month away, assuming something as stupid as a strike or a lockout does not intervene.

The 1989 Padre highlight film, which made its debut Thursday night, did not stir memories as much as it did hope. What it was was a look ahead.

Indeed, if this was a look back, Mark Davis would have made his first appearance long before what must have been the last reel. (Then again, maybe it was appropriate that Davis should appear near the end, since that was his modus operandi through what was a Cy Young season.)

Instead, Davis’ contribution are acknowledged and then Davis is dismissed, as in sayonara Cy.

Davis is gone, it seemed to be saying, but look at what’s new pussycat . . .

Joe Carter . . . and Craig Lefferts . . . and Fred Lynn.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Carter may be the best player the Padres have ever obtained in a trade. This is an impact player. Put Tony Gwynn third, Carter fourth and Jack Clark fifth, and you have a lineup with snap, crackle and a whole lot of pop.

When Jack McKeon was asked who would be playing where, he identified Benito Santiago as the catcher, Clark as the first baseman, Roberto Alomar as the second baseman, Garry Templeton as the shortstop, Gwynn as the right fielder, Carter as the center fielder and a very versatile “I don’t know” at both third base and left field.

These observations came in a question-and-answer period. The film itself did not deal with such specifics, only with how wonderful everyone will be.

But one of the film’s stars should be the answer to McKeon’s “I don’t know.” Bip Roberts was identified in the film as a utility player. In his case, this should mean that he is available to play whatever position no one else seems to be able to take.

You know, Roberts plays third base if Fred Lynn plays left field, and Roberts plays left field if Mike Pagliarulo plays third base. That’s called utilitarian, if not utility.

One “place” Roberts has to play is leadoff. The film reminds us that he hit .301 and scored 81 runs in only 117 games last year. He wasn’t under-utilized, but rather discovered a little too late.

Another reminder . . . Alomar ended up hitting .295, sixth in the National League. Suddenly, the batting order is looking awfully good in the first through fifth spots.

That gets us, finally, to the very first face to pop onto the screen.

Benito Santiago.

Maybe that’s the way of getting the message to everybody that this man is the Padre catcher. There’s no more controversy, no more tug-a-war, over whether the Padres will deal Santiago or Sandy Alomar Jr. Goodby, Junior; Hello, Benny.

When Santiago gets to Yuma, McKeon should sit him down and show him the film first thing. He will walk out of the room popping his buttons and maybe get through a whole season without whining or complaining.

Not only did the film get me thinking the Padres are going to score a lot of runs, but it also left the impression that the other guys won’t be scoring a lot of runs.

The 1989 staff, which returns virtually intact, may have gone unappreciated in the shadow of Mark Davis’ 44 saves. After all, Ed Whitson and Bruce Hurst were fourth and fifth in the league in earned run average and had 31 victories between them. Eric Show was only around for 16 starts before he was injured, and Andy Benes was only around for 10 starts after being called up. Remember that Mark Grant was 8-2, and Greg Harris had a 2.60 earned run average.

What we have here is a solid starting rotation and a committee with no chairman, unless maybe it’s Lefferts, to come out of the bullpen.

However, one thing I did not see in the film were many highlights from early in the season. Indeed, there have been very few early-season highlights for the Padres for the last couple of years. It is as if they start spring training in February and finish it sometime in June, whereupon they commence playing baseball.

If the Padres’ 1990 highlight film is going to be as good as the 1989 highlight film seems to suggest it will be, they might consider that games played in April and May do count.

In the meantime, of course, we can entertain ourselves watching other cities’ teams continue to play football. At least it will kill time until the real season is here . . . or the Chargers produce a highlight film longer than a station break.