Lockout Ends; Season to Start April 9 : Padres: With their enthusiasm waning in the past few weeks, the players are more than happy to get back to baseball.

Fred Lynn can finally start facing a different pitcher than his wife.

Mark Grant won’t have to worry about getting that job at his neighborhood car wash.

Greg Harris said realtor school can wait.

Jack Clark’s days of driving the kids to school will be over until fall.

For the first time since they last got together Sept. 30, the Padres will be playing baseball.

The major league baseball lockout ended late Sunday night when the owners and Players Assn. agreed to a new four-year basic agreement.

Spring training will officially resume Tuesday, and their 1990 season-opener likely will be at home April 9 or 10 against the Dodgers at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The Padres’ entire spring-training schedule in Yuma, Ariz., has been cancelled, and now the team will play its first exhibition game March 26 against the Angels in Palm Springs.

“Everything’s all set to go now,” Padre catcher Mark Parent said. “Now all we have to do is go win the World Series, huh?”

Indeed, with the Padres favored to win the National League West Division, few people were happier with Sunday’s news than Jack McKeon, Padre manager and vice president/baseball operations.

It was four weeks ago that McKeon drove to the Padres’ spring-training site in Yuma, Ariz., expecting that any day he would be seeing his players.

Instead, he’s practically gotten to know the family tree of every one of his minor league players for all the time he’s spent around them.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to get this thing finally resolved,” McKeon said. “I just hope everyone puts all this (labor) stuff behind them and looks forward to the 1990 season, because I think it’s going to be a good one.

“I think we’ll have an advantage because a lot of our guys have been working out, well, at least I hope they’ve been working out.”

Well, the Padre players hate to tarnish the faith that McKeon had in their workout routine, but for the past two weeks, a lot of them had lost their enthusiasm.

“It’s been real tough, I’ve got to admit,” said Lynn, the Padres’ 38-year-old left fielder. “I peaked with weight training and everything else about Feb. 23. I didn’t want to get burned out, and with no end in sight to this thing, it was hard to get out there every day.

“I had my wife throwing to me in an open piece of pasture by our house, but I’ve got a feeling that’s not quite the same.”

Padre right fielder Tony Gywnn also ran into the same problem, and when he found no pitchers to throw batting practice, he coerced his agent, John Boggs, to throw him the best stuff he had. Boggs’ stuff actually was better than Gwynn expected, but it wasn’t exactly the type of pitching which prepares a hitter for a run at .400.

“It’s strange, I’m happy, but I’m not as excited as I was a week ago,” Gwynn said. “I’m not jumping up and down, and running out and filling up my car. That excitement’s gone by the board.

“I’m sure everybody’s going to be real happy, too, when we get that $80,000 or so from the strike fund that they’ve been saving up.

“Now, it’s time to go to work. We’ve got three weeks to get ready, and it’s our job to get it done whether we’re ready or not. There’s going to be no sympathy for us once the season starts. The fans are going to want to see a strong level of baseball.”

Whether or not the players will be in proper playing shape by April 9 or 10 remains highly questionable, but McKeon said that he will attempt to schedule as many intrasquad games as possible while extending the daily workouts.

“We’ll just have to do the best we can,” McKeon said. “You know we’ve got guys who have been working out all winter, but of course it’s different facing live pitching.

“The biggest disadvantage we have is that we have some new guys, and won’t have that extra time for everybody to get to know each other. But what are you going to do? We have no choice.”

It figures that pitchers will suffer the most with the shortened spring. The Padre pitchers said that it will be highly unlikely that any starter will be able to pitch a complete game until late April.

“It’s a shame the owners had to keep us out of spring training,” said Padre pitcher Dennis Rasmussen, “because now it’s going to keep us from playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played. We should have had serious negotiations two months ago, not two weeks ago.

“I really don’t see the pitchers being ready. You just can’t go right out there and throw nine innings. It takes time to build your arm up. You’ve got to do it slowly. That’s why pitchers and catchers always come to camp early, because they need the extra time.”

Padre starter Ed Whitson said: “Guys are going to have to be real careful. You know there’s going to be some injuries. You hope they aren’t serious, but boy, you know they’re going to come.”

Although many of the Padre players were working out early in the lockout, for the past couple of weeks, the seemingly endless delay had squelched their enthusiasm.

Harris and Andy Benes, who are expected to be the two youngest pitchers on the Padre roster this season, said that frequently they would drive by San Diego State to throw on the side, but never could find a catcher.

“You won’t believe this,” Benes said, “but I made plans to throw Monday to Sandy (Alomar) Jr. and Benito (Santiago). Now that I finally found a catcher, it’s too late.

“But this is great. It’s been tough hanging in there, sitting in front of the TV waiting for ESPN’s Sports Center every day. I told myself that I’d quit doing that, but the last three days I’ve been back at it.”

Said Harris: “Guys really didn’t know what to do, how to prepare. A lot of guys were bored with it. Hey, I tell you, it got pretty boring sitting around each day. I mean, I was even watching college baseball on ESPN.”

Said Grant: “It was really hard to get motivated to work out, because we didn’t know when this thing would get settled, or if it would get settled. You should see me now. I’m ecstatic.”

Yep, it’s time to go to work.

“It was kind of nice to have Jack around the house for the extra month,” said Tammy Clark, wife of Padre first baseman Jack Clark. “But it really wasn’t much of a vacation. It was like any day this could end.

“So tell me, how many days left do I have to tell Jack to take the kids to school?”