Padres’ Williams, Abner Seek Major Improvement

Life wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Not for Eddie Williams.

And certainly not for Shawn Abner.

These were first-round draft picks by the New York Mets, considered superstars before the age of 18. Loads of money was invested. Stardom was predicted.

Why not, after all? Williams was picked fourth in all the land, just behind Tim Belcher of the Dodgers, Kurt Stillwell of the Kansas City Royals and Jeff Kunkel of the Texas Rangers.

Abner was the No. 1 pick in 1984 June free agent draft of of his high school in Pennsylvania, selected ahead of such current big leaguers as Mark McGwire of Oakland, Cory Snyder of Cleveland, Oddibe McDowell of Atlanta, Scott Bankhead of Seattle and Tom Glavine of Atlanta.

“You look at all of those guys, and say, ‘My God, what happened to me?’ ” Williams said. “How come I’m not where they are? Where have I gone wrong?”

It’s too early in their careers to utter the word, but both have heard it often and shudder each time. When you don’t live up to expectations, “failure” is an easy noun to bestow upon someone.

“It’s not fair,” Williams said, “but then, hey man, who said life was supposed to be fair?”

Williams is 25, Abner just 23. But here they are at the crossroads, their fate determined by the Padres.

“You hate to look at it that way,” Williams said, “but then again, how else is there to look at it?”

Said Abner: “I get sick of hearing people say, ‘You’re still young. You’re still young.’ Pretty soon, I’ll be an old man. This is the year I’ve got to make it.

“I know, and I’m sure Eddie does, too, that this team is going to be so good this year, that both of us want to be a part of it.”

Instead of being assured spots, Abner is struggling just to make the team as a reserve outfielder, and Williams will be considered fortunate to make it as a third baseman.

“Who knows what’s going to happen?” Williams said. “I mean, whoever thought we’d be in the jam we’re in now.”

Williams, San Diego Section player of the year in 1983 while playing for Hoover High School, says his story is revealed by a glimpse at his resume.

He has played seven seasons. This is his fifth organization.

“Once you get a label in baseball,” he said, “it sticks with you forever. I know I’m a big league player. Nobody can tell me anything different.

“But when you look at a guy who has been with five teams, what can you say, you’re thought of by everyone in baseball as having an attitude problem.

“I’m trying to my damnedest to change it, but really, no matter what I do, that won’t go away.”

The trouble began as soon as he turned professional. The statistics reveal that he performed adequately, but when you batted .434 your senior year in high school and pitched a complete-game victory in the state championship game in your only start, mediocrity doesn’t cut it.

“When you’re 18 years old, never have struggled before in your life, and you run into adversity,” Williams said, “I don’t consider it strange that I didn’t know how to handle it. But when you’re throwing your helmet, breaking your bat and not running out ground balls, that’s something that can be corrected, isn’t it? Hey, I was only 18.

“But it didn’t matter. That’s a label that stuck with me, and I’ve carried throughout my career.

“I’m sorry, but not everybody can be a Mike Schmidt overnight.”

Williams was bounced from the Mets’ organization after a year, spent a season in the Cincinnati Reds system, was unprotected and subsequently picked up by the Cleveland Indians in 1985, was traded to the Chicago White Sox in January 1989 and was released in October.

It was Brook Jacoby who kept him from an everyday job in Cleveland, he said. It was that “attitude thing” that cost him a job with the White Sox, despite his .274 batting average in the majors.

Now, he has been given yet another new lease in his career, and this time, he vows he won’t blow it. He came to Yuma in late February to work out with the minor leaguers and, now that he’s in the big league camp, has been among the first to arrive and the very last to leave the past two days.

People can have whatever impression of him they want, but if the Padres want their best team on the field, Williams says, he should be part of it.”

“Hey, I know that maybe I’ve got a little swagger from time to time, and maybe that won’t go away,” Williams said, “but nobody can tell me I’m not a big league ballplayer. Sure, I’m going to make some errors, and I’ll strike out from time to time with the bases loaded, but I know I belong in the big leagues.

“I’ll do whatever it takes. If they want me to go down to the bullpen and catch, I will. If they want me to play in 158 straight games, I’ll do that, too. Whatever they want, they can call my name.

“Because right now, there’s nothing I want more right now than to be given a shot to be on this team and stay on it for the next 15 years. That would be something, wouldn’t it?”

While Williams is looking for just that one opportunity, Abner is trying to prove once and for all that he deserves to stay.

He has been with the Padres each of the past three seasons but never played more than 57 games, the bench being his primary locale.

Abner’s problem has been his bat. He hit just .176 last season with six extra-base hits and 14 RBIs. He was the designated defensive replacement in the outfield. The protocol: “Abner, grab your glove . . . don’t worry about the bat.”

Abner spent the winter working out and hitting five, maybe six, times a week. If he’s going to have a job on this team, he’s going to have to hit.

“I know I can play defense,” he said. “I know I can run. I know I can do all of those things. But if I make the team, it’ll because I can hit, not that I didn’t make any errors.”

Now that spring training has been cut in half, Abner knows it’s more important than ever to make a great impression every day. There’s no room for a week-long slump. Hell, he can barely afford one bad day.

“I think this will be the year where I’ll find out if I can ever be a starter or if I’ll always be a backup,” he said. “I never thought I’d be saying that, and it’s stupid coming in here saying I want to win a job as a backup, but I’ve also got to face reality here.

“Maybe that’s been my problem, having trouble accepting my role as a backup. It’s tough, man. You know, I never sat on the bench in my life. I even started for the varsity when I was a freshman in high school.

“The time is now, and I’ve got to show what I’ve got.”

If nothing else, Abner says, at least he has made the Padre coaching staff take notice early. The flat-top haircut that he has sported the past couple of years has been abandoned and replaced with at least four more inches on top.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s crazy,” Abner said, “but the best year I ever had was in ’87 when I hit .300 at Las Vegas and .277 in the big leagues. And you know what? That was the year I had long hair.

“When you’re going like I was, shoot, you’ve got to try something different, anything to change people’s opinions of you.

“I guess now you can say I’m relying on just plain, dumb luck.

“Damn, it sure is a funny game, isn’t it?”

Padre Notes

The Padres’ eight-game exhibition schedule in Yuma should help the town recoup perhaps half of its estimated $8 million loss because of the lockout, Yuma Mayor Bob Tippett said. “We’re pleased we’re getting some of the games back,” Tippett said, “but it still won’t be the same. We had to refund all of our previous ticket sales, and now we’ll have to start all over.”

Exhibition tickets, on sale beginning at 8 a.m. today at a cost of $5, may be purchased in advance at Gate C at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, through Teleseat and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Desert Sun Stadium. There will be 4,000 tickets sold in advance for each game and 2,000 sold at Desert Sun Stadium on game days. Seating will be on a “festival” basis, first come, first served. Fans who have tickets for previously scheduled games against Seattle March 31 and April 1 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium may use those tickets for the newly scheduled games April 7 and 8 against the Mariners, using the corresponding day’s ticket.

Jack McKeon, on the scheduled April 9 regular season opener at Dodger Stadium: “We’ll be ready by then. We’ll play anybody, we’ll play whoever wants to play us. Let’s play two, I don’t care.” . . . Padre pitching Coach Pat Dobson arrived in Yuma Wednesday morning in time for practice, after driving 2,450 miles from his home in Cape Coral, Fla. “Thank God for radar,” he said. Dobson, who managed the Fort Myers team in the Senior League during the winter, said he will return for the 1990-1991 season after talking to his former manager with the Baltimore Orioles, Earl Weaver. “With expansion just around the corner, Earl told me it’d be best for me to come back,” Dobson said. . . . McKeon, on the rule change that will reduce the innings needed for a pitching victory to three for the first three weeks of the season: “The way I figure it, it makes it a whole lot easier now to take a guy out in the fourth inning. You won’t have him complaining and moaning about it.” . . . Outfielder Joe Carter arrived in camp Tuesday along with catcher Benito Santiago and second baseman Roberto Alomar. The license plate on Carter’s Jeep: JC RBI. . . . The license plate on first baseman Rob Nelson’s car: HIT1DEP. . . . Still missing from camp were veteran first baseman Jack Clark and pitcher Ed Whitson. Both are expected today. ... Having failed to find an opponent, the Padres, have decided to play either an intrasquad game or just work out April 6 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. The Padres have tentatively scheduled an intrasquad game for Sunday and a “B” game Tuesday against the Angels.