BASEBALL ’90 PREVIEW : It Will Be Alarming If Padres Hit Snooze Button Again

It may be a week late, but it’s still much too early.

After all, it’s only April.

That is much too early to ask the Padres to begin playing baseball. The Padres are like those people who hate to be called before 11 a.m. because, they insist, they are not morning people. Wake the Padres up in June.

For 25 major league teams, the lockout was too long. Not for the Padres. They had to be hoping it lasted until May . . . like around Memorial Day.

You see, the Padres of late have enjoyed April and May about as much as a turkey enjoys November and December. The idea is to try and get out of those months alive.

The way the Padres play in April and May is akin to backing out of the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby or driving the first third of the Indianapolis 500 in an Edsel. The Padres never seem to realize they are in a pennant race until they aren’t any more.

These guys would get to a play after the intermission, open a book with the last chapter and go to a concert in time for the encore. You can bet none of these guys were born prematurely.

Someone should be shaking them right now and telling them the games start counting this afternoon.

Someone should tell them to look around. They are no longer staying in a two-story hotel. They can no longer see one end of the city from the other. The media no longer shows up wearing shorts. The four-plex down the street is not showing Ben Hur, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Graduate and High Society. They are no longer in Yuma.

Over the past three years, the Padres’ collective record for April and May has been 59-96. You can’t climb out of a hole like that with pitons.

The worst start, of course, was in 1987, when they came out of May with a 12-39 record. First place was so far away that MCI, Sprint and AT&T; wouldn’t even quote rates on a call that far.

Another bleak start in 1988--18-32 for April and May--had one positive offshoot. Larry Bowa was replaced by Jack McKeon as manager on May 28.

That was such a dismal spring that Tony Gwynn couldn’t even get going, at least by his standards. He hit .299 for April, but slumped to .189 in May. Benito Santiago and Garry Templeton were also sub-.200 for May. Eric Show was 1-3, 5.09 for April, and Ed Whitson was 1-5, 8.69 for May.

Once McKeon took over, the Padres went on a 67-48 run and climbed from last (on June 1) to third in the division. It was a nice little run, but much too late to get them even to the fringes of contention.

April and May were not quite so abysmal last year. The record, a respectable 29-25, was certainly an improvement on the debacles of the previous two years. It was still not enough of a start that a veritable whirlwind of a finish was enough to catch San Francisco.

The amazing thing about the 29-25 start was that it could have been an incredible beginning. It could have left the Giants in a desperate struggle at the end rather than the other way around.

You see, the Padres could have come out of May with a record like 35-19 (or better) if . . . * Jack Clark had not hit .230 in April and .207 in May with a total of six home runs.

* Roberto Alomar had not hit .231 in April.

* Dennis Rasmussen had not been 1-4 with a 7.20 earned run average in April.

* Benito Santiago had not hit .207 in April.

* Garry Templeton had not hit .235 in April and .219 in May with a total of eight runs scored.

Looking at those numbers, even a decent start was miraculous. The fact that Ed Whitson came out of May 8-2 was indicative that (a) he pitched awfully well and (b) what little offense there was had to be condensed into the days he happened to be pitching.

Of course, the 1990 Padres have a couple of new faces who would figure to be immune to this history of slow starts.

Fat chance, not if 1989 is any indication.

From afar, Joe Carter and Fred Lynn, were April and May soulmates with their future teammates. In Cleveland, Carter hit .228 in April with two home runs and nine runs batted in. In Detroit, Lynn hit .174 without a home run in April and followed it with a .243 May with one home run.

The question thus persists.

Do the Padres realize that the season opens today?

Do the Padres realize that today’s game counts as much as the ones in September?

If not, somebody better tell them it is not too early to start playing baseball . . . before it is too late. Again.