Padres Reward Riddoch, Making Everyone Happy : Baseball: Manager is rehired for 1991, and team stops Expos, 2-1, for 21st victory in past 31 games.

It was six weeks ago when Greg Riddoch was lying awake at nights, unable to sleep, unable to eat, and unable to understand why in the world he took this job in the first place.

He never wanted to be manager of the Padres. He wasn’t even thinking about managing. He hadn’t managed a team since Eugene in the short-season Class A Northwest League, and that, for heaven’s sakes, was 10 years ago.

“I wanted to know,” said Riddoch, who agreed to replace Jack McKeon as manager through the end of the season, “what I did to deserve this.”

Well, after what he’s accomplished, Riddoch learned that he’s not going to be let off so easy, with the Padres announcing Friday that they want him back for the 1991 season.

And the Padres showed Friday night just why he’ll continue being their manager, beating the Montreal Expos, 2-1, in front of 17,473 at Olympic Stadium.

Despite playing without shortstop Garry Templeton (tight rib cage muscle, who’s expected back today) and first baseman Jack Clark (strained right hamstring, who’s expected to miss another week), the Padres played a near-flawless game with stellar pitching, no errors and making the most out of their six singles.

Their offensive attack was all generated with two outs in the third inning. Bip Roberts, playing shortstop, singled to left, stole second and scored on Roberto Alomar single to center, and then Alomar repeated the act by stealing second and scoring on Tony Gwynn’s single.

It was all the Padres needed with starter Andy Benes (10-8) allowing only a bases-empty homer to Tim Raines in 6 1/3 innings, and Craig Lefferts pitching a one-two-three ninth inning for his career-high 21st save of the season.

The Padres (59-64) have now won 21 of their past 31 games, and considering that they went 1-11 in Riddoch’s first 12 games for the franchise’s worst start ever under a new manager, baby, they’ve come a long way.

“I swear to God, I don’t think I did that much,” Riddoch said. “But it’s nice everyone else is saying nice things. I just know how this game works.

“If the team does great, everyone says you have great players.

“If they do bad, you’re gone.

“It’s that simple.”

The Padres, in particular Padre chairman Tom Werner, firmly believe that Riddoch is the right man for the job. He will be provided a base salary of $160,000 for 1991, with another $25,000 paid to him by the Padres’ cable TV network.

Werner, in fact, was so anxious to tell Riddoch of the decision that he and partner Russell Goldsmith telephoned Riddoch Thursday morning, 24 hours before announcing it publicly.

Jack McKeon, vice president/baseball operations, wasn’t even informed, Riddoch said, until after Werner had already broken the news to him.

“I think this is great,” Gwynn said. “This gives the man a fair shot and managing the way he wants to. It’s tough coming in the middle of the season, with everything predicated on how we do right away. Now, he’s got a chance to do it his way from start to finish, without worrying about the future.

“To be honest, I think if we go out and play great ball, Greg will be here the next five years.”

Said Clark: “I think this is the first step in getting some stability here. If you’re going to win, you’ve got start making commitments down those lines. I think if they had brought somebody in from the outside, it would have hurt us. It would have been another distraction.

“We’ve already had a big shakeup here and a lot of distractions. It’s a shame it happened, because this is a good team. I think that’s why the Dodgers have an advantage each year, because Tommy Lasorda is always there. Then you look at the Yankees, they have no direction, and look what’s happened to them.

“If you start changing managers, it’s like flipping a coin, you just hope it works.

“But now, staying with the same manager, I think it will pay dividends and make a difference.”

Riddoch, 45, will tell you that he hasn’t done anything special since assuming command of the team. He’s still rusty as a bench manager. He says he even feels naked on the bench without the computerized advance scouting system that he desires.

But he’s winning, providing respectability to a team that a month ago had the fourth-worst record in baseball.

“I may not be a Whitey Herzog,” Riddoch said, “but in this day and age, you need to deal with personnel more than being Mr. Moves.”

Said catcher Benito Santiago: “What he does is get in your head. He gets you thinking. And if he doesn’t like something, he tells you what’s wrong to your face. He doesn’t embarrass you. I like that.”

The announcement of Riddoch’s contract, along with their fifth consecutive road victory, left the Padres believing that they can conquer the world. Oh sure, it’s too late for them to get back in year’s race, being 11 1/2 games out, but already they’re thinking about next year.

“We’ve got something special here,” Lefferts said, “and I think we all know it.”

Said Riddoch: “It’s a nice feeling knowing that all the team fights we’ve had, all the wars we’ve had, are over. I think we can all look ahead, because we know we have something to build on. . . .

“But you know something, it’s still hard for me to imagine that I’m a major league manager. Sometimes, I’m shaving in the (visiting) clubhouse, and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, this is where Tommy Lasorda and some of the other great managers shave.

“And the money, gosh, who’d thought I’d ever make a salary like this?”

So just what will Riddoch--who’s guaranteed to become the eighth man in Padre history to manage at least part of two seasons--do with his new-found prosperity?

“The first thing I’m going to do is pay off my Master Card and Visa bills,” he said. “Then, I’ll tell my family that we’ll finally go on one of those Christmas vacations that everyone else does. Who knows, maybe I’ll even replace my old (station wagon) with a newer model.”

Oh yeah, one more thing.

Instead of spending his entire off-season as a substitute teacher at the high school in his hometown of Greeley, Colo, he’ll now cut back his schedule to just two days a week.

“That’s the great thing about him,” Padre pitcher Ed Whitson said, “you know this won’t change him one bit. He’ll still be the same old Greg.

“We’re even going fishing Saturday to the St. Lawrence River, and I’ll tell you what, he’ll still act as crazy as ever, trying to burn my fishing line when I catch one.”