Gwynn Swallowing Diet Advice : Padres: He is zero for four in 4-1 loss to Atlanta, dropping average to .306. Some think weight is the problem.

Tony Gwynn hears the whispers behind his back. He listens to the taunts from the stands. He even is tormented by rude comments to his face.

“I know what they’re saying about me,” Gwynn said. “I hear all the jokes, all the laughs. People want me to fall on my face. They keep waiting for me to fall.

“Well, after eight years, I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Gwynn, who went hitless in four at-bats Friday in the Padres 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves in front a paid crowd of 12,449 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, is having what is perceived as the worst season of his professional career.

Braves starter Charlie Leibrandt checked the Padres on four hits for the 100th victory of his career. Ed Whitson (12-8) was the loser for the first time in nine starts

This is September, a time of year in which Gwynn annually is fighting for the batting championship. But instead of envisioning a batting title, Gwynn is struggling just to hit .300. He’s three for 20 on the home stand and his batting average is down to .306 after Friday’s game, its lowest point since May 8.

Heck, the only time he ever has finished with a batting average lower than .309 was his rookie season in 1982, when he batted .289, and that was only in 54 games.

Gwynn says he has nothing to be ashamed of, but when you have four batting championship trophies sitting at home and enter the season with a career .331 batting average, people just aren’t used to this kind of stuff.

And everyone seems to be pointing fingers at what they believe is the source behind all his problems:

His weight.

It’s OK for Charles Barkley, who lovingly is called the Round Mound of Rebound. The Refrigerator made a killing in endorsements with his size. But ol’ Tony, all he hears is abuse.

The man stands 5-feet-10, tips the scales at 217 pounds, and has a paunch that most middle-aged Americans would be proud of.

But Gwynn is a major league ballplayer, and for every time he grounds out, and for every fly ball he can’t get to in the outfield, everyone points out that the man is carrying too much weight.

“A lot of people don’t think I’m even trying,” Gwynn said. “They think I sit by my TV every day with a can of beer in one hand, and a bag of potato chips in the other.

“Hey, I’m trying, I’m trying. It’s something that runs in my family. Really, even if I lost 10 pounds, I don’t think I’d look a whole lot different.”

Yet, after hearing all the criticism, friendly and otherwise, Gwynn revealed Friday that he plans to make amends about his body.

“I don’t want to make a big deal out of this,” Gwynn said. “I don’t want people to think I’m going to come in weighing 185 pounds or something. But I plan to change my habits, get down to about 205. I plan to change my conditioning program.

“I don’t want another season like this, because to be honest with you, it’s been very, very frustrating. It’s been a year where I’ve struggled all year long.”

The key to Gwynn’s physical-fitness routine, he says, will be basketball. He plans to shoot em up every day, running the length of the court, cutting and weaving, stopping and going.

And you know what? He’s not even going to lift a baseball bat until January. Maybe even February. Everyone will be looking for him at the San Diego School of Baseball and San Diego State, expecting him to be taking batting practice three times a week as soon as the season ends. Just like every year.

But this time, it will be only Gwynn and his basketball. The owners can balk all they want about basketball being prohibited in his contract, but if they have something to say, Gwynn says to tell them to come to the court in his backyard.

“You know, a lot of people over the years have talked to me about my weight,” Gwynn said, “and this year, I’ve heard something from just about everybody. But it was Fred Lynn who finally convinced me. I look at him, and he’s 38 years old, and he looks just like he did when he first came up to the big leagues.”

Actually, Gwynn is stretching the truth a bit, Lynn said.

He weighed 181 pounds when he came up to the big leagues in 1974. He now weighs 182.

“I talked to Tony about it,” Lynn said, “and the thing is now with the money being so good, it’s crazy not to get that extra year or two. You don’t want to eat or drink yourself out of the game.

“Until you’re 30, you can do just about anything without it catching up to you. I mean, I wasn’t one to drink milk and eat cookies every day, but boy, it catches up to you.

“When you hit 30, like Tony is now, you’ve got to make sacrifices.”

Said Gwynn: “You know, the funny thing about all this is that when I hit .370 (in 1987), I weighed 215, and nobody said a thing to me. When I won the batting title last year, and weighed about the same, nobody said anything. Now, I don’t hit like people expect, and everybody’s talking.

“I know if I lose 15 pounds before next spring, it’lls shock everybody on earth, but I’ll tell you something, it won’t change me. I’m still going to have the same shape.

“Unless I have surgery that’s going to make by butt smaller, or take away my stomach, I’m still going to have the same type of body.

“But I’ll give this a shot. I’ll get in the best shape I can. I haven’t had the kind of stamina I should all year, so maybe it’ll help.”

And maybe, just maybe, the only thing fat about Tony Gwynn will be in his batting average.

Padre Notes

Although speculation persists that the Atlanta Braves are interested in talking with Jack McKeon about their general manager opening, McKeon said Friday night that he has not been contacted by the Braves. McKeon, Padre vice president/baseball operations, last was interviewed by another club in 1987, for the general manager job with the Baltimore Orioles.