Gwynn Says He Gets the Picture : Baseball: The outfielder’s season is over because of a finger injury, and his Padre career might be over too.

A gruesome photograph, symbolizing not only hatred and violence, but perhaps racism as well, hangs prominently in the locker of Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn.

His family can’t understand why he keeps it.

But it was Gwynn who asked a photographer for the picture. It is Gwynn who has displayed and is mesmerized by it.

Whenever he enters the clubhouse, he stares at it, reminding himself of what a horrifying year it has been for him.

The incident that produced the photo occurred 11 days ago, a week before a finger injury abruptly ended Gwynn’s season last Saturday in Atlanta. But it was an incident that will remain in his memory.

Gwynn walked out to the Padre dugout, three hours before game time, and there, dangling by a coat hanger was a plastic figurine of Gwynn, the kind you find in toy stores.

Someone had cut the arms and feet off the figurine and put a noose around its neck. Someone had committed a mock lynching.

What made it so painful to Gwynn was his belief that it had been done by someone on the ballclub. He saw it as a thinly veiled threat.

“Someone is out to get me, that’s for damn sure,” Gwynn said. “This is the worst year of my life. The only thing that’s missing out of this year is death threats, and I’m sure that’ll come next. . . .

“Well, I’m not quitting, and if they want to say anything to my face, they know where they can find me.

“I’m right here. Come and get me.”

Gwynn’s eyes began to mist as he talked.

Said his wife, Alicia: “They’ve done everything they could to that man. They’ve hurt him. They’ve tried to ruin him. They’ve tried to make him quit.

“What they’ve done, I feel, is let him know that he doesn’t have a true friend on the team.”

That is why, she says, that Gwynn’s crashing into the outfield wall Saturday night in Atlanta might have been the best thing that could have happened to him. He broke his right index finger and will have surgery today.

His season is over.

“I just feel strongly that everything happens for a reason, and that’s why the injury occurred,” his wife said. “He needed a break. He needed a break from all this.

“I know he wanted to go out and get 200 hits, and do this and that, but with everything that’s gone on this season, he finally can get peace of mind.”

It would seem he is due some, considering this season.

“You know, I never was looking to be treated any differently,” Gwynn said. “I never believed all that stuff about me being Mr. Padre, Mr. Organization Guy. All I ever wanted was to be treated with the same respect as the other 24 guys.

“I always thought I got along with everybody. I’ve always tried to do my very best. I never thought any of my teammates would ever think of me this way.

“I guess that’s what hurts the most.”

Gwynn believes he knows who hung the doll in the dugout. Several Padre players say they’re pretty sure, too. But no one is willing to talk on the record.

Gwynn smiles. Why should anything change now? When Gwynn-bashing was the big craze in May, nobody stood up for him in a team meeting.

It was at that meeting, on May 24 in New York, that teammates became openly critical of Gwynn’s playing style.

Gwynn was told, face to face, that he was a selfish player. First baseman Jack Clark berated him, saying that Gwynn cared only about himself, that he was fattening his batting average at the expense of others. Others criticized Gwynn for not being a team leader.

Gwynn answered the accusations. He bunts frequently not to protect his average but only because he has difficulty pulling the ball to the right side, he said. He is not elated after victories when he goes hitless because he knows he didn’t do his job. He does not scream and lead cheers because that simply isn’t his style.

Then Gwynn sat down and waited for some backing.

He is still waiting.

No one spoke on his behalf. Not even his best buddies, Joe Carter and Bip Roberts.

“You know, I had a couple of guys that came up to my room that night and apologized, saying they were intimidated,” Gwynn said. “And a few others came up to me in later weeks, saying they were sorry.

“But, it just wasn’t the same.”

Alicia Gwynn said: “You know, I love my husband dearly, but he accepts too much. In my opinion, a friend loveth at all times, not just when it’s convenient.

“I would have told them, ‘Get out of my room. Get out of my room right now!’ ”

The meeting left Gwynn devastated. He said he paced the floor of his hotel room for four consecutive nights. It took him three weeks just to begin looking some of his teammates in the eye.

And, for the first time in his career, Gwynn actually was relishing the idea of being traded away from the team and city that he always called home.

“I was thinking, ‘If they’re going to be saying all this stuff about me, maybe I shouldn’t even be here,’ ” Gwynn said.

It’s almost funny, Gwynn said, looking back at spring training and thinking what a great year this would be. He thought the Padres were a lock to win the National League West title. He thought if he didn’t win his fourth consecutive batting title, he’d surely be in the running for it. He thought that even if everything went wrong, it sure would be a fun playing with this bunch of guys.

Instead, with two weeks left to play, the Padres are trying to hang onto fourth place, Gwynn has finished his season with a .309 batting average, his lowest since 1983, and no one can remember the last good time they had in the clubhouse.

“To tell you the truth, I think a lot of guys in here are happy that I didn’t win the batting title,” Gwynn said. “There are guys that wanted to see me go down with them. Yeah, that’s what kind of year it’s been.”

The cruel irony of it all is that Gwynn and his wife decided in the spring that they would wait until the final day of the season to move into their custom-designed home in Poway. Sure, it would have been nice to get the family settled before the start of school, but Gwynn wouldn’t hear of it.

“We talked about it but I just didn’t want the distractions,” he said. “It’s hard enough playing this game without having those things on your mind.”

Little did Gwynn, or anyone else, realize the season would be nothing but a distraction for him.

“It’s amazing what he’s done with everything on his mind,” said Chris Gwynn, Tony’s brother who plays for the Dodgers. “He’s so used to going out and playing for the love of the game, and having no distractions.

“But with everything that’s happened in that clubhouse, and the things that have been said about him, it’s amazing he could play at all. The whole family is upset about what’s going on, so you can imagine how it’s affecting him.

“But look what happened. He still hit .309. Tony might not like that, but come on, .309, a lot of guys would kill for that.”

Gwynn refuses to use the distractions as an excuse, but in the same breath, says he has nothing to apologize for this season. He points out that he drove in 72 runs, the most of his career, and the second-highest total on the team. And until Saturday, he missed only one game because of injury.

“If people have a problem with what I do then the hell with them,” he said. “I know what I can do and what I can’t do, and I’m not going to change my game.

“When it gets right down to it, the only people I have to please are the people upstairs, and myself. And if I don’t please the people upstairs, they’ll get rid of me.”

In two years, the Padres may not have a choice. Gwynn is eligible for free agency after the 1992 season. And for the first time, he wonders if he’ll be back.

Oh, he’ll always continue to make San Diego his home, with his folks and Alicia’s family living in Long Beach. His ultimate desire still is to play out his career with the Padres. But . . .

“I told Tony, whatever he wants to do, we’re behind him,” Alicia said.

Gwynn, 30, who earned $1 million this season, has a year left on his contract, at $2 million, and the Padres have until 10 days after the 1990 World Series to pick up an option for $2 million in 1991. He kicks himself every day, knowing if he hadn’t signed a three-year extension in 1988, he would be eligible for free agency this year.

But Gwynn has already voiced his complaints about his contract, saying it isn’t right that he is the seventh-highest paid player on the team. That apparently turned many fans against him.

Tom Werner, Padre chairman, said he will address Gwynn’s contract in the off-season. He says he wants to make Gwynn happy and keep him in the organization.

“He’s not just a great player, but an extraordinary person,” Werner said. “It’d be crazy not to want a guy like that to be a part of your future.”

Time will tell if Gwynn wants the Padres to be part of his future.