Ex-Padre Wiggins Dies of Respiratory Illness : Baseball: Former second baseman, 32, who helped lead drive to NL pennant in ’84 had history of drug problems.

Alan Wiggins, the flashy baseball player who allowed drugs to destroy his skills, died Sunday night at Cedars-Sinai Hospital at age 32.

The cause of Wiggins’ death remains unclear, but Ron Wise, a hospital spokesman said, “pneumonia, tuberculosis and other medical complications is the reason I’ve been given. I have no other information, and I’m certainly not going to speculate.”

Wiggins was admitted to the hospital Nov. 29, Wise said, and died at 9:45 Sunday.

“You know, I was probably his closest friend on the Padres,” said Padre shortstop Garry Templeton, “and I didn’t know he was sick. I saw him right before spring training, and he seemed like he was doing great. He was doing a little fishing, playing a little golf. He said he was going to start getting into computers.

“I think it was about February, and me and Ruppert Jones played a little golf with him. We talked, laughed and joked around. I was really happy for him because it seemed like he got his life back together. He seemed real happy.

“He was such a tremendous talent. Whatever he wanted to accomplish, he could. He was a great, great second baseman. If he wanted, there’s no doubt in my mind that he could have been an All-Star center fielder. I mean, the boy was that good.

“He just had a few problems that he could never straighten out. Now, he’s finally at ease. I hope he’s at rest now.”

Wiggins, who was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Muir High in Pasadena in 1976, was considered the catalyst behind the Padres’ only National League championship, in 1984. He batted .258, scored 106 runs and stole a club-record 70 bases during the regular season, and then batted .316 during the playoffs and .364 during the World Series.

“He was the force behind our club that season,” said Jack McKeon, former Padre general manager. “He gave us a new dimension that we never had. Hell, look how many years it took to find someone to replace him.

“I don’t know what his problem was. He was a good kid. A real shy and quiet guy. But once he had the drug problem, everything turned on him.

“You know the way our ownership was, (getting caught) once, it was OK. But the second time he got caught, he was history. I always hoped he’d turn himself around, but geez, who knows if he ever did.”

Wiggins was drafted in the first round of the June, 1977, free-agent draft by the Angels and picked up the next year as a free agent by the Dodgers. Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda called him “the fastest man I’ve ever seen on two legs.” Wiggins then joined the Padres in 1980 when he was left unprotected on the Dodger roster and was drafted during the winter meetings.

The first hint of any problems occurred in 1982 when he was stopped by San Diego police for a traffic violation, and threw a crumbled piece of paper out of his window. It was retrieved by the officer, and tests revealed that the paper contained cocaine.

Wiggins was suspended for 30 days by Bowie Kuhn, then-baseball commissioner, and completed a 30-day program at an Orange County drug rehabilitation facility.

Wiggins stayed clean for the next three years, although Padre club officials say he was a recluse, and trusted few.

“He was a real loner, but that was just the way he was,” Templeton said. “We never thought anything of it. When we heard about his problem, we were as shocked as anyone.”

Wiggins mysteriously vanished hours before an April 25, 1985, game against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. He missed two games, and after returning April 27 spent the next month at the Hazelden Foundation drug rehabilitation center in Minneapolis.

The Padres never gave him another chance. When he returned, he was traded June 27 to the Baltimore Orioles for two minor leaguers. He stayed in Baltimore for more than two years, where he not only was chastised by the fans, but shunned by his teammates.

“The fans didn’t see the true me,” Wiggins said of his Oriole experience. “They saw a guy who didn’t hustle, who dogged it down the line. I’m not that type of player, and I’d never been that type of player . . . I was depressed and playing that way was my way of expressing it.”

Wiggins played two more seasons, mostly as a backup, and on Aug. 31, 1987, his baseball career ended when he was suspended indefinitely by then-commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

Said Earl Weaver, Wiggins’ manager at Baltimore: “He had more chances than anyone who ever wore an Orioles uniform, more than Mike Cuellar, and I gave Cuellar more chances than my first wife.”

Wiggins returned to San Diego after his release, living in the suburb of Poway. A few of his former teammates ran into him occasionally, but the visits were few and infrequent.

“I don’t know what happened to him after that,” McKeon said. “I remember guys telling me he’d just go to Lake Poway and spend the whole day fishing. None of us really saw much of Alan after that.

“And until this happened, we really hadn’t heard much from him, either.”

Wiggins is survived by his wife, Angie, and three children--Cassandra, 8; Alan, 5, and Candace 3.

Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this story.