McIlvaine, Players Dispute Predictions : Padres: Many are looking to prove wrong critics who picked them to take last in NL West.

Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager, sits back in his office and examines his team. Sure, he sees the same holes as you do. He knows the bench is thin, two-thirds of the outfield is unproven and the bullpen is a crapshoot.

He reads the same prognosticators’ forecasts as you do, predicting that the Padres will finish no better than fourth. After all, the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Dodgers are in the same division.

And yes, he’s well-aware of your apprehension. With the Padres not favored to win the National League West for the first time in three years and doomsday predicted to be around the corner, McIlvaine understands why advance ticket sales are down 15%

But if the Padres are supposed to be as bad as everyone proclaims and if the town is getting as restless as if Roseanne Barr was about to sing again, why is McIlvaine whistling in the halls, acting as if the Dodgers and Giants never spent a dime, much less $69 million in the free-agent market?

“I’ve just got this feeling,” McIlvaine says, his face breaking into a smile. “You’re supposed to be optimistic this time of year, aren’t you?”

Ah, yes, opening day.

The Padres, in what is being billed as the dawning of a new era, open the 1991 season at 7:35 tonight at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium against the Giants.

Yes sir, they have new ownership. Spanking-new management. New uniforms. New players. Heck, they’re even unveiling an improved quality of hot dogs tonight.

But with the exception of aesthetics, why, for God’s sake, do the Padres actually believe they’ll be so much better than anyone possibly envisions?

McIlvaine, who helped assemble a World Series champion in 1986 and a division winner in 1988, will let you in on his secret.

“What we’ve done here,” McIlvaine said, “is build a team that’s hungry. There are a lot of guys in here who have something to prove. And, believe me, that should never be overlooked.”

Indeed, everywhere you turn in the Padre clubhouse, it seems there is a player who wants to prove somebody wrong: third baseman Jim Presley and pitcher Dennis Rasmussen are out to prove that teams made a mistake ignoring them in the free-agent market; second baseman Marty Barrett and reliever Wes Gardner want to make the Boston Red Sox look like idiots for shunning them; starter Ed Whitson wants to demonstrate he deserves a contract extension; outfielders Jerald Clark and Shawn Abner want to show that they were worthy of being starting players long ago; and . . . well, you get the picture.

“I want to show people they made a mistake,” Presley said, “and there’s a lot of people I want to prove that to.

“You’re telling me the Yankees don’t need a third baseman? The Twins would rather have Mike Pagliarulo than me? Come on. Get serious. What kind of year did he have?

“I’m not the only one in here who feels that way, believe me, there are a lot of guys who are out to prove themselves.”

There’s one player, more than any other in the Padre clubhouse, who desperately seeks to prove his critics wrong. Never before has he felt this strongly. Never before has he been so relentless.

His name is Tony Gwynn.

“It’s an understatement to say I’m out to prove something,” Gwynn said. “You better believe it. Because of what happened last year, I know I’m going to be looked at a lot harder this year. I know how this game works. Everybody will be watching.

“In my mind, I’m the same player I’ve always been, but now people want to be convinced of the same. That’s good. Let them watch. Let them see what kind of player I am.”

Gwynn, a four-time batting champion who has a career .329 batting average, was the one trapped in the middle of the Padre clubhouse feud a year ago. Instead of a baseball team, the Padres became a soap opera, and the Gywnn-Jack Clark saga became much more entertaining than anything that happened on the field.

“The focus never was on baseball,” Gwynn said. “It was always, ‘Jack and me.’ Or, ‘Pags and me.’ Or, ‘Everybody and me.’ When I went home for the winter, let me tell you, it gave me a lot of time to reflect.

“What it did, I think, is make me grow up. It made me realize nobody in this game is above anybody. I’ve never been criticized before, and didn’t know how to take it, but there were certain things that (Clark) said that might have been right.

“Being vocal has never been my cup of tea. Before, I’d always wait until someone asked before I volunteered anything. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.

“I’m not going to say somebody was right or somebody was wrong in the whole thing, but the criticism was well-taken. I’m not going to give anybody credit for it, but I am going to be more outspoken this year. I’m not going to just lead by example. I may not like it, but it’s part of my job.”

Gwynn, who hit a career-equaling low .309 last season, isn’t making promises that he’ll win another batting title. He isn’t guaranteeing a division championship. He isn’t even saying the team will finish with a better record than its 75-87 mark of a year ago.

“But I do feel good about this team, I really do,” Gwynn said. “You watch, we’re going to surprise some people this year. And for those people who say I’m a step slower or can’t drive the ball or this or that, we’ll see.

“I’m telling you. I like this team. I like it a lot.”

It might be a team that has only three players who were in its starting lineup of a year ago. It might be a team that has only Gwynn, Whitson and catcher Benito Santiago who have been with the Padres longer than four successive years. And it might be a team that Padre optimists like to compare to the 1984 championship team.

“I can see it now,” Gwynn said. “We start to believe we can compete, and we compete. We start to believe we can win, and we win. We start to believe we’re good, and we’re good. Before you know it, we’re in the playoffs.

“Hey, it can happen. Anything can happen. Really.”

Certainly, the Padres should find out quickly the quality of their team. Their first 16 games are against the Giants, Dodgers and Reds. The Philadelphia Phillies (77-85 last year) are the only sub-.500 team they will play until the seventh week of the season, when they travel to Atlanta and Houston.

Who knows, Padre Manager Greg Riddoch says, maybe a victory tonight over the Giants will be an omen.

Their last opening-day victory?

You guessed it--1984.