He Must Be Safe at Home

Benito Santiago has not done much to endear himself to San Diego fans of late, at least with his mouth.

He has had this tendency to kick his tongue into gear before it has taken that short trip north to check with his brain. He questions whether fans are knowledgeable, when every fan knows more about the game than Sparky Anderson, Earl Weaver and Dick Williams combined.

Initially, Padre fans were perturbed at what they perceived to be Santiago’s greed. They could not believe he thought himself worthy of a four-year contract in Will Clark’s neighborhood, say $15 million give or take a few Rolls Royces, instead of the $11 million the Padres were offering.

In truth, Santiago’s rejection of such an offer was a sensible bargaining ploy, After all, he would not be eligible for free agency until after the 1992 season.

If Santiago is reluctant to sell himself short of Will Clark, it might be because it is more plausible to argue that Santiago is the best catcher in baseball than it is to argue Clark is the best first baseman. There are any number of first basemen who can hit, Fred McGriff being a local example, and the position requires minimal defensive skills.

Santiago, meanwhile, is having an excellent year offensively, and his defensive skills are exemplary. He is doing all that he has done in spite of the fact that he pays little attention to fundamentals that would lift him to a considerably higher plateau.

Given maturity, which common sense imbued by age would hopefully supply, and this man could make the advance from perennial All-Star to Hall of Fame candidate.

What happened, of course, was that already restless fans were chagrined to hear that Santiago felt that their baseball IQs were at about roughly the same number as either of the interstate highways running past the stadium.

This only intensified booing, which heretofore laid-back San Diego is developing into an art form. It is not wise for a man who has to stand in a spotlight to figuratively hand cabbage heads and overly ripe tomatoes to the multitudes above. He did not supply the ammunition, but he supplied the reason.

Now comes word, from Santiago himself, that he and his family are being rudely harassed. The telephone is ringing late at night, callers either uttering obscenities or tormenting with silence. What’s more, strangers stalk the family car.

This isn’t stuff people do in San Diego. It didn’t used to be, anyway. That sort of shenanigans should be left to places like Philadelphia and Boston and Columbus.

You hear of an athlete and his family being subjected to such nonsense, and you wish there was still a dairy in Mission Valley and parking at the beach and a skyroom at the El Cortez. You wish for innocence.

You want to get after Benito Santiago?

Do it the way fans do it.

Pay the bucks and go to the ballpark and boo him. It sounds ugly and maybe it can get a little juvenile in the extreme, but it’s harmless. You don’t want to waste the money? Dial the telephone and add to the babble on one of those talk shows or write a letter to a newspaper.

You don’t ring a man’s telephone in the middle of the night. That’s personal. You don’t follow the family car. That’s personal.

The man is a professional. Deal with him at his office, in this case the stadium.

In keeping with this theme, it might also be noted that the man is doing some nice work at his office. His hitting has been good enough to turn boos into cheers.

For what he has done and what he is capable of doing, he should be embraced hereabouts. It would be a big mistake for the organization to let him get away, with or without encouragement from the community. Mark my words. The same people booing Santiago would come back and rip the Padres for losing him.

Understand also that what he said about fans is only what his peers have been thinking since the days of Cap Anson. Not too many players have ever stood up and made a case for fans having more than a modicum of understanding of the game. A lot of them don’t even think their managers have a clue, for heaven’s sake.

The only time I hear ballplayers extolling the virtues of fans is in those champagne-soaked locker rooms after championship wins.

Benito Santiago simply wasn’t thinking--a process he would be wise to commence practicing.

For this, he deserves a little bit of razzing.

And that’s all.