Criticisms Weighing Heavy on Tony Gwynn : Baseball: Injured right fielder tired of comments about being overweight. Padres fall to Astros, 3-0.

Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn was standing in the elevator Tuesday afternoon, descending to the clubhouse at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, when the words pierced the air.

It was hours before the Padres’ 3-0 defeat to the Houston Astros, and two disc jockeys were talking about him on the piped-in radio show. Gwynn stood there, and grimaced, shuddering at the subject matter.

Why, he asks himself, does this issue arise? And why is it always every time he’s injured?

The subject, once again, was Gwynn’s weight. They were saying 217 pounds is much too heavy for Gwynn’s 5-foot-10 frame, ruining his career.

It doesn’t matter that no one says a word about Gwynn’s weight when he bats .360. No one dares to utter a sound when Gwynn is annually invited to the All-Star Game.

But now that he’s injured, and out for the season . . .

“I knew that crap would come up again,” Gwynn said. “They can analyze me all they want. I don’t give a damn. I’m not going to worry about what other people think.

“People are crucifying me already. I’m sure there’ll be trade rumors about me next.”

Gwynn, who for the past month has been prolonging the inevitable, is scheduled to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee at 7:30 this morning at Scripps Clinic. He was told Monday that cortisone shots could no longer help him. Really, he knew the moment he walked into the office that couldn’t talk his way out of surgery this time.

“The pain, that was too much,” said Gwynn, who left the stadium before most of the crowd of 6,695, the Padres’ lowest attendance since Sept. 11, 1986. “The purpose of the cortisone shot was to take the pain away after the knee was drained. It worked all of one day. There was nothing else that could be done.”

Gwynn stared into his locker, rubbed his left knee, looked up, and said: “This stinks, this really stinks.”

Gwynn was the rage of the National League for the first half of the season, batting .358. People talked of .400. His fifth batting title was considered a formality.

“It’s hard to believe,” Gwynn said. “For half the season, I did everything I wanted to. The second half, I didn’t do crap.”

Gwynn batted only .242 the second half of the season, and his average steadily plummeted from .360 on July 11 to his current average of .317. There will be no batting title this year, unless Hal Morris of the Cincinnati Reds starts to slide.

There will be those, Gwynn knows, who’ll say he made a grave mistake by continuing to play on a bum knee. He should have shut it down in early August, they’ll say, and returned only when healthy, guaranteeing the batting title.

Sorry, Gwynn says, he doesn’t work that way.

“I don’t second-guess myself at all,” Gwynn said. “If I had a chance to all over again, I’d do it the same way. I wanted to play, and I took some chances, but it just didn’t work out.

“But I don’t give a damn what people think. I don’t do things for other people, I do them for myself.”

Just like his weight, Gwynn has heard complaints since he was a guard at San Diego State. Every year, the subject emerges. Every year, Gwynn scoffs at the talk.

“I’m really getting sick of it,” Gwynn said. “I came into camp this year weighing 213. I weigh 217 now. Is that a big deal?

“They were talking today like I should lose 25 pounds. Come on, like it’s a piece of cake to lose 25 to 30 pounds. I’ve wanted to do it every winter, but I’ll never look like (Padre first base coach Rob Picciolo).

“I don’t have the answer, I really don’t.”

Gwynn goes into surgery today with no idea what they’ll find. He believes it’s only cartilage damage, but with the pain that has emerged, he wonders if it’s more serious.

Still, it’s almost as if Gwynn still refuses to give up his hope of returning. He actually took a few swings in the batting cage during the afternoon, just testing out a new brand of batting glove.

Naturally, his first stroke produced a line-drive single into right field.

“If there’s anyway I’ll be back before the end of the season,” Gwynn said, “I’ll do it. But realistically, I’ll be setting my sights on 1992.”

Gwynn then reminisced about the past 12 months. He missed the final 19 games of the 1990 season when he underwent surgery on his fractured right finger. In February, he had a tumor removed from his jaw. And now this.

“Three surgeries in one year,” Gwynn said. “Can you believe it?”

Perhaps if anyone can relate to Gwynn’s second-half woes, it’s Padre starter Bruce Hurst (15-8). Hurst was forced to leave Tuesday’s game after one inning with elbow stiffness, the shortest outing of his three-year career.

Hurst was among the league leaders with 14 victories Aug. 7, and was bidding to become the first Padre pitcher since 1978 to win 20 games. Instead, he has won only one of his past eight starts, and now might be questionable for his final three starts of the season.

Hurst’s elbow stiffened while warming up in the bullpen before the game Tuesday, and when he made an errant throw in the first inning on a forceout at second, grabbed his elbow in pain. Hurst, who allowed three hits and three runs, was allowed to finish the inning, but had to leave the game.

“I didn’t like what I saw,” Padre Manager Greg Riedoch said. “I just saw him twinge, and grab his arm. That was enough for me.”

Hurst, who didn’t want to leave the game, was diagnosed with inflammation of his left elbow by Dr. James Nevins, and might be further examined today. Hurst said that his elbow actually has been stiff for the past two weeks, but every time he warmed up, it always loosened.

Until Tuesday.

“I thought it would go away,” Hurst said, “but it wouldn’t. It just grabbed on me. I’ve been taking (aspirin) for it, trying to keep it quiet. I don’t think there’s any magical cure for it.”

The Padres never were able to recover from the 3-0 deficit against Astro starter Pete Harnisch (10-9) and a host of relievers. Harnisch allowed only four hits in six innings, extending his scoreless streak to 21 innings against the Padres this season.

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the league,” Riddoch said. “On a different team, he might be a potential 20-game winner.”

The Padres threatened in the seventh and eighth innings, but each time left fielder Luis Gonzalez thwarted their hopes. In the seventh, Oscar Azocar hit what appeared to be a home run, only to have Gonzalez leap over the fence and snare the ball. And in the eighth, Gonzalez made a running catch, robbing Benito Santiago of at least a run-scoring single, if not a two-run double.

“It seemed like every time we had a chance, something like that would happen,” Riddoch said.