BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Rebuilding? No, This Is Demolition

While pseudo commissioner Bud Selig continues to whitewash the dismantling of the San Diego Padres as a “dramatic manifestation” of the problems facing small-market teams, not all owners agree with him.

“I think (Padre) management has gone too far,” Dodger President Peter O’Malley said of the fire sale.

O’Malley refused to expand on that criticism. He added only, “I believe San Diego can support major league baseball. I believe it has supported major league baseball and can continue in the future, particularly with a new compensation system.”

Some believe that’s what this is all about.

“The owners are holding the Padres hostage to the labor situation,” Don Fehr, executive director of the players’ union, said.

“If the Padres are really having financial problems and the owners are really interested in a new partnership among themselves and with the players, they could have stepped in and helped the Padres through the season without destroying the team.

“But the truth is, they’re more interested in having the small-market example than helping the Padres, which leaves the players to sit and think, ‘If you’re not interested in helping your own, how much do you really care?’ ”

Under the guise of a rebuilding program for a team that was only 4 1/2 games behind in the National League West on Aug. 1 of last year, the Padres have reduced their payroll from the $29.2 million on opening day of last year to less than $10 million, the major league low.

They have traded Gary Sheffield, Fred McGriff, Greg Harris, Bruce Hurst, Craig Lefferts, Darrin Jackson and Tony Fernandez, allowed Randy Myers and Benito Santiago to leave as free agents, and released Kurt Stillwell. They are carrying 13 players at the major league minimum of $109,000 and only two at more than $1 million, Tony Gwynn and Andy Benes.

A rebuilding project?

Of the departed players mentioned above, only Hurst, 35; Lefferts, 35; Fernandez, 31, and Jackson, 30, are 30 or older. Sheffield, the defending National League batting champion, is 24, and McGriff, the defending home run king, is 29.

The suspicion is that owner Tom Werner’s real intent has been to lower the payroll to a point that it will attract a buyer willing to shell out something in the neighborhood of the $115 million the Tampa-St. Petersburg syndicate had been willing to pay for the San Francisco Giants before other owners stepped in and told owner Bob Lurie he would have to sell to a San Francisco group for about $15 million less.

Werner and his 14 partners--one of baseball’s richest ownership groups--bought the Padres for about $70 million in 1989 and would be happy with the $100 million that Lurie received. If that’s the goal, however, they apparently will not get it from any group interested in moving the team.

Selig and other baseball officials have cautioned Vince Naimoli, who headed the Tampa-St. Petersburg group and was Selig’s guest at the All-Star game, to keep away from the Padres, that baseball would probably oppose any proposed move of that franchise, and that Tampa-St. Petersburg will be part of the next expansion.

Things can change, of course. If the owners don’t get a salary cap and a new compensation system in talks with the union, they may be more agreeable to letting a small-market team move.

And Werner kept the door open in an out-of-court settlement with season ticket-holders who had brought a class-action suit, charging the Padres with fraud for trading Jackson and Sheffield after sending a preseason letter to prospective customers saying that Jackson, Sheffield and others would be with the club for the entire season.

In the tentative settlement, scheduled for a Superior Court hearing on Aug. 23, the club agreed to offer refunds to holders of season or individual tickets, the plaintiffs dropped their request for punitive damages, and the club rejected a demand by the plaintiffs that it pledge it will not be moved.

In the meantime, General Manager Randy Smith, who agreed to take on the fire sale after Joe McIlvaine decided he no longer could cope with it, contends that rebuilding was necessary because the Padres were a sixth-place club not going anywhere any way.

Smith is merely repeating the company line, but it’s a spurious claim because the Padres of last August were a contending club, one pitcher away, perhaps, from a division title.

Now? Smith says the Padres could be back in contention by 1995. He insists--and some scouts agree--that through trades and internal development the Padres have assembled “a collection of live young arms that is as good as anyone’s,” and a comparable collection of young outfielders.

“The only real youth we gave up was Sheffield, and it’s unrealistic to think we could have re-signed him after the ’94 season when he was eligible for free agency,” Smith said.

“Harris had become an outstanding starting pitcher, but he was eligible for arbitration at the end of the season and wanted a four-year contract. The mortality rate on 30-year-old pitchers with a four-year contract didn’t fit the direction we’re taking.”

Smith said he hopes to re-sign Benes, 25, to a multiyear contract and retain Gwynn, 33, until his career ends.

Gwynn criticized the club’s direction earlier in the season but has basically reacted passively lately, saying he wants to stay in San Diego.

“We’re going to go through some growing pains,” Smith acknowledged.

“There’s not much margin for error when you’re learning to play and win at the major league level, but we’re trying to build for the future and stabilize the franchise financially. We’re not alone.”

The Pittsburgh Pirates, for instance, have gone through Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, John Smiley, Doug Drabek and Jose Lind, among others, but the Padres may have set a turnover record. Only four players remain from the 25 on last year’s opening-day roster.

“On most clubs, the rookies come up trying to earn their stripes and feeling they’re on the hot seat,” Hurst said after last Monday’s trade, in which he and Harris went to the Colorado Rockies.

“In San Diego it’s the other way around. The rookies come up and know they’re secure simply by what they’re making. It’s the veterans who are on the hot seat.”

COLORADO’S COURSE

Why did the Rockies want Harris and Hurst, who is still battling a shoulder problem that has sidelined him for virtually the entire season? Why a pair of high-priced pitching commitments by an expansion team that doesn’t figure to be ready to win next year?

Several reasons:

--Pride. The Rockies want to keep up with the Florida Marlins, their expansion counterparts, and the free-wheeling, free-spending Marlin owner, Wayne Huizenga.

--Pitching. Last in the major leagues with a team earned-run average of 5.97, the Rockies are scheduled to play one more year in the launching pad that is Mile High Stadium and had to upgrade the pitching.

--Attendance. Fastest to reach 1, 2 and 3 million in attendance, the Rockies are assured of breaking the Toronto Blue Jays’ record of 4,028,318, set last year. They are averaging more than 55,000 a game.

“The tremendous support made it possible to speed up the process of becoming competitive,” owner Jerry McMorris said of getting Harris and Hurst.

“If we were drawing 12,000 fans (a game) this deal wouldn’t have been possible, and it wouldn’t have been possible if we were drawing 30,000. But with the support we have, we’re going to be able to do some things.”

FREEWAY SERIES

They played against one another in the Northwest League in 1989, again in the Pacific Coast League last year and now they are the American and National leagues’ leading candidates for rookie of the year.

“It’s bizarre,” Angel right fielder Tim Salmon said. “Except for average, our statistics are almost the same.”

The statistics Salmon referred to are his own and those of Mike Piazza, the Dodger catcher. Piazza is batting .311 with 21 home runs and 67 runs batted in. Salmon was batting .278 through Friday with 23 home runs and 71 RBIs. Those are big seasons amid big pressure, and each acknowledges he’s keeping an eye on the other.

“Last year, when I played against him at Albuquerque, we couldn’t get him out,” Piazza said of Salmon, who was the minor league player of the year at Edmonton. “He really tore us apart, so I knew he could hit all along, and I keep track of him, sure.

“The interesting thing is that our swings are similar, too. We both have strong wrists and short, compact swings. Sometimes young guys will have trouble hitting breaking balls, but not Tim. He’s a good off-speed hitter, not that he can’t hit a fastball, and there seems to be more changeups and off-speed stuff in the American League. Tim eats those up.”

Salmon said he is more aware of Piazza’s statistics than his own.

“It’s not a competitive or comparative situation,” he said. “It’s like having a friend. You want him to do well. I look at his numbers and am happy for him.”

Despite Salmon’s better power numbers and the fact he leads the majors in assists, Piazza was chosen for the National League All-Star team and has received more publicity.

“In my situation I had J.T. (Snow) steal a lot of the (early) thunder, but I’m fine with that,” Salmon said. “All that hype can be distracting.”

Stretching the boundaries, Piazza and Salmon will be the first rookie winners from the same city since Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees and Willie Mays of the New York Giants were honored in 1951.

From Jackie Robinson in 1947 to Eric Karros in 1992, the Dodgers have had 12 winners. The Angels have had none. Wally Joyner was runner-up to Jose Canseco in 1986, and Buck Rodgers, now the Angels’ manager, was runner-up to Tom Tresh in 1962.

McGWIRE’S MISERY

A partial rupture of a tendon near his left heel has sidelined Oakland Athletic first baseman Mark McGwire since May 14. There is no timetable, no easy therapy. Every time McGwire takes a step, it’s a jolt to his progress.

“The pain is the same as the day I tore it,” McGwire said this week. “It’s been very frustrating for me and for the team. I want to coach some day, but sitting and watching all these games has required a test of my patience. All I do is lift weights to keep my sanity.”

McGwire said he hopes to play in September, at least, but knows that a possible players’ strike or the heel could change that. March may be the more realistic goal. Meanwhile, the A’s are last in the American League West and 12th among the 14 teams in team average. How much has McGwire been missed?

“It’s safe to say we would have won x number of more games,” Manager Tony La Russa said. “Whether that’s a big number x or a small x I don’t know.

“He’s just one man, but offense aside, he would have won more games for us on defense as well.”

LAISSEZ-FAIRE

Beyond the stupid action of Vince Coleman lies a widespread and deep-seeded baseball problem. The inmates run the asylum.

The clubs have virtually forfeited their authority to their high-salaried players. There are occasional exceptions, but for the most part, the players know they can treat fans, reporters, their own teammates and managers with disdain and contempt, and walk away with a slapped wrist.

A strong commissioner would help, acting when the clubs fail to, but it’s an appalling situation when the only clout seems to rest with the DA’s office.