BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Drawing Fans Like Pulling Teeth for Innovative Padres

The sails on Mission Bay testify to the arrival of summer in San Diego, but it’s difficult to tell by the attendance at Jack Murphy Stadium.

The race is on in the National League West, but the Padres are averaging only 13,111.

Charles Steinberg, a dentist who has combined that profession with a passion for baseball, first as a member of the Baltimore Orioles’ public relations department and now as vice president of public affairs under the new Padre owner, John Moores, recognizes that getting fans back to the park after the strike of last year is proving tougher than pulling teeth.

However, the Padres have begun two programs designed to strengthen links between team and community, and players and management.

Recognizing that no number of giveaways will totally appease post-strike rancor or replace the personal interaction that has long been a key component of most fans’ feelings toward baseball, Steinberg said that 15 to 25 fans will be invited to pregame dinner meetings with a representative of ownership or management and allowed to vent their anger, offer suggestions and “tell us what you want us to know.”

“We need to create a cathartic environment, particularly here in San Diego, where there has been so many years of frustration, where the reaction is not limited to the events of last winter,” Steinberg said.

“We come in with new ownership, new spirit and a basically new team. We’re starting from zero. We can’t ask for attendance and loyalty. We have to prove we’re cognizant of the fans’ feelings and our role in the community with a collection of good deeds on a long-term basis.

“We want to create a substantial change in the relationship between the team, the fans and the community. It’s not enough to simply paint a picture of a bigger and brighter side. We have to help create it with our deeds.”

The therapy sessions are expected to begin on the first home stand after the All-Star game. A scholarship program designed to reward academically qualified but needy middle school children in San Diego is already under way. It will provide $5,000 college scholarships to 25 students--the first four were introduced before Wednesday’s game--every year. The players have committed to raising $60,000, and management will match it.

Said outfielder Steve Finley, whose mother is a teacher and whose father recently retired as a grammar school principal:

“This is something that should have been done a long time ago. The players and owners should be working together in the community. Every player has his own agenda, as far as identifying a charity, but this is something we can all work on together. Education is a common denominator. It’s more than just a goodwill gesture.”

A philanthropic computer magnate who has donated $70 million to the University of Houston, his alma mater, owner Moores is picking up the pieces after the devastating tenure of Tom Werner. He has been critical at times of baseball’s leadership, and has strolled the stadium parking lot, sampling fans’ feelings, fielding complaints.

This is the Padres’ 27th year. In a market constricted by Mexico on the south, the Pacific on the west and two major league teams about 100 miles to the north, they have never drawn more than 2.2 million and only twice have reached 2 million.

Maybe it’s a franchise that can’t be saved, but the new management seems to be following a positive course in the attempt.

If a young and talented pitching staff maintains its recent efficiency and a run producer emerges in the middle of the lineup, summer may yet arrive at the Murph.

TALK THE TALK

Broadcaster Marty Brennaman of the Cincinnati Reds and General Manager Kevin Malone of the Montreal Expos had a shouting match last Sunday after Malone, sitting in the media dining room at Riverfront Stadium, heard Brennaman say on the air that Montreal pitchers Pedro Martinez and Carlos Perez “were going to get somebody killed”--Martinez because of the frequency with which he hits batters and Perez because he mocks them when he gets them out.

Malone stormed the broadcasting booth and yelled, “You got something against Latin Americans?”

Answered Brennaman: “I don’t care if they’re white, black, blue or green. I didn’t originate the idea. It’s all over the league.”

Responded Malone: “You don’t even know them. How can you say something like that on the air?”

Brennaman waved Malone away and said, “I’m not backing off.”

Most players would say Brennaman shouldn’t. They are fed up with Perez’s in-your-face animation and think Martinez goes beyond pitching inside, citing his flawless control in the two runs he has made at perfect games.

Martinez led the National League in hit batters last year with 11, but Darryl Kile of Houston already has 10 as the current leader, twice as many as Martinez.

In response to a question about hit batters this week, Kile said, “Well, accidents happen.”

TALK THE TALK II

Nice exchange between catcher Matt Nokes and Baltimore Oriole Manager Phil Regan when Nokes, batting .122, was cut this week, the club swallowing the rest of his $750,000 salary.

“I’m out on parole,” said Nokes. “I don’t think they knew, when they were assembling the team, what they were doing. They didn’t have a clue. They didn’t know how to use everybody. . . . I think it’s been a panic since I got here.”

Responded Regan: “Guys always have a lot of excuses when they don’t do well. The way he catches, the way he throws, the way he’s hitting, I don’t know if he could be a regular anywhere.”

Regan, in his first year as a major league manager and with no guarantee there will be a second as the Orioles’ high expectations disintegrate, had something of a vote-of-confidence lunch with owner Peter Angelos on Tuesday and then conducted his most aggressive clubhouse meeting, challenging his players to start “caring about winning” to the same extent he does, which only served to tee off some players who felt Regan was saying he is the only one who cares.

At this point, however, caring may not be enough. Kevin Brown, with a dislocated finger, and Ben McDonald, with a sore shoulder, were put on the disabled list last week, and Mike Mussina, the third member of the big three, is a disappointing 6-5 with a 4.91 earned-run average, having allowed 16 home runs in 73 1/3 innings.

MANAGERIAL MOVES

Pittsburgh Manager Jim Leyland and Oakland pitching coach Dave Duncan are thought to be the first two choices of General Manager Walt Jocketty if interim Manager Mike Jorgensen returns to the St. Louis Cardinals’ front office next year. Fired Joe Torre said he still has interest in managing but added, “Somebody is going to have to want what I do. I don’t feel I have to go in and explain how I manage.”

A’s Manager Tony LaRussa and Cleveland Indian coach Buddy Bell are thought to be the first two choices of General Manager Ron Schueler if Chicago White Sox interim Manager Terry Bevington proves to be only interim. Schueler tweaked former Manager Gene Lamont again this week, claiming Bevington is more aggressive. Lamont called that “a bunch of bull,” adding, “Anybody who says I wasn’t aggressive . . . is full of it.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--They brought starters Bill Swift and Armando Reynoso and closer Bruce Ruffin off the disabled list and the Colorado Rockies are also excited about the development of Curtis Leskanic, 27, who was selected from Minnesota in the third round of the expansion draft.

Leskanic has given up two earned runs on 10 hits and two walks while fanning 16 in 16 2/3 innings and will be employed as a right-handed complement to southpaw Ruffin, with Darren Holmes becoming the set-up man.

Holmes compares Leskanic to John Wetteland, a former teammate with the Dodgers, saying, “I think Curtis has better stuff right now than John Wetteland does when he is going good.”

*

--Dusty Baker’s private hopes are that Matt Williams, recovering from a broken foot, will be back by Aug. 1 and that the San Francisco Giants can stay alive until then.

They failed to retain starters Bill Swift and John Burkett, set-up man Mike Jackson and versatile Bryan Hickerson, and now Baker has starters Terry Mulholland, Joe Rosselli and Trevor Wilson on the disabled list, along with relievers Mark Dewey, Kevin Rogers and Pat Gomez. The bullpen includes Stephen Mintz and Chris Hook, both without major league experience before this season; Ken Greer, who had appeared in one big league game; Enrique Burgos, who had appeared in five, and Shawn Barton, who had been in 14.

“It gets a little frustrating when every time you take two steps forward, you take a couple steps back,” Baker said of the injuries. “We just have to win in spite of everything.”

*

--Injuries? The Cincinnati Reds, leading the National League Central, have already made 53 roster moves and employed the disabled list nine times while using 39 players, 19 of them pitchers.

General Manager Jim Bowden said he learned a lesson in 1993, his first year, when the Reds spent most of their budget on the top eight players and succumbed to a raft of injuries.

“I vowed that year that would never happen again,” Bowden said. “I learned the hard way. Once we put our nucleus together this year, I put an emphasis on the bench and bullpen. I made sure our depth was better.”

*

--Edgar Martinez, free of the injuries that marred the last two seasons, has returned to his 1992 form, when he won the American League batting title at .323. The Seattle Mariners’ third baseman-designated hitter is batting .361, has seven homers and 27 runs batted in in his last 17 games and has not gone two consecutive games without a hit in that time.

“He is a professional hitter,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “What he has done for our team recently proves his place among the very best hitters in the game.”