Word From Wiggins Is That He’s Feeling Better, Agent Says

PITTSBURGH —  Already, word from Alan Wiggins is that he’s feeling better. That’s what he told his agent on Tuesday. This, his agent says, is great.

Soon, either two weeks, three weeks or 30 days from now, Alan Wiggins will talk to Padre Owner Joan Kroc and President Ballard Smith. He will tell them his story. What he says will matter much, since only his future is at stake.

“When Joan and Ballard sit down with Alan,” Wiggins’ agent, Tony Attanasio, said Wednesday, “they’ll see a 27-year-old who’ll say what he has to say . . . The Padres, in the past, have demonstrated that they’re a compassionate organization, and I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

But Attanasio may be mistaken, for the Padres have not sounded lately like a team willing to forgive, forget.

“He probably will play again, but with us again, I don’t know,” Smith said. “We have shown tremendous compassion, but the issue is bigger than Alan Wiggins. It’s what’s best for the San Diego Padre organization in the long run, what’s best for baseball and what’s best for the public, which has a love for this baseball club.

“The first time around (Wiggins served a 30-day suspension in 1982 for cocaine possession), Alan Wiggins was the only thing we were concerned about, but the second time around, other things come into play. At some point in everybody’s life, they have to take responsibility for what they’re doing.”

Said Kroc: “I’ll tell you one thing--I’m going to have a clean team . . . Whatever I have to do to have a clean team, I will.”

So this is what Attanasio and Wiggins are up against. For Wiggins to play again, he and his lawyers must come to an agreement with the Padres. If they don’t agree, a third party--three impartial doctors--enters and makes a decision. For instance, they could rule that Wiggins is psychologically ready to play.

But are the Padres forced to play him?

No. Smith said this on Tuesday night and made sure this was clear. Smith may indeed have to pay Wiggins or play with a 24-man roster, but Wiggins can’t be ordered onto the field by this third party.

Attanasio says he understands the Padres’ thinking and why they might be upset over this whole mess. But Attanasio also begs for compassion.

This is his side of the story:

He had been in Princeton, N.J., last week to visit his son, who goes to school there. Attanasio’s son had been ill, but that was besides the point when the Padres called.

The call came last Thursday night from General Manager Jack McKeon, just after Wiggins had disappeared in Los Angeles. It was 2:45 a.m. and Attanasio was sleeping. He was shocked.

“To say it was difficult for me would be a gross understatement,” he said.

He later talked to Wiggins, although he won’t say which relatives Wiggins had stayed with.

“He obviously had some degree of stress and depression,” Attanasio said. “ . . . With any kind of substance abuse, whether it’s alcohol or drugs, when you don’t have it, you feel anxiety. Of course, when things are on an upswing, you don’t miss it. But when you’re under pressure or stress, whether self-imposed or not, the anxiety becomes more involved.

“This kid here had a relapse. I haven’t spoken to the doctors, nor have the Padres, but he made a remarkable comeback and then fell down. We’ll try to help him up.”

At this point, Attanasio seemed to admit that Wiggins was on drugs again, but he wasn’t saying that.

“The only ones who can be sure are the people with him right now,” he said. “Only them and he, himself, can say. I say he ‘fell down,’ but I can’t say he had a relapse. In all probability, it is (a relapse), but until the doctor says that, it (drugs) could be something entirely unrelated.

“He’s where he feels he belongs . . . He was very depressed, like there was no tomorrow, like the sun won’t shine, like life is all over with. He may or may not be drugs . . . Maybe, it’s plain ordinary depression.

“A rehabilitation center is 99.9 percent psychological, learning introspection . . . I really don’t know what he has. Evidence points to a pure (drug) relapse because of the irrational behavior. He didn’t show up, and that’s irrational. I’m not happy about that, and the Padres aren’t, and I’ll tell you what, Alan Wiggins isn’t either. There’s something in his psyche that needs corrections.”

Whether the Padres will forgive Wiggins is uncertain. The decision comes probably in a month, and the way the Padres sound, it’s probable that Wiggins won’t play again this season, probably never again in San Diego.

“I’m not even thinking about it,” Attanasio said. “The only question I wonder about is the welfare of Alan Wiggins, of his wife, of his child, of his unborn child (his wife Angie is pregnant).

“What the Padres said came at the heat of the moment. They were feeling hurt, and no one understood because they couldn’t talk to the person involved. It created anxiety to everyone involved. We’re all anxious . . . confused.”

Meanwhile, Alan Wiggins gets better.