Martinez Looks Forward to a Summer of Content With Padres

SAN FRANCISCO —  Carmelo Martinez was not pleased with the 1986 baseball season. In fact, he was downright upset.

He turned 26 last summer, but it was a season in which he felt more like 16 . . . or maybe 46. He was being treated like either the rawest of rookies or the grayest of old-timers.

The problem was playing time. He did not get much, and didn’t do much with what he got. A .238 average with 9 home runs and 25 RBIs in 244 at-bats will peeve a fellow who believes he should be about to enter the prime of his career.

Steve Boros, the nice-guy manager, had the smallest of doghouses, and Martinez was its sole occupant.

“I was upset,” Martinez said Monday, “but I kept it to myself . . . until the last day of the season.”

Martinez was suddenly in the lineup, and he wondered why. In so many words, he said he was told he was being “showcased” for a possible trade.

“I thought I was going to be traded,” he said. “I thought I’d go before Kevin McReynolds.”

McReynolds was traded to the New York Mets, and Martinez found himself in left field Monday when the Padres opened the season against the San Francisco Giants.

What’s more, last year’s reject had a home run and an RBI single and made a diving catch in the outfield. It also was significant that he was moved to first base for his defense in the seventh inning.

Aside from the fact that the Giants rallied to win, 4-3, in 12 innings, it was a nice beginning for a guy coming off such a depressing season.

Martinez even managed to make this year’s manager, Larry Bowa, look good. Bowa has this idea about how to handle the right-handed hitting Martinez and the left-handed hitting John Kruk in left field. He ignores who might be pitching and goes with his gut feeling on which guy is swinging the bat best.

“As long as Carmelo’s swinging the bat the way he is, he’s going to be in there,” Bowa said.

Take that, Mike Krukow. The Giant right-hander, a 20-game winner last season, might have been wishing Bowa was a little more conventional with his left-field platoon. Martinez will be in there again tonight against Mike LaCoss, another right-hander.

These developments come as a pleasant surprise for Martinez.

“Even at the beginning of spring training I didn’t know if I’d have a job,” he said. “I thought I’d probably be on the ball club, but I didn’t know what I’d be doing. Larry Bowa told me to work hard and be ready because he was going to give me some playing time.”

Martinez played in 20 “A” games and batted .276 in the spring, leading the Padres with four home runs--two against Oakland Thursday night in San Diego. He also hit the ball well against the Chicago Cubs in Denver over the weekend.

He had Bowa’s attention.

“He told me Sunday I was starting in left field,” Martinez said. “That was a big surprise. I just hope I keep swinging the bat, and we win some ball games.”

Martinez is aware that Monday’s efforts only represent a beginning. A lost season cannot be exorcised in one lovely afternoon.

“Hey, 1986 is behind me,” he said. “I have to be thinking ahead all the time. I have to stay positive. I’m getting a chance to play and I have to give it my best.”

Part of the problem in 1986 was with the fans in San Diego. They treated Martinez with the venom usually reserved for villains such as Al Davis and Tom Lasorda. Martinez was mercilessly booed, and responded by hitting .179 at home and .298 on the road.

“Maybe it was because I was trying too hard,” Martinez said. “I’d make a mistake in the outfield, and then I’d try to rip the ball at the plate. I’d end up making mistakes at the plate, too.”

Now, about those mistakes in the outfield . . . Martinez made none Monday. In fact, he had as nice a play as he has likely ever made with a diving catch of a sinking line drive by Chili Davis in the fourth inning.

“You liked that?” Martinez smiled. “I was surprised, too.”

For Carmelo Martinez, 1987 has been filled with surprises.