McIlvaine Blueprint is Tested

SAN DIEGO —  They’ve found other celebrities who can sing the national anthem better than Roseanne Barr. Sons-in-law no longer are running the front office. Club presidents have quit making obscene gestures to local fans.

Tranquillity has returned to the Padres. Ever since 1990, when Barr took the stage at Jack Murphy Stadium, and virtually the entire front office was fired a few months later, there has been almost a peaceful hush in Mission Valley.

Crazy as it sounds, who would ever have imagined the Padres would actually be aching for attention once again?

You see, the worst has occurred. Apathy has set in.

The Padres, championship contenders two years ago, have become a spiritless, mediocre team whose stock is plummeting quicker than IBM’s, critics say.

Check out the conversation in local bars. Tune into the talk shows. The Padres, who are a month away from opening spring training, are barely an afterthought.

The most publicity they receive now are the letters to the editor from fans vowing to cancel their season tickets.

“I can’t believe how much disinterest there is in the team around town,” said Jack McKeon, fired 18 months ago as Padres general manager. “People say, ‘Jack had an ego. Jack’s ego was out of control.’

“Hey, we sold tickets, didn’t we? I always considered that selling tickets were part of my job. I’m damn proud of what I accomplished during my 10 years with the Padres.

“That’s why I’m almost sick to my stomach when I see what’s happened.”

Instead of fantasizing about a championship, Padre fans are fearful the only entertainment next summer will be the 1992 All-Star game.

They wonder what happened to the new ownership that said it wanted to emulate the Oakland Athletics, but couldn’t afford Jose Canseco’s speeding tickets, much less his salary, placing about a $23 million cap on this year’s player payroll.

They wonder why several members of the ownership group have informed Padre chairman Tom Werner they want out. Werner, despite rumors he also will bail out, says he’ll stay.

They wonder why a team that frequently failed to live up to expectations this past decade, now no longer has expectations.

When you’re picked to finish no better than fourth in the National League West this season and still are relishing last year’s third-place finish, something is wrong.

“San Diego always has been under a microscope because of all the personalities involved, but now people are wondering what’s going on there,” said Randy Smith, assistant general manager of the Colorado Rockies, who left the Padres three months ago. “Time will tell, but I don’t feel progress has been made the last 14 months there. The major league club certainly hasn’t improved.

“To be successful, you need a plan, and to stick by it, “ he said. “There hasn’t been a long-term plan in San Diego in years.”

Certainly, no one can entirely blame Joe McIlvaine, current general manager, for the mess Padres are in.

He’s not the one who left outfielder Shane Mack and third baseman Dave Hollins unprotected during the Rule 5 draft in 1989, watching both emerge into potential stars while the Padres have gaping holes at each position.

He’s not the one who allowed Kevin Mitchell, Kevin McReynolds, Ozzie Guillen, Ozzie Smith, Mack, Dave Winfield, Mark Davis and Hollins to leave town in the last 11 years, with only Tim Teufel left to show for it.

He’s not the one who paid reliever Craig Lefferts a three-year, $5.35-million contract to make him the bullpen stopper, and now can not trade him because of the salary.

He’s not the one who chose to trade catcher Sandy Alomar when the rest of the organization recommended trading Benito Santiago, eligible for free agency at the end of the season.

Yet, it doesn’t matter to San Diego what transpired before McIlvaine’s grand entrance. He arrived from the New York Mets with impeccable credentials. He was rewarded with a three-year contract and two-year option worth about $2.6 million, including mind-boggling fringe benefits.

Although McIlvaine might have been on the job only 15 months, and for the first time in his career is responsible for an entire operation, there has been little forgiveness and plenty of ridicule.

“I’m not afraid of criticism, but accept me for what I am,” McIlvaine said. “Give me a chance. You’ve got to remember, when I came here a year ago it was not a pretty sight.

“There were a lot of fires that needed to be put out, and I was the one who had to do it. I felt like a fireman. That’s over with now, but it all takes time.”

There were 31 firings during the transition. McKeon, farm director Tom Romenesko, assistant general manager Bill Beck, public relations director Mike Swanson, scouts, coaches, trainers and front-office employees were dismissed. McIlvaine took responsibility for most of the firings, but the truth is that he was acting primarily on advice for many of the moves.

He began to restructure his front office, hiring John Barr from Baltimore as his assistant general manager and former player Ed Lynch as his farm director. The whispers around the league were just beginning. It was one thing to go for inexperience, they said, but quite another to make your assistant general manager one of the highest-paid executives in the game with a salary of about $185,000 this year.

Then, just two months after taking the job, it happened. McIlvaine traded second baseman Roberto Alomar and outfielder Joe Carter to the Toronto Blue Jays for first baseman Fred McGriff and shortstop Tony Fernandez. San Diego was left dazed.

“I almost drove off the side of the road when I heard the trade on the radio,” McKeon said. “I thought somebody was playing a joke.”

OK, if you want to trade Carter, fine. But Alomar? Robbie Alomar? The kid was only 22 years old. He could wind up in the Hall of Fame. Alomar?

It’s still premature to make a judgment on who got the better end of the deal, but the Blue Jays won Round 1. One Blue Jay official said: “We wouldn’t trade Alomar straight up for both of those guys now.”

“Hey, I’m not a dummy, I know how good Alomar is,” McIlvaine said. “Robbie was the best player in the trade. There’s no question it helped Toronto, but I think it helped us, too.

“I know what McGriff and Fernandez can do, and I also know we didn’t see the best of Fernandez, either. You’ll see a better player this year.”

It was as if the trade created an open invitation to not only scrutinize McIlvaine, but criticize his every move:.

He acquired Jim Presley, Marty Barrett, Wes Gardner and Mike Aldrete before the start of the season. They were all gone by the All-Star break, with the Padres eating $2 million in contracts . . . He signed free-agent reliever Larry Andersen to a two-year, $4.5-million contract, only to find out Andersen has bulging disks in his neck. . . . He was provided the chance to trade Bip Roberts straight up for Danny Tartabull, and declined. . . .

He called up reliever Steve Rosenberg from the minors one day, only to have the commissioner’s office notify him he was in violation of the rules. . . . He wound up needing seven different players at third base. . . . He rehired Manager Greg Riddoch after letting him squirm the entire season about his future. . . . He protected players in this past minor-league draft who didn’t need to be on the roster. . . . He traded Roberts for reliever Randy Myers, bypassing an earlier opportunity to take outfielder Eric Davis. . . . And he still finds himself desperately looking for a second baseman and left fielder to replace Alomar and Carter.

“I’m a little confused,” Smith said. “I really don’t understand the Roberts trade at all, just like I didn’t understand the Alomar trade. I don’t know, on the surface, it seems like they’re just trading to make trades, filling one hole and creating another.”

Said McKeon: “How can a team go from being a contender to a fifth- or sixth-place team in two years? I think if you had kept the same cast together from 1990, and maybe added one player, it would have won the whole damn thing last year. I really believe that. But everybody has their own way of thinking, who am I to say?”

McIlvaine is well-aware of the lingering concerns. He’s not predicting this will be the team to beat in the NL West. Then, again, he believes the team will contend because of its pitching. He believes in himself and what he’s doing.

This is the man who pulled off the David Cone-for-Ed Hearn-trade. He got Sid Fernandez for Carlos Diaz. How about Howard Johnson for Walt Terrell? Don’t forget Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey.

“I want to do things the right way here,” McIlvaine said, “and that doesn’t mean taking shortcuts or giving up draft choices. I’m in the development business. I don’t think you can sacrifice the future for the present. I want to stay here a long time, so I’m going to do it the right way.

“Sure, you’d love to have instant results like John Schuerholz had in Atlanta, but those things just don’t happen often. You want to build for the future. You can say what you want about that ’90 team, but they were a great team on paper, and only won 75 games. We won nine more games last year.

“Just look at all of the talent they’ve had over the years, and the talent they traded, but how many times did they win? That’s what we’re trying to do, bring in players with a winning attitude. You can’t underestimate the importance of that.”

Of course, that task would be a whole lot easier if McIlvaine’s budget included growth for the signing of lucrative free agents. The signings of infielder Teufel hardly can be depicted as scintillating, rousing folks to the ticket window.

The Padres have sold 7,220 full-season ticket plans, and are on pace to exceed last year’s total of 8,675, according to Dave Gilmore, director of ticket operations. Yet, Padres executives cringe at the thought of their diminished returns if not for corporations buying tickets simply for the privilege of seeing the All-Star game.

It doesn’t help matters that there are rumors that the Padre ownership will put the team up for sale after the All-Star break, and spend the rest of their lives trying to forget this miserable experience.

“That’s not true, that’s simply not true,” Werner said. “I know that from time to time, partners have discussed selling their interest. I can’t speak for all 15 owners, but as a group we’re very comfortable with the investment.

“This is a very financially sound ownership, but I never believed spending $29 million on one player will win a pennant. If we thought that, we’d do it, but history shows it doesn’t.

“Believe me, I want to win. I love to win. As you know my TV series (The Cosby Show) has finished first in the ratings the last few years, so I’m very competitive and like to win.

“I’m not conceding anything to anybody. We can win this thing.”

McIlvaine, who helped turn the Mets from the worst team in baseball to World Series champions without the aid of a free agent, knows challenges. He knew the budget constraints that lay ahead, and promptly signed McGriff, Bruce Hurst and Tony Gwynn to long-term contracts that could eventually save the organization millions. He needed a scouting director after Smith’s departure and signed Reggie Waller, considered by many in the industry as one of the brightest talents in the game. Most important, he trusts his instincts, much more than public sentiment.

“I’m not afraid to do the things I believe in,” McIlvaine said. “I’ve been in baseball since ‘69, and I’ve always gone with my instinct and judgments. I’m not going to worry about my popularity, or whether people like Jack more than me.

“Jack was a one-man show. That’s not me. I believe in hiring people to do their job, and I’m not going to interfere.

“But no matter what happens to the ballclub, I know it’s the GM who’s going to get the blame or credit.”

While McIlvaine still awaits any credit to come his way, he insists the Padres will be a contender every year as they continue to build through the farm system. Starter Rickey Bones and reliever Jeremy Hernandez are expected to make the team this season, and McIlvaine believes infielders Jose Valentin, Luis Lopez and Guillermo Velasquez could be two years away.

“We have some position players in the system with some definite talent,” McIlvaine said, “but what we need are more quality arms. We’re trying to build a good, strong farm system with the goal of being able to pull up a player when we need one.

“We’ll be all right.

“I really believe that.”