Argyros’ Plans Leave Pair of Teams in Limbo : Raines Issue Arises Again for San Diego

YUMA, Ariz. — Questions that keep popping up around here . . .

Is Tim Raines coming with new Padre owner George Argyros? And is Dick Williams coming, too? Is Steve Garvey really mad? Is Argyros really a cheapskate? And will Argyros dance on the dugout as he did in Seattle? And what becomes of Jack McKeon and Dick Freeman and Larry Bowa?

And so on.

Argyros arrives here today for a half-hour meeting with the Padre players. Bowa, the Padre manager, held a brief meeting with them Thursday and he said the team had accepted the purchase offer of someone named Argyros. He’s not sure if he pronounced it right, but he told them he knew nothing more about the guy.

Then they all went out for batting practice.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Tom Reich--the agent for free agent outfielder Tim Raines--said he was very intrigued about the Padre sale. This week, Argyros had tried signing Raines for the Seattle Mariners, the team that Argyros owned at the time. Raines did not want to play in Seattle and told Argyros so. Reich was unhappy that Argyros called Raines directly instead of dealing with him, and he said Argyros was simply “grandstanding.”

Argyros’ response was that Reich wasn’t returning his phone calls.

Raines’ first choice all along has been to be a Padre, but that appeared unlikely when Ballard Smith, the Padre president at the time, decided to “terminate” negotiations.

“Argyros wanted to sign Raines for Seattle,” Reich said Thursday in a phone interview from Sarasota, Fla. “There’s no question he did. But I think what that was all about is he wanted to show he was going all out. I mean, he put on quite a media show, and Raines--with all due respect--did not want to play in Seattle. As much as he would have liked to play in San Diego, that’s how little he wanted to play in Seattle.

“Now, is San Diego realistic again? The answer is, I don’t have a clue. In other words, our negotiations with San Diego have ostensibly ended, and I don’t expect there to be further discussions--although you never know what’ll happen in this business. . . . The unexpected is to be expected in this kind of bizarre marketplace.”

Reich said he will not call Argyros, and the reason is Argyros can’t even try to sign Raines until the Padre sale is approved by the National and American League owners and Peter Ueberroth, the commissioner of baseball. That may not be for 90 days, although Argyros said Thursday he’d like to expedite the process.

Asked if he would get involved in negotiations for Raines, Argyros said: “If you can get hold of Tom Reich, you’re welcome to do the negotiating. . . . Anyway, I think if I interjected myself with the (Padre) ballclub at this time, there would be a conflict. I’ll help in any way I can, when I can.”

By the time Argyros can, it might be June.

“By the time I’m approved as owner, it’s quite likely Mr. Raines could already have a job,” Argyros said.

Raines’ wife was quoted recently as saying her husband might return to his former team--the Montreal Expos--in May, but Reich said: “Not true. I nearly died when I heard that.”

In fact, Reich--who says he has no hard feelings against Argyros--did not rule the Padres out of the Raines chase.

“I’ll tell you the truth, there’s nothing new on Raines at this minute,” Reich said. “In other words, some conversations are going on, but nothing imminent. This (sale) will have an impact on the franchise, but don’t get all fired up and think one follows the other and he’ll get back into the Raines’ fray because he very well may not.”

Public opinion is that he should. On Smith’s parking place here, someone has written “Sign Tim Raines!” But Reich said Argyros is not the type to be affected by public opinion.

“The media will have zippo influence on George Argyros,” he said. “He’s a very strong guy and very much his own man, and he won’t be jiggled around by that, and he will tell you so. He doesn’t make decisions based on that (the fans). He can take the heat. He’s very opinionated. But he’s no wimp.”

Argyros hired Dick Williams, the former Padre manager, in Seattle. A television broadcaster asked Williams Thursday if this meant he might return to the Padres.

“Are you serious?” Williams said.

“Yes,” the reporter answered.

“I just left San Diego,” Williams said, “and I don’t think they’d want me back.”

“But there’s different ownership now,” the reporter said.

“Yes, but the same sportswriters are there,” Williams said. “ . . . Listen, you don’t have the possibility of Dick Williams going back to San Diego. I’m the manager of the Seattle Mariners until whoever has the operation of the club decides otherwise.”

Padre players didn’t have much to say Thursday. Pitcher Goose Gossage, who hasn’t thought much of Joan Kroc and Smith in the past, declined comment. So did pitcher Dave Dravecky, the player representative.

Infielder Tim Flannery, who attended the same school as Argyros (Chapman College in Orange, Calif.), said: “We still have to hit and catch. But this organization (under Kroc) has been good to me. I’ve had a lot of good times. It was neat in ‘84, and I wish them the best.”

Pitcher Andy Hawkins said: “I’m glad to see Ballard gone, no doubt about that. I won’t say anything bad about him, but I’ll be glad to see new faces. Leadership was lacking, and we need a fresh start. I don’t know anything about Argyros.” First baseman Steve Garvey had no comment. Garvey, in the last year of his contract, had expressed interest in buying the Padres himself, and he had angered Kroc and Smith in November when he kept talking about it in the media.

But Garvey was serious. Sources close to him said he had put together a group of people that had well over $75 million in assets. He just couldn’t get in to see the Padre books. Sources said Kroc wouldn’t let him in. She was still bitter and just didn’t want to sell the team to him.

So Garvey was disappointed upon hearing Thursday’s news.

“He did want to buy the team,” said one of Garvey’s friends. “He wanted to make a viable bid, and he fell short with time. It’s like someone buying the car or the house you wanted. You get the money to put a bid down on a house and then you see the ‘sold’ sign.”

Argyros beat Garvey to it, but will he spend the money to improve the team? Garvey has said he would have.

As for Argyros, he never signed a free agent as the Mariner owner. The biggest contract he ever gave out was a three-year, $1.6 million deal (1984-86) to pitcher Jim Beattie. And Beattie went 0-6 with a 6.02 ERA last season.

Last year, the Mariners had the lowest payroll in baseball.

So Mariner players weren’t exactly devastated by Thursday’s news.

“I wish he had put the money into this club that he’s putting into buying the Padres,” pitcher Karl Best said.

Ken Phelps, a Mariner first baseman, was angry that Argyros never seriously pursued free agents.

“I’m excited about today’s news,” Phelps said. “George never had his heart in Seattle. He’s a Southern California guy (Newport Beach), so he’s probably excited about being close to home. Most of our guys are as excited about it as I am. They all know what it’s been like trying to deal with George. Maybe dealing with a new owner will be more exciting and pleasurable. . . . We were all excited for two days when he went after Tim Raines, but he (Raines) isn’t here, is he?”

Outfielder Phil Bradley said: “If he’s got that much money to own two clubs, he must have more (money) than he says he has or has spent on the Mariners.”

A prominent agent said Thursday of Argyros: “He has a pretty well-known philosophy. He’s been a tough customer, one of the toughest. He’s lost a lot of money in Seattle, and he doesn’t like to lose money. He will try to operate San Diego on a profitable basis. On high contract deals, it ain’t gonna be fun.”

An example: When Rene Lachemann was promoted from Triple-A to be the Mariner manager in 1981, Argyros did not increase his minor league salary, which was $26,000 a year.

Since buying the Mariners in 1981, Argyros has lost approximately $23 million. He lost $2 million in 1986 and an estimated $6 million in 1985.

But Williams says he’s not a cheapskate.

“George spent $35 million of his own money on this franchise. So I don’t know how anyone can say he’s a tightwad.”

But many people say he didn’t know much about baseball when he bought the Mariners. Once, in his early years in Seattle, the team had just played a doubleheader against the Twins, and he called Dan O’Brien--then the general manager--to see how his team did.

“We won the first game and split,” O’Brien said.

Argyros, unsure what “split” meant, said: “You mean we lost? We didn’t win the second game?”

Argyros also used to dance on top of the Mariner dugout during the seventh-inning stretch. On opening day in 1981, he and his wife sat in the dugout with the team. The opposing manager, Jim Fregosi of the Angels, threatened to file a protest if it happened again.

It didn’t.

Kroc never used to sit in the Padre dugout. She never hung around the Padre offices either. When Williams considered quitting as manager in November of 1985, Smith couldn’t find Kroc, and that’s why he could never tell her about it. She finally found out through the media and threatened to fire Smith.

She had a soft public image, but she showed anger at times in her three years as Padre owner. When Alan Wiggins suffered a cocaine relapse in April of 1985, she said he’d never play in San Diego again.

Without her in the front office, things will change. Dick Freeman had replaced Smith as the team’s chief operating officer, and his status is now uncertain. Jack McKeon, the general manager, doesn’t know what to expect either.

Asked Thursday about Argyros, McKeon said: “If someone asks me about him, I’ll say he’s a nice guy. I know him. He sure seems like a nice guy.”

Bowa, asked what he thinks about Thursday’s developments, said: “There’s nothing I can do. The new owner does what he wants. If he wants to change managers, it’s out of my hands.”