Mitchell a Smash in Debut, but He Still Dwells on Trade

By TOM FRIEND

July 6, 1987 12 AM PT

<i> Times Staff Writer</i>

CHICAGO — Kevin Mitchell, who has tree trunks for arms, was a weeping willow Sunday.

On what should have been one of his prouder days, Mitchell chose to look backward, not ahead. Thus the two towering home runs he hit in his debut for the San Francisco Giants were not savored in the least.

Saturday night, the Padres abruptly told third baseman Mitchell to pack his bags, and he still hasn’t recovered, although he did--after much deliberation--manage to show up here for Sunday’s game. Getting traded must not be easy, because when Padre Manager Larry Bowa told Mitchell he was going to the Giants in a seven-player deal, Mitchell stormed out of Bowa’s office in Montreal and told teammate Garry Templeton he just wouldn’t leave.

Getting traded must not be easy because when Mitchell went back to his Montreal hotel Saturday night, he called his grandmother, Josie Whitfield, in San Diego and told her, “I’m coming home.” He also says he didn’t sleep more than a minute or so all night, and he arrived at Wrigley Field, after a pep talk from his grandmother, in a daze. Giant president Al Rosen--who desperately wanted Mitchell in the deal--pulled him aside and gave him some advice, but Rosen’s words went in one ear and out the other.

The game began, and Mitchell--wearing jersey No. 9 instead of No. 7--hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat, with the ball landing in the last row of the bleachers in left-center field. In his third at-bat, he homered again with a man on, but the ball went even farther this time--out of the stadium.

But what a sad face. Mitchell didn’t crack a smile when Rosen approached him afterward to say: “That’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I meant!” Rosen obviously was alluding to his pregame speech, but Mitchell only nodded. Someone then asked Mitchell to explain what Rosen’s pregame advice was all about, and Mitchell said: “I don’t even know what he told me.”

Mitchell knows only one thing: Getting traded isn’t easy. For certain, he still isn’t over last December’s trade, when the New York Mets sent him to the Padres. Because he’d grown up in Southeast San Diego, it was supposed be a homecoming. But Mitchell griped about that trade from the beginning.

Now that the Padres have traded him, he is griping again.

Sunday, after hitting two homers, driving in a career-high four runs and helping the Giants to a 7-5 victory over the Cubs, Mitchell said: “I’m hurting more inside than I’m happy. I was so upset (Saturday night), I almost cried. I was hurt. They made me feel like nothing. I didn’t even play there three months. Two trades in two years, man. That’s rough.”

“My stomach was in knots. I guess they (the Padres) lost faith in me. I told my grandmother I should have stuck with football, because baseball has too many trades. Trades are hard, man. They beat you down. When I called my grandmother, I almost broke down. I told her, ‘Granny, I’m tired of shifting around. I want to settle down.’

“They let me down, man. Bowa told me I was traded, and I walked out. I didn’t want to shake his hand or nothing.”

Jack McKeon, the Padre general manager, justified the trade this way: He said Chris Brown is a former all-star third baseman (last year); Chris Brown has proven he can play every day at third base; Chris Brown isn’t a San Diego native.

“I still like Mitchell,” McKeon said Sunday. “But with the surroundings he had (in San Diego), I don’t know if he could ever perform there.”

Mitchell concedes that his childhood friends used to visit as early as 6 a.m. after night games. Mitchell, who has lived with his grandmother all season, says it grew tiresome. Old friends would see his .245 batting average and ask: “How come you’re not hitting better?” And his own grandmother dug out old newspaper clippings that said: “Mitchell should be a superstar.” He says she held them up to his face one day and said: “What’s wrong?”

Mitchell said he was finally getting used to the commotion. But that’s probably because his grandmother began to screen all visitors and all phone calls. She’d tell all his friends he wasn’t home.

“I think there was a lot of pressure on him in San Diego,” Whitfield said Sunday. “All these people wanted tickets and caps. He should have been resting. Sometimes when you’re away from home, you do better. He plays better when he’s away. But, yeah, I’ve been getting all kinds of calls today. Kevin’s aunt just bought two Padre toothbrushes, but she swears she’s taking them back.”

Getting traded isn’t easy, but it’s better if you look forward, not backward. Pitchers Craig Lefferts and Dave Dravecky were also involved in Sunday’s trade, and they were as happy as can be, although there are complications because of the trade. Lefferts’ wife is pregnant, and Lefferts doesn’t want to move. But he managed to get the Giants out of a bases-loaded jam Sunday and was all smiles afterward.

And Dravecky, who starts today for the Giants in Pittsburgh, was philosophical. He said: “I realize things don’t last forever.”

Mitchell isn’t seeing things as clearly.