THERE WAS NO QUITTING : Because Padres’ Comstock Had to Keep Going, He Went Around the World

CHICAGO — Keith Comstock drove home to his Birmingham, Ala., apartment one night in early June 1983. He walked through the front door, faced his young wife, and said, “Enough.”

“Enough?” she said.

“I quit,” he said. “Baseball. The dreams. The struggle. The eight teams in eight years. I can’t go on. I’ll never make it. The real world beckons. I quit.”

Kathleen looked at him.

“Honey, you can’t quit,” she said.

“What do you mean?” he said.

“The car payment,” she said. We’ve got a car payment the end of the month. You can’t quit until we make that car payment.”

“Oh.”

Four years later, the Comstocks have paid off the Chevrolet station wagon, running it for 60,000 miles before finally trading it in.

“Not a lot of miles,” said Kathleen Comstock. “But hard miles.”

And four years later, her husband still hasn’t quit. Meet Keith Comstock, new reliever for the San Diego Padres, left-hander, age 31.

Not a lot of years. But hard years.

Last weekend, he came to San Diego, by way of San Francisco, by way of Kawasaki, by way of Tokyo, by way of Toledo, by . . . well, let’s put it another way.

Since signing with the Angels out of Canada College in Redwood City in 1976, Comstock has been under contract to 16 teams, in 14 leagues.

“The fact we are still playing baseball is a major miracle,” Kathleen said.

Some players quit after being released by a couple of major league teams. Keith Comstock is the only player in history to be released by five major league countries .

“The only place I haven’t played is Italy,” Comstock said. “But I hear they’ve been trying to get hold of me.”

Comstock has played for nine minor leagues . This included, at one time, every Double-A league in America.

“I know my way around those Double-A parks,” he said. “I’ve been to all of them. I counted.” He has also played for a minor league in Japan. When Comstock went to pitch for the Tokyo Giants in 1985, he didn’t realize they had minor leagues in Japan.

“They tell me they’re sending me down and I say, ‘Wait a minute!’ You never read about them having minor leagues.”

And through it all, Comstock comes to the Padres as a rookie.

“Can you believe it?” he said. “I’ve never met a rookie who is older.”

He came over from the San Francisco Giants in Saturday’s seven-player trade after being one of the Giants’ surprise success stories, going 2-0 with a 3.04 ERA, striking out 28 in 23 innings while walking 11.

He has been with the Padres for just four games but has already worked in three of them. In 3 innings, he has allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, but he has walked only 1 and struck out 7. It could have been much worse.

When the Wrigley Field fans were calling for the heads of the Padres Tuesday after Andre Dawson went down, who was called in to replace Eric Show amid the littered beer cups and peanuts? Comstock

Wednesday, when the Padres were in the middle of blowing a seven-run lead and the fans were alternately screaming and laughing, who was brought in? Comstock.

“A lot of times pitchers don’t do well in those situations because of pride,” he said. “Well, if I’m successful, it’s because I have no pride. After all I’ve been through, there’s nothing those hitters can do to to me that hasn’t been done to me before.”

Billy Martin. Roger Craig. Johnny Podres. Billy Muffett. Art Fowler. Jim Perry. Warren Spahn. Larry Himes. Billy Gardner. Cal Ermer. Bob Didier. Moose Stubing.

These are just some of the men who have been Keith Comstock’s boss.

“You know, I think he might make a hell of a pitching coach,” said Padre Manager Larry Bowa. “Is there a way that he hasn’t been taught?”

Keith Comstock’s Guide to Five Countries:

RED DEER, ALBERTA, 1975--Became first player ever released from a baseball organization because he was injured before a game while playing football . “Just a little game of touch outside my trailer. Threw out my back. But hey, I made a great catch.”

VENEZUELA, 1983--Became one of the first players banned from the country for five years because he didn’t show up.

“I had just signed with the Twins up here, and they thought if I went down there and played, I’d get shot, I didn’t care. But they wouldn’t let me go. So I was cut without ever playing a game.”

MAZATLAN, MEXICO, 1981--Became one of the first players released because the manager was released, and the manager had given him a ride there.

“Bob Didier was coaching a bunch of us in the Oakland organization down there, and when he got fired, they wanted all of us gone. It was OK. The food wasn’t real good.”

TOKYO, 1986--”I didn’t mind leaving there either. The only English word some of those people knew was, ‘No.’

ANGELS, 1979; DETROIT, 1983; MINNESOTA, 1984--”I was never trouble for anybody, except with California in 1979, when I was with El Paso. I said that the only thing pitching coach Warren Spahn taught me was that he won 363 games. Young kid, big mouth.

“But I don’t think that’s a problem. I haven’t popped off to anybody in, what, eight years?”

When asked about the reasons for his endurance, Comstock cannot seem to find explanations. He likes to refer to Herb, his late father who drove a truck and later ran the trucking company.

“My father always told me, ‘Play out your hand,’ ” he said. “He always talked about the easiest thing to do would be to quit.

“I wanted to go to something past junior college, to have something to fall back on. He said, ‘If you have something to fall back on, you fall back.’

“The thing about baseball is it’s not going to last forever,” Comstock said. “We’ll settle down soon.”

But if he doesn’t go for it while he can, he won’t be able to live with himself, he says.

“My friends think I’m crazy, asking me how we can live like this,” he said. “I’ll give them the wrong phone number, the wrong address, I won’t even know it.”

Kathleen laughed.

“Sometimes I wonder what happens when we stay in the same place for a couple of years,” she said. “Can I handle it. Will I get really bored? I worry about that.”

Comstock is beyond worry. And he appreciates the major leagues.

“I still can’t believe that I’m supposed to call somebody to bring my luggage to the lobby,” he said. “I can’t believe I’m not in charge of carrying the bats.

“But what I like most about up here is the war stories, sitting with guys, talking about all they’ve been through. I’m dying to get to know Goose Gossage, I bet he’s got some great stories. I’d like to hear them.”

Comstock looked surprised when somebody mentioned that Goose would probably like to hear his, saying, “Oh, I don’t know. Doesn’t everybody go through those kinds of things?”