Padre Notebook : Showdown at Spring Training Corral Proves OK for Show, Dawson

YUMA, Ariz. — If there are any scars left from that heated incident last summer in Wrigley Field, they do not show on Andre Dawson’s face. Twenty-one stitches removed from around his left check and mouth without a trace. The result of having been struck by a tailing Eric Show fastball.

“A good plastic surgeon,” explained Dawson, running his hand over the point of impact.

If only healing the mental wound could be so clean. That was what Dawson and Show uncertainly came to explore Tuesday afternoon.

For the first time since Show hit Dawson with a pitch July 7, touching off a bench-clearing brawl that had Show scurrying to the Padres’ dugout for cover, the two met in a game.

And though it was only a spring training game between the Padres and Chicago Cubs played in front of 4,302 in Desert Sun Stadium, it had special impact well beyond a 5-1 Padre victory.

It was a test of civility for Dawson, Show and players from both teams in a game known both for its gentlemanliness and manliness.

“Throwing the game against the Cubs and really against Dawson was not something I was looking forward to,” Show said. “I could give you all kinds of lines of pseudo-macho stuff or try and maintain some facade about how it doesn’t bother me at all. But when you hit somebody in the head, (playing him again) is not something you look forward to. It’s part of the game, something you have to do.”

For all the worry, there were no incidents. Show faced Dawson in the batter’s box and nowhere else. Even when Show was pushed off the plate in his first at-bat by Jeff Pico’s inside fastball on a 3-0 count, and after he had to hit the dirt on his second time up when Pico threw a slider that passed right where his head normally would be, outward tempers remained calm.

“I was trying to throw the ball over the plate,” said Pico, who was with the Cubs’ double-A team in Pittsfield, Mass., at the time of the Dawson-Show incident last July. “That slider just got away from me.”

Said Show: “One came right at my head. I mean right at my head. I saw the ball all the way. I saw it coming and thought, ‘OK, duck.’ The next thing, I was down on my back.”

Dawson’s three at-bats against Show were much more routine. He grounded out to third in the first, was safe on an error in the third when third baseman Chris Brown mishandled a ground ball and walked on four pitches in the sixth.

Show was removed for a pinch-hitter after six innings but was credited with his first victory in three decisions. He allowed one run and two hits, while walking six and striking out five.

None of his pitches came anywhere close to making Dawson, the National League’s most valuable player last season, flinch, let alone duck. On his last two pitches to Dawson, Show threw a changeup that skipped well in front of the plate and a low outside pitch that left no question it was ball four.

“The first two times up, I threw balls inside, but I made sure the balls were down,” Show said, then let out a nervous laugh. “You’ve got to throw him inside because he such a diving hitter. He dives into it so aggressively.

“The first couple times didn’t bother me too much,” Show said. “But the third time he got up, I thought, ‘The day had gone so well, and I’m a little tired right now. It is a hot day, and I’ve been battling the flu for 20 days. If I just try to rear back and uncork one, I might have another problem. It is spring training and the whole thing is not worth it. I’m just going to go away (with the pitch) and if I miss, I miss.”’

Dawson said Show pitched him well and that he did not approach the game with any thoughts of gaining retribution for last year’s incident.

“I wasn’t thinking about last year,” Dawson said. “That is over.”

Easily said, but at least for Show hard to forget. Show has said all along that he was not trying to hit Dawson and he issued an apology after the incident.

“I tried to put myself in the Cubs players’ position as if this happened to Tony Gwynn, and I tried to think what would I think,” Show said. “I think honestly I would not have thought he was hit on purpose.”

Thinking about it was one thing, but facing Dawson and the Cubs was something Show was able to avoid, until now. When the Cubs came to San Diego after the incident last season, Show said the rotation was changed so he wouldn’t pitch against them. And when it was his turn earlier this spring to pitch, rather than face the Cubs in Mesa, he was assigned to a “B” game against Seattle in Tempe.

But Show knows the toughest test should come when the Padres play in Chicago for the first time May 11.

“It was like the President was killed,” Show said of the aftermath of the incident. ‘It was on TV 24 hours a day.

“Afterward there were two schools of thought: Chicago wanted atonement by death, and the other side of the spectrum said I’m a coward for apologizing.”

Padre Notes

Padre Manager Larry Bowa said he will announce his starting pitcher today for opening day in Houston April 5. Eric Show, who has started three of the Padres’ past four openers, was informed by Bowa of the decision after Tuesday’s game. Show would not reveal what he was told except to say, “It’s unusual.” . . . Second baseman Randy Ready had another strong game at the plate, going 3 for 3 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs in the 5-1 win against the Cubs (13-9). Of Ready’s 15 hits this spring, 8 are doubles and 1 is a home run. Right-handed relief pitcher Candy Sierra increased his shutout streak to 12 innings Tuesday. The victory ended a three-game losing streak for the Padres (9-10). . . . Bowa said his final roster cut could be complicated by the status of Tony Gwynn, who is recovering from surgery on his left index finger. If Gwynn is unable to play a full game by opening day, Bowa said he would keep an extra outfielder on the team. . . .