Padre Notebook : Add Candy Sierra to Your ’88 List of Phenoms

CHANDLER, Ariz. — Agreed, the Padre spring camp needs another phenom the way Central America needs another general.

But hope sprung again Wednesday with another child right-hander who has another great arm and another chance to be “pitching in this league for a long, long time, boy, tell you what.”

Just when you’ve heard it all, meet 21-year-old Candy Sierra.

The right-hander, who was overshadowed by fellow phenom Greg Harris at Class AA Wichita last year, did the same to the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday.

In the middle four innings of the Padres’ 9-2 victory, Sierra allowed no runs on two hits with six strikeouts. That’s more strikeouts than any two Padre pitchers have this spring combined.

Added to his first appearance this spring--one run in three innings with two strikeouts against the Angels--in seven innings, Sierra has eight strikeouts, a walk and a 1.50 earned-run average.

“He opened a hell of a lot of eyes out there today,” Padre Manager Larry Bowa said Wednesday. “He’s got the velocity, he’s got the breaking ball, he was moving the ball in and out. That was one of the best performances we’ve seen.”

Sierra, who was signed in 1983 as a 16-year-old free agent out of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, has been plagued with elbow problems for two years. Thus he has been at the Class AA level for the past three summers. Last season at Wichita, in just 114 innings, he struck out 89 while going 8-5 with a 3.95 ERA.

“The kid has a feel for it,” said Pat Dobson, the team’s pitching coach. “Some guys just got a feel for it, and he’s one of them. He’s not afraid to work the corners or pitch inside.”

Sierra, who speaks little English, reacted in the universal language of pitchers: “I throw strikes, I make the team,” he said.

Fellow phenom Harris will have a chance to match Sierra when he starts in today’s “B” game with Oakland. In one “A” appearance, Harris threw three one-hit innings.

Regardless of what happens today, both kids can breathe a little more easily. Bowa said Wednesday that Sierra and Harris have already made the first cut, which will occur when the club returns to Yuma March 18.

“We’ll have to keep these kids around a little while longer, see a little more of them, see a lot more of them,” said Bowa.

As the Padres evened their spring record to 3-3 Wednesday--thanks to five Milwaukee errors--Bowa was especially impressed with Dickie Thon, who played third base for the first time and played it flawlessly. Thon had three assists in the first three innings, all on hard-hit chances.

“He was very impressive over there,” said Bowa. “He’s been impressive in the field all spring.”

A spring batting leader has emerged in third baseman Chris Brown, who went 2 for 4; on one of the hits, he beat out a ground ball to third.

Brown leads all Padre spring hitters at .462 (6 for 13) with four runs scored.

Poor Keith Comstock. Perhaps because he finally spent an entire season playing in the same hemisphere, last year’s 31-year-old rookie was granted his first baseball card this spring.

“I thought, great,” the Padre reliever said. “I thought, I’ll now have something to sign for kids, something to pass out to friends.”

Poor Keith Comstock. The baseball card people messed up. Several hundred of his cards were printed with white lettering instead of blue lettering.

It was the only card in this year’s set printed like that. It has become an instant collector’s item.

Thus Topps called Comstock and asked him to stay away from those cards. They asked him not to sign them or encourage their use.

“So now I cannot even enjoy my own cards!” Comstock said. “I was told that every card I signed would shoot the value way up. So I have to ignore them.

“I’ve waited all my life for my own card, and now this. This could only happen to me.”

Lucky Keith Comstock. Once he learned of the mistake, he scavenged his mail for the special cards. If someone had unwittingly sent one in for an autograph, he would find a regular one to autograph, and keep the mistake card.

“Who knows?” said Comstock. “They started out at 10 cents, now they are worth 10 bucks. I get enough of them, maybe I can retire.”