Torborg’s Family Plan Gets Early Jolt in Spring Training

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. â€”  Jeff Torborg came to the New York Mets with ideas of managing the club in the manner of Fred MacMurray. Sure, hitting the cutoff man and executing bunt plays were important. But of at least equal importance to Torborg would be family values, team togetherness and, before you knew it, maybe even Uncle Charlie in the third base coaching box.

There are children of players and coaches all over the Mets’ training complex here. On occasion they participate in workouts. Torborg even arranged for a team picnic Monday. “We had hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, chicken, potato salad, cookies,� Torborg said with delight.

It is all part of his thinking that a unified team makes for a better team. The team that barbecues together wins together.

Torborg barely got this Family Channel show going when it suddenly was interrupted by a rape investigation. A rape investigation in which the accused are three of his players, two of whom are married with children. Now the Mets not only have the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals to deal with, but also lawyers, policemen, cityside reporters and, before you know it, the supermarket tabloids, too.

“There’s going to be adversity and we are going to have to overcome that, whatever it is,� Torborg said. “My job is to keep this team focused and prepared on the field.�

It is a huge task, because the Mets’ season, like the reputations of Dwight Gooden, Daryl Boston and Vince Coleman, is permanently altered. The effect on it ranges anywhere from distraction to destruction.

The police investigation is expected to conclude this week. The Mets’ worst-case scenario is that the state attorney’s office decides to file charges of sexual battery, which under Florida law is defined as rape. That would set in motion a long legal affair that could consume the entire season and generate a lurid trial that might embarrass the team and baseball regardless of its verdict.

Consider that the Mike Tyson rape case, which began with an incident last July 19, has yet to run its full course. And Tyson did not fight while under indictment. Baseball players go to work and are available to the media virtually every night.

Even in the Mets’ best-case scenario -- no charges are filed -- the allegations will haunt this team. Unfortunately, some of the mud sticks. The Mets will be asked questions about the allegations in every city in which they play, whether the legal case is alive or not. They can choose not to answer them, but they will be asked just the same. And fans, both home and away, can be more cruel than the most cynical of media critics.

There is also the possibility of a civil case. Joseph Ficarrotta, the attorney for Gooden, noted with interest that the woman chose to retain a civil attorney from Orlando. There is no way any of this breaks cleanly for the Mets.

The scrutiny of the club is intense. Jay Horwitz, the team publicist, estimated he is fielding “40 to 50 calls� per day about the case, including at least one after midnight every night, even though the team is offering no comment.

One news video cameraman showed unprecedented verve. He ran sprints in the outfield with the players, complete with his equipment, until he was shooed away. And he camped out silently at Gooden’s locker long enough for the pitcher to finally ask, “What do you want?�

The cameraman responded, “I want a sound bite from you.� Gooden turned his back and walked away.

Gooden appeared tense on the day his name first surfaced -- that is, in the moments he was not seeking sanctuary in the trainer’s room -- but he has appeared relaxed since then. The same applies to Boston, who signed autographs next to the dugout 20 minutes before a game Monday.

Coleman appears the most bothered among the three players. When one reporter asked him an innocent question about golf, Coleman snapped, “No comment.� He shoved a television camera lens while leaving the field after batting practice one day. And he raised the ire of Torborg and the boos of the crowd by failing to run out a dropped line drive.

It is virtually impossible to draw a direct line between a team’s level of play and outside circumstances. But the facts, whether they are linked or not, are that the Mets have not looked good on the field and there is a rape investigation occupying their thoughts.