San Diego Padres

Padres general manager Kevin Towers doesn't usually receive telephone calls from his players in the off-season, but this winter Ken Caminiti, Tony Gwynn and Wally Joyner all phoned Towers and lobbied for him to re-sign free-agent leftfielder Greg Vaughn. The urgency of the campaign was surprising, considering that Vaughn played only 43 games for San Diego at the end of last season and hit just .206, including a measly .125 with runners in scoring position.

"When Greg came here, he felt so much pressure to be the big bopper that he dug himself into a deep hole," Gwynn says of Vaughn's July 31 arrival in a trade with the Brewers. "But we all liked his attitude, and we wanted to see the damage he could do for us over a full season."

Vaughn, who hit .280 with 31 homers and 95 RBIs in 102 games for Milwaukee before he was dealt to the Padres for outfielder Marc Newfield and pitchers Ron Villone and Bryce Florie, actually won over third baseman Caminiti a few weeks before the trade. Caminiti was sitting alone on a bus waiting to be driven back to the hotel after an All-Star Game workout when Vaughn approached and introduced himself, and the two became fast friends. So when Vaughn went to San Diego, Caminiti offered to let him sleep at his house for the rest of the season. "We lived in the same place, we ate together, we lifted weights together, we went to the ballpark together," says the 31-year-old Vaughn with a sheepish grin. "Some people started asking questions."

The pair are inseparable in the Padres' lineup as well, with Caminiti batting cleanup and Vaughn in the fifth spot. At the time of the trade, Caminiti had endured 11 straight games without a home run, but he promptly cracked three homers in the first two games after Vaughn arrived. Caminiti then won the National League Player of the Month award in August and September, hitting .359 with 23 homers and 61 RBIs in those two months on his way to the league MVP award. No wonder he offered Vaughn room and board. "It's no secret that when Greg came here, my numbers shot through the roof," Caminiti says. "I think pitchers started looking at the on-deck circle, and they didn't want to walk me to pitch to him because he can hit home runs by accident."

Towers believes that Vaughn's positive influence flows throughout the lineup, so he heeded the wishes of his players and signed Vaughn to a three-year, $15 million contract in January. Vaughn, who had a career-high 41 home runs and 117 RBIs overall last season, hit 10 homers in just 141 at bats with San Diego, placing him third on the team despite his anemic average. And this season he will no longer have to rotate in leftfield with Rickey Henderson, whom the Padres are hoping to trade. "Last season with the Padres felt a lot like spring training because I didn't play every day and I had never seen most of the pitchers I was facing," says Vaughn, explaining his feeble production after the trade. "I don't like to predict how many home runs or RBIs I might have this season. Let's just say that I have some unfinished business in the National League."

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