Former Padres Alomar, Carter Enjoying New Climate in Toronto : Baseball: Most of the bitterness has faded from players stung by trade. After last year’s feuds, they’re glad to be Blue Jays and in contention in AL East.

ANAHEIM — Someone else cheers for them now. Another team, another city, another country.

Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar returned to Southern California last weekend to play baseball for the first time since the Padres traded them last December. They arrived amid a much quieter atmosphere than last year’s three-ring circus that passed for the Padres. The Toronto Blue Jays actually--deep breath here--get along with each other.

“We have some good people,” Toronto Manager Cito Gaston said. “We fly a lot of different airlines, and I’ve had a lot of stewardesses come up and tell me how nice the guys are. I’ve heard it from hotels, too.”

Another atmosphere. No decapitated figurines hanging from the dugout wall with the suggestion that it was modeled after one of their teammates. No constant bickering in the newspapers.

Carter and Alomar were never particularly close. Friends, yes; best friends, no. Carter is married and 31. Alomar is single and 23. They are different. Together, though, they went to Canada. The big trade last winter ensured that, like the Padres, they would be wearing blue-trimmed uniforms this season. It also guaranteed that neither would play an inning of baseball in Southern California until last weekend.

Conveniently, Toronto had an off day last Thursday--the day before the Blue Jays-Angels series opened in Anaheim--so Carter and Alomar each traveled to San Diego.

Indeed, things are quite different now. New city, new home ballpark . . . and a new combination lock for Carter’s house. Carter arrived last Thursday at his house in Poway, tried to work the lock and set off his own alarm. He finally got inside, but didn’t know how to shut the thing off. Finally, after about 15 minutes, it stopped. Whereupon Carter looked up--and realized he was standing by a motion detector. So the alarm went off again. Welcome home, big fella.

Alomar and Carter watched the telecast of the Padres’ wild, 11-10 victory in 12 innings last Thursday night over Atlanta. They saw Adam Peterson wild-pitch a run home. They looked on as the Padres blew a four-run lead in the 10th. They noticed that more than the uniforms were new.

“When Jack (McKeon) was fired, everything went out the window,” Carter said. “Man, I look at them now, and there’s four or five guys playing center field. No set lineup. They’re even trying Bip (Roberts) in center. It’s total chaos.”

Carter has talked to his buddy Tony Gwynn five or six times this season. He stopped by Gwynn’s house in Poway the other day to see Tony’s wife, Alicia, and their children. A year ago, things seemed so solid. He and Alomar were going to be in San Diego for years. They thought so. Padre fans and Padre management figured as much. Carter and Alomar were both so sure of their futures that they each bought houses in San Diego last year. Carter in Poway; Alomar in Rancho Penasquitos. Then came last December and the baseball winter meetings, and suddenly Carter and Alomar were going to be playing for Toronto. Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez would join the Padres.

“It really surprised me, yes,” said Rance Mulliniks, who has played in Toronto since 1982. “Just because of who was traded. Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez for Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar? Those kinds of trades just don’t happen very much anymore in baseball.”

This time, one did. But the novelty of the trade in baseball circles made it no easier for the players involved.

“Yeah, I go through tough times,” Alomar said. “I miss San Diego . . . friends and teammates and the fans.” Said Carter: “It was easy to get attached to San Diego with Tony and guys like Bip and Tempy. It was sad, real sad. Even going back there the first day and a half. I enjoyed playing there.”

At the time, the trade stung both of them. Alomar heard about it from his agent, Scott Boras. Carter learned about it from a shoeshine employee after playing golf in Orlando, Fla. Alomar, at the time, said he shed few tears. Carter, at the time, said he was “totally devastated.”

Carter and Gwynn have been close for years, and so have their families. Carter’s two daughters were friends with Gwynn’s kids. The children cried when the school year ended and it was time to move. Alomar’s biggest complaint with the Padres is that they fired his father, Sandy Sr., as third-base coach.

“I was disappointed when they let my dad go,” he said. “I knew my brother (Sandy Jr.) had to get traded so he could play, but when they let my dad go. . . .

“He was a good coach, he knew about the game, and all the players liked him. The only guy who didn’t like him was (Padre Manager) Greg Riddoch. “They should have told (my dad) like a man that he wasn’t going to be there next year. But they called him a couple of months later. He could have gotten a job with someone else, but they told him so late. . . . The way they let him go, it wasn’t a manly decision. It wasn’t professional, either.”

Alomar and Carter differ in their views regarding last year’s Gwynn-Jack Clark feud. Alomar says it plagued the Padres; Carter says it was just an excuse. Alomar: “That . . . was only two persons. But both persons are my friends. Tony Gwynn is a classy guy; Jack Clark is a classy guy, too.

“I think it affected the club, yeah. Every day we would go in the clubhouse and there were new comments in the papers. Players were talking about what was going on. I think it affected the club.”

Carter: “The way Riddoch was talking, he said the turmoil of the club being sold, Tony and Jack, and McKeon being fired affected the club. To say all of that led to a bad year, that’s baloney. I didn’t care who bought the team. That’s a lot of excuses. Point blank, we just played badly. It wasn’t the situation with Tony and Jack--that had nothing to do with it.”

Alomar and Carter were smiling in Anaheim. They are Toronto Blue Jays, happy, and just percentage points out of the lead in the AL East. “I like (Toronto),” Alomar said. “It’s different. Cold. But it’s nice to play there. People treat you real good. A lot of people follow the team--I’m really impressed about that.”

Alomar said he didn’t know what to expect from Toronto. Being a different country, he said, he thought the people might not know anything about baseball. He’s found the opposite. The Blue Jays are averaging 46,773 fans per game. A winning ballclub and the space-age Skydome combine to bring in the fans. There are other attractions. Each Blue Jay gets free use of a car during the season, for example.

“Toronto is beautiful,” Carter said. “I love it. It’s a first-class organization, from the people in the front office to the secretaries. They go out of their way to help you find places to stay. . . . They believe in treating their players well.”

Alomar’s biggest adjustment is at the plate. Every day, he sees a pitcher with whom he is unfamiliar. Despite that, Alomar is batting .256 with four home runs, 24 RBIs and a league-leading 15 doubles. And he already has had a few memorable AL moments.

On May 10, he became the first Blue Jay to hit a homer from both sides of the plate in the same game--the first came left-handed against Chicago’s Bobby Thigpen and the second came right-handed against Scott Radinsky. He was the last batter in Nolan Ryan’s seventh no-hitter--he struck out--but came back the next week to triple against Ryan. Carter, who spent six years in the AL with Cleveland before coming to San Diego in 1990, has had an easier time adjusting. Carter is batting .287 with six homers and 25 RBIs. Earlier this month, he put together a 12-game hitting streak.

“You can see (the trade) worked out great for both clubs,” Gaston said. Add new center fielder Devon White, and the Blue Jays are ecstatic.

“We’re as good defensively as anyone in baseball,” Mulliniks said. “From what I’ve seen so far, Roberto Alomar is the best all-around second baseman in our league. I can safely say that nobody has his range. I’ve been here 10 years and we’ve never had anybody at second base like Alomar. This defense is the best the team has ever had--especially up the middle, no question.”

Alomar said he still follows the Padres as best as he can, but his attention is focused on the Blue Jays.

“This is a classy team,” he said. “All of the guys here want to play baseball. It’s more fun here. They know how to win.”

Both players speak highly of Gaston. “Is he our manager?” Carter said, smiling. “You never know sometimes. Cito is excellent. He’s just, ‘Hey, go out there and play.’ ”

Most of the bitterness has faded, but the trade came so suddenly that they still think about San Diego.

“The only bitterness is with the way the team played,” Carter said. “When you analyze that team . . . they revamped the entire organization. It did not need revamping. We were a player or two away. Brett Butler was interested in coming to San Diego but expressed concerns because I was there (in center field). If he would have come and they would have put me in left and Jerald (Clark) at first, everything would have been solved. But they wanted a new attitude.”

Alomar is living in a hotel suite connected to the Skydome; Carter lives about a five-minute walk from the ballpark. “Awesome,” Alomar said when asked about the Skydome. “It’s different--real different. It has hotels, McDonald’s, bars, a Hard Rock Cafe.”

Alomar has decided to keep his house in San Diego; Carter thinks he has a buyer for his. Times change. Carter figures he will get a chance to see Gwynn at the All-Star game, scheduled for Toronto on July 9.

“I’ll definitely be at the All-Star Game this time,” he said, laughing. He has never played in one, but he has talked to Gwynn about this year’s game.

“(Gwynn) always says, ‘Well, I don’t know. . . .’ ” Carter said. “It’s like, ‘Shut up.’ I told him to make his plane reservations. Those are three days the kids will enjoy.”