Inspired by former Indians shortstop Tom Veryzer (of all people!), we ended up talking in Monday’s comments about some of our favorite Padres memories. I’ve been having a little fun with a similar thread over at Knuckle Curve, and I thought, hey, we should do a full-on thread here at Ducksnorts.
Yeah, I know. That’s crazy talk.
Anyway, my questions to you are these:
- When was the first Padres game you attended in person? (Link to the box score at B-R if you can find it.)
- Are there any specific memories you have of that game? Could be action on the field, or whatever.
For example, I’m pretty sure that this was my first Padres game (and first baseball game of any kind for that matter). The two things I remember are that Gene Tenace hit two home runs and that at some point (probably more than once) I asked my dad, who usually took me to football games, what quarter it was.
So, whatcha got for me?
I was at this game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN199806020.shtml
I sat as close to straight-away CF as possible, front row, lower level, basically directly behind the CF camera. Bagwell and G. Vaughn both hit HRs near us, monster shots. I also remember wondering why nobody was at a game between two 1st place teams (and not flukey-early-season leaders either).
I was at this game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN197408050.shtml
1974. I remember it because as a young boy of only 7 I was sitting behind the left field wall and there was this really drunk Padre fan leading cheers in front of the first row. I got to see Hank Aaron play and he came up in the 5th inning with bases loaded and hit the ball off of the left field wall. The odd thing about this play was that all runners only advanced one base, and he hit the ball off the wall. The runner on 2nd base messed up and went back to tag up and only advanced to third. I just barely missed seeing Hank Aaron hit a grand slam home run.
We were in SD on vacation, I never lived in the area.
vr, Xeifrank
I grew up in New England and started following baseball when my father pointed out Ted Williams on TV in ’57. I saw my first major league game at Fenway in ’65, but saw my first Padres game in ’71, after the Navy stationed me in San Diego. Not much to remember, the Giants were in town, with McCovey, Willie Mays in Center, and Marichal the starter. Marichal pitched a complete game and the Padres lost 6-3.
One memory was when we got into the stadium, a guy came over and identified himself as Phil Collier. After the introductions, he asked us where our seats were. Phil knew by our haircuts we were sailors who got discounted tickets from Navy special services, donated by the Padres.
The Padres couldn’t draw flies back then (attendance for that game was a tad over 3,000) and Phil wanted to see what quality of tickets the Padres were giving away and writing off at full price. I showed him my ticket: field level, looking straight down the basepath from third to second. Phil thanked us and walked away, shaking his head.
The seats weren’t that good, in the last row of field, and there was NOBODY in front of us, all the way to the rail. We moved to the front row in the third inning and nobody bothered us. We were charged two bucks for those tickets instead on the normal one, but it was worth it, just to see Willie Mays, let alone those two other future Hall of Famers.
My first Padres game was in 1987 when they were really awful. We saw the Cincinnati Reds play. Andy Hawkins started the game and pitched one inning and was taken out of the game. The Reds won 3-1 behind Tom Browning as the Padres just couldn’t do much against him. Carmelo Martinez homered in the 9th inning and that was about it. I remember a drunk fan sitting a couple of rows screaming at Luis Salazar and proclaiming that his grandmother could swing better than Luis…. It was very funny..