Still the all-time assist leader in basketball at San Diego State, Gwynn averaged. One night in 1979, my dad went alone to an Aztecs baseball game and reported back, “You know the point guard for the Aztecs, Tony Gwynn? He plays baseball, too. Both of my parents graduated from SDSU, as did I. My dad and I also went to a lot of college games in those days, mostly San Diego State football and basketball. But it feels like more than just a coincidence. Now, I am not saying that I am solely responsible for Jones’ return to form that year - re-discovering his deadly sinker and lowering his ERA from 4.58 to 2.88 – or the Padres recording their first winning season that year, with accumulated talent like Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Gaylord Perry and Rollie Fingers. In the course of our stay, I managed to get an autograph and have a short chat with former Cy Young Award-winner Randy Jones. In the spring of 1978, my dad and I went to Yuma to watch the Padres in Spring Training, right around the time I was learning the throw my first breaking pitch in Little League. “Tying run is in the hole!” Three batters away, a faint hope, the slightest chance of success: That’s the kind of thinking you need to do to be a fan of the San Diego Padres. San Diego was down by three, no runners on, down to their last out and heading to another loss. I remember lying on the floor of my room as a child during these early years, listening to the last inning of a Padres game on the radio. 250 batting average was also the best the Padres could muster. In 1972, the three-time All-Star hit 38 homers – including five in one double-header - and drove in 111 runs. Colbert was not so much a contact hitter as an “assault and battery” hitter. The team’s one bright spot was slugger Nate Colbert, whose apparent goal at the plate was to inflict actual pain upon the ball. I can hear stadium announcer John DeMott dramatically proclaiming, “And now… here… come the Padres!” as our ragtag team took the field, rattling off each player’s name quickly, including Venezuelan shortstop “Numberelevenenzooo (Enzo) Hernandez!” But it typically went downhill from there. These are my first, indelible memories of the Padres, struggling away in their all-yellow uniforms during sparsely attended games inside the new, multi-purpose San Diego Stadium. The team averaged 101 losses in its first six seasons. Padres fans have learned to deal with disappointment. Just out front are replica autographed balls from the Padres’ two National League championship teams, plaques honoring Padres in the baseball Hall of Fame, and a statue of Hall-of-Fame relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman, who had 13 seasons with 30 or more saves for the Padres, including 53 saves in the 1998 championship season. I strolled over to the Padres Hall of Fame, a nifty little museum celebrating the history of the franchise. Being here on a day like this - the gratification of completing an epic baseball journey, the anticipation of seeing my favorite team in any sport - put a grin of dopey serenity on my face as I walked through the beer-fest crowd. I spent my first 25 years in San Diego County before moving to the Bay Area. But I would be rooting with a bit more conviction on this night. I had visited 14 different ballparks and rooted for all the home teams - from San Jose to Sacramento, Modesto to Lancaster, Los Angeles to Lake Elsinore.
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