Baseball: the hobby of the All-Americans. Almost every major city in the country has founded their own baseball teams to represent them and compete with other teams from other cities. San Diego is no exception to this, as the city known for SeaWorld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo has the San Diego Padres to represent them and compete for baseball glory.
The San Diego Padres are members of the Major Leagues and play in the Western Division. The name, which means “parents” in Spanish, was chosen in honor of the Spanish Franciscan friars who founded their beloved city in 1796. The team’s first incarnation was playing the Pacific Coast League in 1936. In 1969, it was founded the final team, obtaining the name of Parents in the process.
While the team promised, the first few years didn’t go as planned. Under the ownership of C. Arnold Smith and the direction of Buzzie Bavasi and Eddie Leishman, the team was admitted to the Major Leagues. However, they only finished last in their first 6 seasons in the National League West. These locations, along with a number of different factors, led the Padres to nearly sell out Joseph Danzansky, a man who envisioned moving the team to Washington DC. However, Arnoldt Smith decided to sell the equipment to Ray Kroc, who was the co-founder of the McDonald’s restaurant chain. Ray Kroc kept the Padres in town, where he remains to this day.
During this time, the Padres’ rankings barely improved, finishing last once again and having a lousy record at the end of the year. However, Kroc’s marketing genius proved to be valuable, as he was able to attract an increase in viewers, increase revenue, and even break the million viewers record for the first time when viewers increased by 76%.
From that moment on, the Padres began to improve. Soon, they came out of last place and even watched several of their team members reach new heights and achieve fame and recognition, such as Butch Metzger, Gaylord Perry, and Tony Gwynn, who has become a legendary hometown hero when in 1982 under the guidance of Dick Williams, he led the team to fourth place, finishing with an 81-81 record.
Today, the Padres remain a driving force in baseball and continue to compete on behalf of the city of San Diego.
