Trevor Hoffman's number 51 retirement ceremony

Now who’s Ken Camini?

because I have no where else to say how fantastic an event this was. I talk a lot of ish about the Padres and what I want them to be, but yesterday was just great and the Padres did everything right. Right when I was walking in the ballpark, Trevor and his family were being escorted in and it really hit me how cool this whole thing was.

Love the boos from the fans when they showed Selig.

that brad ausmus grabbed trevor’s butt?

Great writing here, jbox.

Just reading this post gives me the chills and the feeling of my eyes welling up again. Just matching these words to the images I will always remember of the ceremony I was glad to have attended make me proud to be a Padres fan. They gave Trevor the ceremony we wanted to see and the one he deserved. This season may not have been the one most of us expected at the start, but it is days like yesterday that make it a bit easier. These are the things we will remember. A retirement of one of the best players ever to take the mound and a four game sweep of the Marlins behind our young players. Yesterday only further cemented my trust in Tom Garfinkel, Jeff Moorad, Jed Hoyer and the rest of the Padres Front Office and in this team.

Had the other players with retired Jerseys walk onto the field with the Jersey’s from their best years.

As they walked out, in their batters eye order, it really hit me how important the ceremony was. How Hoffman officially entered Padres Immortality. I also realized, finally, why everyone was appropriately retired… even the 6.

Randy Jones & Dave Winfield brought home baked superstars to San Diego. Both were drafted by and and achieved stardom as Padres. They brought us our first winning season and Cy Young, they put the Padres on the map.

The Garv, is now and always will be a Dodger. BUT, his hit, in the NLCS, brought a respectability to San Diego that we had never had before, he was also the first clubhouse leader to bring a swag with him that, along with Dick Williams tyrannical Management style, allowed a bunch of violent druggy insane misfits as close to a World Series title as we have ever gotten.

No one needs to explain The Gwynn.

In addition to Hoffman’s several individual accolades, I find it amazing how Hoffman was a clubhouse leader and influential player on 4 of the Padres 5 Playoff teams…

Sensational.

Hats off again to Mentor for a great breakfast and an excellent ceremony.

We need to get that MFer to ’splain. His voice was on all the milestones between 100 and 500. MATTY V Y U NO SHOW

Top to bottom, a tremendous ceremony. The organization really outdid themselves and put on a respectful, classy celebration. Trevor’s speech was great and the perfect length. Ted Leitner did a great job MC’ing. The Brian Johnson cameo was so unbelieveably awesome. He is known for being such a cool guy and for him to do that must have meant a lot to Trevor. Then the anthem just brought down the house. That was such an amazing moment and to see Trevor hug his mom during that and seeing the reaction of the 3 brothers at the end, it just couldn’t have been better. They really put on a great show.

In the years to come the Hoffmans can always look back on this ceremony as a great day … except the son with the faux-hawk. He will never live that down.

Watching it again and reading this are the only things holding me over today, with no Padres game to look forward to tonight.

…I did NOT well up. Nope. Not one bit. Okay, maybe ten times.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=18291081&c_id=mlb

I think the thing that struck me the most about it, having been a lifelong fan of the Padres, is that, as unfortunate as it is to admit it, probably the one word I think best fits the organization, its character and its history is “underwhelming.” It would have been all too easy to see the ceremony being too short, or too tedious, or too reserved, or any other numbers of things. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, but after having been there at the stadium and rewatching the entire thing on MLB.com, I think it was not only an impeccable production, it was probably one of the greatest number retirings in the history of baseball.

All the figures from his history, the old familiar names and faces, the roar of the crowd at hearing “Tony Gwynn” “Dave Winfield” “Steve Garvey” “Ken Caminiti” “Steve Finley” and so on… Even the video messages from Brian Johnson and Mariano Rivera. The car was classy. The national anthem video was staggering. It was fulfilling and bittersweet and touching and memorable, all without being pompous or bombastic. It was glorious. All-in-all the best day of the season by far and one of the top ten events in Padres history for sure.

And the game wasn’t too bad, either.

That Bochy didn’t have a video taped message for the event. He was the manager for most of his career right?

He was there with the luminaries on the right side of the seating. It was also way cool of the Marlins (and Cameron and Hensley themselves) to participate in the ways that they did.

I loved every minute of it. I actually lost it the most when he first came in to Hells Bells. I knew it was the last time I’d ever experience that at a game. It sort of bums me out that my son will never get to experience that, but he’ll definitely be with us in Cooperstown in 4.5 years to see his namesake enshrined next to Tony.

Took my gf who isn’t a padre or even really a baseball fan and she was impressed and moved by the whole ceremony. It was a pleasure to see and credit to the Padres for doing it the right way!

He played for U of A! Wow, how can you make that mistake for his rival.