FanPost

My Earliest Baseball Memory and First Padres Game

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It was 1969 or maybe 1970 and I was three years old when my now late father took me to Clark Griffith Park in Charlotte, North Carolina. That is the city of my birth and where my family was living at the time. I do have a few distinct memories:
Walking through the parking lot holding his hand while looking up at a dark green painted wood building; The poles in the middle of the grandstand holding up the roof; Several people standing on a field of grass and dirt.
To date, that was my only minor league baseball game. A road trip to Lake Elsinore is in order perhaps?

As for my first Padres game, that was May 18th, 1996. I was visiting my mom, who had moved here a year earlier. She took me to "The Murph" for the middle game of a 3 game set against the Montreal Expos. They were in those sweet powder blue road unis! Our Pads lost that night, Ugueth Urbina over Fernando Valenzuela, but they took two out of the three that weekend. Becoming a Padres fan was pretty easy with that team, am I right? Fell in love with the atmosphere there immediately. This was a much needed pick-me-up thanks to her. I was recently out of work and was looking for a change. Moved to San Diego the following month.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Gaslamp Ball community and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gaslamp Ball staff or SB Nation.