FanPost

Why I'm a fan of the Padres: Because of the Dodgers

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Curiously, it didn’t start with the Padres. Although I moved to San Diego in 1984 when I was fourteen, I was too busy surfing and eating carne asada burritos to give the Padres much thought. In fact, the reason I became a baseball fan, and ultimately a Padres fan was due to that team 100+ miles to the north, the Los Angeles Dodgers on October 15, 1988.

I was a freshman at UCSD and most of my dorm mates were from LA and Dodger fans. On that night in October we were crowded around the one TV in the dorm suite, when a pinch-hitting Kirk Gibson did the impossible: hitting a walk off home run off Dennis Eckersley to win game one of the World Series. All the guys went crazy, including myself mostly living vicariously but loving every minute of the drama and excitement. Quickly discovering something that had been there all along, I was hooked on baseball. My lack of enthusiasm for college studies combined with lots of friends that also loved the game, found us at the Murph (Jack Murphy Stadium, now Qualcomm) every chance we could get. Heck it was only $4.00 for a general admission ticket in those days and with attendance often lacking, covert seat upgrades were plentiful.

I got to see a lot of talented players come and go from the Padres: Benito Santiago, Roberto Alomar, Fred McGriff, Joe Carter, Gary Sheffield, Jake Peavy, Ken Caminiti, and many more. Of course, there was one player who never left, and to this day the best hitter I have ever seen, Tony Gwynn. I will always remember that smile, that laugh and just rock-solid performance. More than any other player, he was the guy you wanted to see come to the plate when you desperately needed a hit. Although the games were fun, the Padres were just OK in the early 90’s (except the disaster of 1993), but in my final year of living in San Diego they won 91 games.

The final weekend of the 1996 MLB regular season was significant for two reasons. First, the Padres were headed to LA down 2 games and needed a sweep to clinch the playoffs. Second, coincidentally that same weekend I was getting married and planning on moving out of San Diego later that week. On the best Saturday of my life, she said I do and the reception began. A radio was set off in a corner, and in many ways like us college friends had done eight years prior, a small crowd gathered to listen in. With the legendary Jerry Coleman providing the play-by-play and the Padres up 4-2, Trevor Hoffman closed out the Dodgers and pulled the Padres into a tie for the league lead. San Diego would complete the sweep on Sunday and the Padres were off to the playoffs. Later that week, with jobs vacated and all our belongings in storage, my wife and I set out to find our new home. I’ll never forget struggling to listen to poor radio reception of the playoff broadcast as we drove the backroads through the Arizona desert. The Cardinals eliminated the Padres in short order, but it didn’t matter, I was, and am a Padre fan for life.

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The Pads win the west!

We eventually settled in Bozeman, Montana seemingly a world away from San Diego. Quite often it feels like I am the only Padre fan up here. My boss certainly didn’t understand why I needed to leave work early when the Padres went to the World Series in 1998, but she let me go anyway. My family doesn’t understand why I need to watch almost every game when in a lot of years San Diego is out of contention by the All-Star break. Even I sometimes question whether this team will win a championship in my lifetime. Is all this effort and emotional investment worth it? You bet it is. It doesn’t always seem to make sense, but if you love baseball, you love baseball. And you stick with your team no matter what. Heck, it took the Cubs 108 years to get a championship and the Padres have been a franchise for less than 40. Always "waiting for next year" can be tough, but it’s not unlike a cold January day in Montana when the temperature drops to 20 below zero, and it feels like the warmth of summer will never come. Eventually it always does, so you hang in there and enjoy the ride. Go Padres!

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.