san diego Padres introduction

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SAN DIEGO PADRES

The San Diego Padres is a professional baseball club which has been placed in the Western Division of the National League. The Padres derived their official moniker from the Pacific Coast League club which came in San Diego in 1936. The clubs' name is a Spanish word generally used for the priest. The Padres were motivated by the Roman Catholic Mission San Diego de Alcala and adopted the sanctified name. This minor league franchise in its formative years was led by 18 year-old Ted Williams. He helped the club to take home the PCL title in 1937.

The Padres became an MLB franchise in 1969 as one of the four new NL's West Division expanding team. For the first six successive seasons, the Padres remained last in the division. At that time their contemporary roster featured power-hitting first basemen Nate Colbert and Willie McCovey and center fielder Cito Gaston. In 1973, the Padres produced their first superstar, Dave Winfield. He assisted the club to lead in runs batted in (RBIs) seven times and in home runs five times during his tenure of eight years in San Diego . In 1974, the club was on the verge of changing its place to the Washington D.C. when Ray A Kroc bought the Padres. But unfortunately he died before seeing his club winning their first National League championship in 1984. Incidentally, he also happens to be the founder of the renowned McDonald's restaurants. His wife sold the club in 1990.

The Padres delivered satisfactory records in 1976. They won 73 games and pitcher Randy Jones became the recipient of NL Cy Young Award. Under the strategic guidelines of Roger Craig, the Padres experienced their first winning season with a 84-78 win-loss record. Right-hander Gaylord Perry won the Cy Young Award and relief pitcher Rollie Fingers led the National League in saves. As mentioned earlier, the Padres marched with the 1984 National League title after defeating the Chicago Cubs. But they lost the World Series title to the Detroit Tigers. Even though the team featured a sensational hitter Gwynn, the Padres were destined to struggle in the second quarter of 80s and in the early 90s. During the clubs' rejuvenation phase several other Padres along with Gwynn delivered individual achievements. From 1993 through 1995, the Padres remained in the lower half of their division. In 1996, with Bruce Bochy as their manager, the Padres won the division title. Bruce Bochy received the NL manager of the year award. In the National League championship playoffs, the Padres lost to the St. Louis Cardinals. In the following two seasons, the Padres fortified their roster by procuring players like Kevin Brown and Greg Vaughn. In 1998, the Padres defeated the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves to win the NL championship, but lost the World Series to the New York Yankees.

The clubs' lucky charm is the Swinging Friar and their logo has golden “ SAN DIEGO ” written in small capitals. Padres have been superimposed stylistically over an outline of the home plate. In the bottom half of the plate blue background with wave design has been carried out. The team celebrated its 36th year on their official new ballpark, PETCO Park , in 2004.