Franchise bests/worsts: San Diego Padres
From Ray Kroc's quote to Trevor Hoffman's entrance to Tony Gwynn's greatness, let's talk about the bests in the Padres' franchise history. We do have to mix in some worsts, too, like the end of the 2007 season.
We've been venturing through the history of each of the 30 Major League Baseball franchises, discussing some of the best and worst moments, players, teams, etc. It's more of a fun snapshot for discussion purposes than a be-all, end-all declaration. We continue today with the San Diego Padres.
The San Diego Padres are a relatively young team, having joined the majors as an expansion team in 1969. They've not had tons of success, sitting over 500 games below .500 as a franchise, but the ballclub has been to the playoffs five times and won two NL pennants.
Best team: 1998
Only four Padres teams in history have won at least 90 games and only one topped 92. The '98 team fittingly won 98 games en route to a trip to the World Series.
That club boasted two franchise icons in Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman. It had a top-three Cy Young finisher in Kevin Brown, a 50-homer guy in Greg Vaughn, a recent MVP in Ken Caminiti and a litany of other contributors like Wally Joyner, Andy Ashby and Steve Finley.
Those Padres took down the Astros, 3-1, in the NLDS and the Braves, 4-2, in the NLCS. The ballclub was definitely good enough to bring home a World Series title, but the timing was bad. They were tasked with taking on the 114-48 Yankees and were swept. Including the postseason, that Yankees team was 125-50. There's little shame in not getting done against that juggernaut.
Instead, that Padres team should be fondly remembered. They were never below .500 and never fell further than one game out of the NL West. When they did fall behind in early June, they ripped off an 11-game winning streak and never looked back, building up a lead of 16 games at one point.
Best player: Tony Gwynn
Easiest pick of the series so far. The career Padre was one of baseball's best ever pure hitters. Just take a look at some of the stats I used in a "Leaderboarding" last year. Don't forget that early in his career he was a great defender and excellent base-stealing threat.
Gwynn is the Padres' career leader in average, runs, hits, doubles, triples, total bases, RBI, walks, stolen bases, extra-base hits, times on base and WAR, among other categories.
Worst moment: Gwynn's death
Unfortunately, the Padres family lost the Hall of Famer at age 54.
Best series-extender: Steve Garvey
Facing elimination in the 1984 NLCS, the Padres won Game 4 to force a Game 5 and did so in dramatic fashion, on Garvey's ninth-inning walkoff homer:
Best half-inning: 1984, NLCS Game 5, bottom of the seventh
Before there was Bill Buckner, there was Leon Durham.
The Padres had battled back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the Cubs on the Durham error. Alan Wiggins followed with a single before Gwynn doubled both runners home to give the Padres a 5-3 lead. Garvey followed with a single to drive Gwynn home and the 6-3 lead would hold. The Padres were off to their first World Series.
Best entrance: Hells Bells
Trevor Hoffman ranks second in career saves and holds the NL record. For more than a decade, there wasn't a sound more synonymous with "game over" than the sound of a bell in Qualcomm Stadium/Petco Park, kicking off AC/DC's "Hells Bells" and bringing Hoffman in from the bullpen.
Worst end to a season: 2007
The 2007 Padres finished the regular season 89-73, which was only one game behind the best record in the NL. It was also one game out in the NL West and tied with the Rockies for the wild card. So the Rockies and Padres played a one-game playoff to get into the postseason -- in an obviously wide-open NL, with the division winners having won 90, 89 and 85 games, respectively.
Not only would the Padres drop a heartbreaker in 13 innings, but Matt Holliday didn't even touch the plate when scoring the winning run:
And the Rockies would go to the World Series.
Worst team: 1969
The expansion club wasn't the worst team in baseball, as the fellow expansion Expos were just as bad, with both finishing 52-110.
In the NL West, the top five teams were separated by 12 games. The Padres finished 41 out. They were last in the NL in runs, hits, doubles, walks, average, OBP and slugging while ranking 11th (of 12) in ERA.
In each of the first six seasons of existence, the Padres came in last place and lost at least 100 games four times. The 1969 team, though, stands head and shoulders above the rest in futility.
Best offseason for entertainment value: 2014-15
We can't yet know how the work new GM A.J. Preller has done will translate to on-field success, but the flurry of moves has been off-the-charts fun. As things stand, they have added four starters via trade: Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, Wil Myers and Derek Norris.
Worst trade: Fred McGriff
Part of the notorious 1992-93 firesale, McGriff had been acquired just a few seasons earlier as part of a deal that sent future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar to Toronto. In 1993, McGriff -- at the time the most feared power hitter in baseball -- was dealt to Atlanta for Vince Moore, Donnie Elliot and Melvin Nieves. Yuck.
It should be noted that not all of the firesale was for naught. Gary Sheffield went to Florida in exchange for a young pitcher by the name of Trevor Hoffman.
Best trade: Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young
In January of 2006, the Padres sent Akinori Otsuka, Adam Eaton (the pitcher) and Billy Killian to the Rangers for Terrmel Sledge, Chris Young (the pitcher) and a young first baseman named Adrian Gonzalez. Young was productive in his time with the Padres -- making the All-Star team once -- and Gonzalez was the best player on the team for five years. This was an outstanding deal for San Diego.
Best facial hair: Goose!
Goose Gossage is a Hall of Famer and he spent four seasons with the Padres, serving as the closer for their first World Series team. He also rocked an excellent fu manchu (photo via Getty Images):
Best logo: The original logo
This one isn't close for me. I love it.
(Via the excellent sportslogos.net)
Best catch: The ballgirl
Actual best catch: Will Venable
Worst rendition of national anthem: Rosanne
That's not funny. It's stupid. Kudos to the great fans of San Diego for booing.
Worst draft pick: Matt Bush
I've covered this before. The short version is the Padres had the number one overall pick in a draft that included Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver, Stephen Drew, Homer Bailey, Gio Gonzalez and Phil Hughes and they took a kid who never made it to the majors.
Worst distinction: Getting no-hit by a dude on acid
Perhaps our favorite entry into the Bobblehead Project is the Dock Ellis no-no on LSD. Well, it came against the Padres.
Best milestone, pitching: Trevor Hoffman's save record
Only Hoffman and Mariano Rivera have saved more games in MLB history than Lee Smith. Hoffman got there first, setting the MLB record by saving his 479th game late in the 2006 season.
Best milestone, hitting: Tony Gwynn's 3,000th hit
You can never have enough Gwynn in a post about Padres history, so let's throw this in:
Best quote: Ray Kroc
The McDonald's magnate also owned the Padres for a stretch. During the 1974 season opener -- in which the Padres trailed 9-2 at the time -- Kroc said over the public address system to nearly 40,000 fans, "I've never seen such stupid ballplaying in my life." (More on the story available at utsandiego.com)
What else, Padres fans? Add to the list with impunity. There aren't any wrong answers.
Up next: Friday will be the Oakland Athletics' turn, as we get to our final division
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