About San Diego Profile: the San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres are the Major League Baseball club for San Diego, representing the National League West division. The Padres have been a major league ballclub since 1969, when they made their major league debut on April 8 with a 2-1 victory over Houston in front of 23,370 fans at San Diego Stadium.

The Padres and San Diego actually have a long history - the Padres were the city's Pacific Coast League minor league ballclub since 1936. The Padres adopted their name from the Pacific Coast League team which arrived in San Diego in 1936. That minor league franchise won the PCL title in 1937, led by then-18-year-old San Diegan Ted Williams.

The original franchise owner was C. Arnholt Smith, a prominent San Diego businessman and former owner of the PCL Padres. Subsequent owners included McDonald's owner Ray Kroc, who saved the franchise from moving to Washington D.C., TV producer Tom Werner, followed by John Moores, a software multi-millionaire, who purchased the team in 1996 and has brought the team its most success. In 2009, Moores sold the team to a group led by Jeff Moorad.

The as a minor league team, the Padres originally played at the forgotten Lane Field at the corner of Harbor Drive and Broadway downtown. The also played at the former Westgate Park, now the site of Fashion Valley shopping center. As a major league club, they played their games in what is now Qualcomm Stadium, from 1969 to 2003. In 2004, the team moved back downtown to Petco Park, a baseball-only facility that has helped revived the downtown East Village district.

Not very. For years, especially early in the franchise history, the team was woeful, inept at best. The Smith-owned teams were operated on the cheap. The Kroc teams spent some money, but they had middling successes, the highpoint being in 1984, when a Steve Garvey-led team made it to the World Series, which they lost against Detroit. More lean years followed until they won division titles in 1996 and went to the World Series for the second time in 1998, losing to the Yankees. The team won back-to-back division titles in 2005-6, and went to the playoffs in 2007.

Despite some woeful teams, the Padres can boast of some all-time greats. The most famous is recent Hall of Fame inductee Tony Gwynn, who spent his whole career with San Diego. Trevor Hoffman, the League's all-time save leader, is almost as popular as Gwynn and a sure bet to enter the Hall as well. The third most famous Padre is probably Dave Winfield, who, though he played for a number of teams including the Yankees, chose to enter the Hall of Fame as a Padre. It might be argued, also, that Nate Colbert was the team's first star during the formative years of the franchise.

Along with Gywnn and Winfield, other former Padres who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame (though not as Padres) include:
* 44 Willie McCovey, 1B, 1974-76. Inducted 1986.
* 36 Gaylord Perry, P, 1978-79. Inducted 1991.
* 34 Rollie Fingers, P, 1977-80. Inducted 1992.
* 31 Dave Winfield, OF, 1973-80. Inducted 2001.
* 1 Ozzie Smith, SS, 1978-81. Inducted 2003.
* 19 Tony Gwynn, RF, 1982-2001. Inducted 2007.
* 23 Dick Williams, Manager, 1982-1985. Inducted 2008.
* 54 Rich "Goose" Gossage, P, 1984-1987. Inducted 2008.

The Padres are one of four teams to never have a pitcher toss a no-hit game. In his first home game as the Padres' new owner in 1974, Ray Kroc grabbed the public address system microphone and apologized to fans for the team's "stupid ball playing." In 1990, Roseanne Arnold delivered a screeching rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, immediately after which she grabbed her crotch and spat on the ground. Botched negotiations with Hoffman in 2008 ruined his chances of ending his career with the team (he went to Milwaukee).

Nate Colbert is one of two major-league baseball players (Stan Musial is the other) to have hit five home runs in a doubleheader. In the strike-shortened 1994 season, Tony Gwynn captured his fifth National League batting championship with a .394 batting average, just missing .400. On August 6, 1999, in a game against the then Montreal Expos at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, Tony Gwynn collected his 3,000th major-league base hit. On June 6, 2007, Trevor Hoffman became the first pitcher in major league history to record 500 saves, 498 of them coming as a Padre.

Founded: 1969 (National League expansion)
Current uniform colors: Dark blue, Sand, and White
Logo design: White interlocking 'S' and 'D'
Team Mascot: the Swinging Friar
Most Famous Player: Tony Gwynn
Nicknames: The Friars, the "Pads" (pronounced as "Pods")
Playoff appearances (5): 1984, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2006
World Series Appearances (2): 1984, 1998
Most Winning Season: (1998) 98-64
Most Losing Season: (1969) 52-110
Local Television: Channel 4 San Diego (4SD)
Local Radio: 1090 AM / 105.7 FM XX Sports Radio (pronounced "Double X"), La Poderosa 860 AM (en español)
Spring Training Facility: Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria, AZ