The More Things Change...

Front of a t-shirt I designed in 1993 re: the
Padres fire sale of all quality players.

I was a Padres Season Ticket Holder from 1993-2011, starting in the cheap seats at the Murph and moving with the team to Petco Park as a Founders Club Member and seats in the Toyota Terrace (ooh la la!). 

But my ties to them go back almost to their beginnings in the Nationa League.  In the early 70's I was a 7up Jr Padre.  For something like $10, I got to see about a dozen games a season and I was hooked.

I also hung out a lot at the Jewish Community Center and attended Summer Sports Camp there where among other things, I learned to hit from then Padres Derrel Thomas and Johnny Grubb (ironically Grubb was on the '84 Tigers team that beat my Padres in the World Series).

Handmade shirt worn to Padre games in 1993 

Those were some lean years, where Padre fans sought solace in the team playing spoiler to other teams trying to make the playoffs as we piled up 100 loss seasons while frequently drawing crowds of 5,000 or less.  Built on castoffs (many former Dodgers and Giants) we didn't post a winning season until 1979 and not again until 1982.

But I was a kid and back then and there was always tomorrow but tomorrow seldom came.  Things appeared to be on  the upswing with new ownership and a blockbuster trade in the early '90's but that was just a tease as ownership quickly sold off all of the marquee talent (McGriff, Sheffield, Fernandez 3/4 of the four tops, among others) to prepare for another sale of the team.



Handmade shirt worn to Padre games in 1993

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  John Moores buys the team ultimately convincing the community that the only thing holding the Padres back from being a dominant franchise and capable of signing stellar talent was the high cost they were paying in conjunction with Qualcomm Stadium and that having their own park would solve all of that.

Petco Park opened in 2004, Moores & Co flirted with success but ultimately the penny pinching legacy reestablished itself and today, two ownership groupd later, we're still waiting for a big league front office to emerge and deliver a big league team.

 

Fan reaction to the handmade shirts led me to design this shirt which sold very well!