Hope Springs Eternal in Hearts of Padres Fans

The San Diego Padres are sad and lonely.

They’re sad because they came in last in the National League West in 2016. They’re lonely because their football counterparts, the Chargers, gave San Diego the boot and moved north to Los Angeles.

So now the Padres are the only big league sports ticket in town and have nowhere to go but up—they hope. Perhaps some of that elevation will be visible on May 19, 20, and 21 during APA’s Annual Meeting in San Diego when the Padres host the Arizona Diamondbacks. Meeting attendees can now purchase discounted tickets to watch the action, with a portion of the ticket price going to the “APA Gives Back” program.

The Padres do have one thing going for them: their home field of Petco Park. The stadium has great sight lines for fans and an unbeatable view of the city’s skyline. For APA meeting goers, there’s another advantage: the park is right across the street from the San Diego Convention Center.

The Arizona–San Diego series should be a fair match-up too. Both teams are entering rebuilding years after dreadful 2016 seasons in which the 69-93 Diamondbacks were only marginally better than the 68-94 Padres.

The Padres need all the hope they can get as spring training starts. They haven’t finished above .500 since 2010 and haven’t reached the playoffs since 2006. Things were bad enough that team president Mike Dee was fired at the end of last season.

Hoping for better things this season, the Padres handed 26-year-old first baseman Wil Myers a $15 million signing bonus as part of a six-year, $83 million contract extension. The pact was the largest in franchise history. In return, the team gets an All-Star .259 hitter with 28 home runs to build a team around.

A major mid-season housecleaning in 2016 scattered half a dozen veterans to other teams, opening roster slots for young players. Manager Andy Green hopes that youngsters like outfielder Hunter Renfroe as well as several farm-club prospects can move up, along with other players acquired by trade or free agency.

Last year was so bad for the Diamondbacks that they started cleaning house from the top. They fired their manager, general manager, and senior vice president of baseball operations. Among their other disappointments was the subpar performance of free agent pitcher Zack Greinke, signed last winter to a $206.5 million, six-year contract, which, to be polite, did not pay off in 2016 for the Arizonans. Greinke’s 2015 ERA of 1.66 ballooned to 4.37 in 2016 while he allowed 23 home runs, versus 14 the year before. New manager Torey Lovullo, a former Boston Red Sox coach, no doubt hopes that Greinke’s adjustment period is over, and he’ll get back to his old, reliable self in 2017.

The matchup in May between the two teams may not remind anyone of World Series play but will give fans a glimpse of two teams with lots of young players on their way up. And that can be just as exciting for true baseball fans.

Perhaps the closest thing to good news in the off-season came when former Padres ace reliever Trevor Hoffman, whose 601 career saves stands as the National League record, came within five votes of being elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. He was philosophical about the near miss. Like his old team, he can only hope that maybe next year will be the charm. ■

Discounted tickets for San Diego Padres’ games can be purchased here.