Go Pads!

My friend BigDave flew down yesterday from San Francisco. I picked him up at the airport, we had a nice dim sum lunch and then proceeded to the ballpark for the opening game of the Padres and Cubs Wild Card series.

Dave is a Cubs honk but likes the Giants equally well, although his favorite team of course is the one currently winning. 

That is certainly not the pitiful Giants right now.

Anyway I was reluctant to have Dave come down because I don't think I have ever seen a Cubs Padres game with him where the Padres have won and I just can't take all that glee anymore.

Gets tiring of being on the wrong end of the stick.

He booked the Hotel Indigo, a mere two blocks away from Petco Park. 

We found a metered parking space on Market and stuck his handicapped placard on the mirror, saved me a bunch of money.

We checked into his room after lunch and chilled for an hour.

We get down to the game on a warm evening and Dave is not alone, there are a lot of Cub fans representing.

Padres fans being quite San Diego friendly, for the most part.

Dave of course has his special Finally Cubs jersey, Cubs hat and who knows what else on?

Probably his Cubbie jockstrap.

I had of course foreseen his sartorial choices and that it was perhaps wise to publicly differentiate my choice of teams from his.

I went to the local discount store, C &C, and found the cheapest Padres shirt I could find, which had the largest logo imaginable in my very large size.

Probably could spot me from space.

I really wasn't sure how the game would go? 

The Padres are playing the best baseball in the majors the second half of the season and all cylinders are firing perfectly right now.

Great hitting top to bottom, great relief corps, some great starters.

But they have a history of getting real quiet with their bats in the playoffs.

I predicted 6-4 Padres, mostly predicated on their home team advantage.

We had good seats on the third base side, Loge section 112.

Not cheap.

The game was amazing. 

I am not going to do a full re-cap but I have never seen anything quite like it.

First pitch changeup - Tatis puts it over the fence. 

Crowd goes nuts.

Soon after Machado does the same and we are off to the races, never looking back.

Michael King is pitching like Koufax, no hitter through seven and then King gives up a close one to Machado at third.

Nothing hit out of the infield.

Matsui come on, they give up another hit or two, still no runs.

The rally towels are flying, place is going berserk. 

Tatis gets a hit, steals second and then comes all the way home on a throw to second.

The whole place starts singing a song in the seventh and I realize that I am the only guy there who has never heard it, let alone knew the words. Was it Taylor Swift? Turns out to be Blink - 182. I guess there are serious holes in my music game.

The other thing I realize is that there is now a name for a pitch which I have no idea of, a sweeper. Sinker, cutter, curve, splitter I got, but what the hell is a sweeper?

The best came last. 

San Diego hometown boy Joe Musgrove, out for two years after Tommy John surgery, just named to the roster, comes in in the ninth and gets the final three outs.

Place went wild, emotion at a fever pitch, people were crying. It was epic.

Not counting debuts, only one player had previously appeared in a playoff game directly after not appearing in any game of the two prior regular seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau (relayed by MLB.com's A.J. Cassavell on Twitter/X).

That player — Chicago Cubs catcher Clyde McCullough — missed the 1944-45 regular seasons due to military service, then struck out in his only at-bat in the 1945 World Series.

Dave took it all very well, like a man. It was one game, might be a different story tonight. 

But it was sweet.

*

I should mention that I go back a long way with the Padres. When I first saw them it was at Westgate Park, now Fashion Valley Mall. They were a Coast League farm club for the Phillies.

This is somewhere between 1964 and 1967. Tony Perez was on the club but my favorite player was the now forgotten Roberto Pena.

We had season tickets and I was there with my brother when Buzzie Bavasi had his famous meltdown on the field. 

I remember Clay Kirby and Cannizarro, Ollie Brown, Cito, Nate, Enzo, all the old guys. Grew up with this team, a lot of pain mixed in with the great Gwynn and Caminiti years. Had drinks with Randy Jones and Rollie Fingers on a wild plane ride back from Vegas once.

Wishing the Padres the best here on in.

What a special night.

Thanks for coming down Dave and being a good sport.