Petco Park
San
Diego, CA
New York Mets at San Diego Padres
May 1, 2004
By
Ken Schlapp
 Although
I could not make it to Petco Park for the first game ever like I did
at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, I went for the next best
thing. I made it there for the Mets first visit. The Mets even
lived up to my expectations by losing the game for me. During my
2003 trip, Petco was standing, but not quite complete, but this time
I got to go inside for a game in this beautiful new stadium. I was
able to drive to all of the previous stadiums I have visited except
for Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico (and County Stadium in
Milwaukee prior to my big journey), which I had to fly to. However,
I was not about to take the 6,000 mile round-trip drive from New
York for the game, so I took the easy route and flew to San Diego to
stay at TJ and Kate’s house and went to the game with TJ and Rick.
It does make it easy to stay with friends and have someone to drive
you to the games.
Although I did not know it at the time
I first visited this stadium, I would end up living about 100 miles
away in 2010. Meaning that of the two new stadiums that opened in
2004, one was a 100-mile drive from my home in New York City and the
other would end up equally as far from my new home in Cypress,
California. Therefore, my frequent drives to Philadelphia for games
changed to frequent drives to San Diego for games. I still need an
occasional spare room from TJ though to avoid driving back and forth
between games.
 Back
to the first trip to Petco Park. Since Petco is downtown instead of
in the suburbs near TJ’s house we had a slightly longer drive, but
11 miles is not a big deal and only takes 15-20 minutes to get
there. As opposed to Qualcomm Stadium, there are other options
besides parking in the stadium lot. You can park in the street,
which we usually do even if we have to walk a half mile or you can
take the Trolley to the game. Although we did not do so on this day
we have at times parked (or had Kate drop us off) at Qualcomm and
taken the Trolley from there to Petco, which is convenient as well.
However you get there, it is a great stadium in a great location.
I definitely like the downtown
location better. There are plenty of restaurants and bars near the
stadium in the Gas Lamp Quarter. It is also right off the San Diego
Bay with great views of the water and the bridge to Coronado (where
the Navy base is located) from within and around the stadium. There
was not much to do around Qualcomm, so this alone is a big
improvement. The stadium fits the area too. The tan/beige Indian
sandstone exterior was designed to simulate the sandy colored cliffs
and beaches along the Southern California coast. Since the stadium
first went up, there have been several apartment buildings built
with a similar color scheme to further build-up the surrounding
neighborhood.
 The
Park at the Park is also ingrained into the neighborhood. Beyond
the outfield bleachers (and beach) is a huge grass park area (on a
hill) which acts as a standing-room-only section that is available
for $5 a ticket on game days. On days when there is no game, the
park in the park is still open to the public to simply use as a
park. This is a truly unique and fantastic feature to this
ballpark. The view of the game from here is not necessarily great,
but you are at the game with access to all of the concessions and
there is a huge screen behind the scoreboard to allow everyone to
watch the game on a giant TV if they miss (or cannot see) the action
directly on the field. There is also a wiffle ball field here like
many of the other new stadiums, but this one actually has a grass
field with dirt in all the right places. Finally, in 2007, they
added a statue of Tony Gwynn on the grass lawn.
The Beach is also a great California
idea. The bleachers beyond the right center field wall actually
include sand like an actual beach, so the kids can play in the sand
while the adults are watching the game. I sat there for a playoff
game against the Cardinals once and to pay $5 for a seat at a
playoff game it was worth having an obstructed view. Some of the
seats have a full view, but the view from the ones we had for the
playoff game, we could not see right field at all. It was still fun
to be there, except for the part where the Cardinals won the game.
Where else can you have a beach and a park at a baseball stadium?
Like all of the other new stadiums,
the concourses are wide and the concession stands offer a wide
variety of food. I still cannot help but think of Rubio’s fish
tacos whenever I think of a Padres game because of how much the Mets
broadcasters always talked about them every time I watched them play
the Padres. I have had them here several times and they are good,
but not great. Randy Jones BBQ is another good option,
 and
you can get all of the normal hot dogs, pretzels and cracker jacks.
One think that is somewhat unique here though about concourses is
that the upper deck concourse is not enclosed by the stadium. You
are actually on the outer rim of the stadium and have a great view
of the Coronado Bridge and the bay with all of the boats. The
proximity of the Navy base over in Coronado led the Padres to have
many promotions to allow the military personal to attend the game
cheaply or free. Needless to say, there are always a lot of
military at every game. I have also been there several times when
the military jets had a fly by at the end of the Star Spangled
Banner.
The dark blue seats are all angled to
provide the best view of home plate as possible, so regardless of
where you sit, you will have a good view. For this game, we sat on
the field level in the outfield, but I generally try buying tickets
in the first few rows of section 300, which is directly behind home
plate in the upper deck. It is not very high here, so you get a
good view of the whole field and the price is not expensive. I like
that you can easily see the jumbotron in left field and the
out-of-town scoreboard on the right field wall. Watched all of the
2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic games from this location.
Down the left field line, you also
have the Western Metal Supply Co. building. This building is over
100 years old and was originally scheduled to be destroyed to in
order to build Petco Park, but they decided to keep it and make it
part of the stadium. It was refurbished and used for suites, a
restaurant, rooftop seating and the team store, which I have visited
many times. It is actually a well-designed team store with
everything you could possibly want in it. The first thing I noticed
there was the replica mustard yellow and brown 1970s Dave Winfield
jersey. 
As you may know by now, he was always one of my favorite players, so
I considered buying it on the spot. I did not go for it then, but
after staring at it on my next several visits, I finally broke down
and bought it and now where it proudly when I head to San Diego for
a game (unless they are playing the Mets).
Although the Padres have only been
around since 1969 (just like me), they have accumulated a team
history and make sure they do not forget about it. To start, the
stadium is located on 19 Tony Gwynn Drive. It is impossible to
think of the Padres without thinking of the 8-time National League
batting champion, so in addition to the statue in the park in the
park, and the street name, his retired number 19 is also located
above the batter’s eye in center field. Dave Winfield (31), Steve
Garvey (6), Randy Jones (35), and Trevor Hoffman (51) also have
their retired numbers immortalized next to Gwynn’s number. The last
bit of history to note can be found by the left field entrance.
When you walk in from the left field entrance, walk just past the
team store, and on the left they have pictures to commemorate past
baseball history for the Padres and San Diego. I definitely think
the Padres get their fans and their history correctly in this
stadium.
Once we sat in our seats, you noticed
a few more idiosyncrasies to this ballpark. The ushers where cowboy
hats and they had ball girls instead of ball boys down the lines.
However, the most interesting quirk is that the Padres bullpen is
enclosed behind the left center field wall, while the visitor’s pen
is in foul territory behind first base. I like that they take
advantage of their home field. The playing field is also huge, so
you do not see as many home runs here as you do in many of the other
new bandbox stadiums.
The game got started slowly as the
Padres Jake Peavy and the Mets Al Leiter each held the opposition
scoreless for the first 3 innings, but in different ways. Leiter
gave up 3 singles and 5 walks, while leaving 8 runners on base
during those first 3 frames, but Peavy only gave up 3 hits while
striking out 6 Mets. The Mets did manage to break through in the 4th,
when Karim Garcia led off the inning with a triple and scored on
David Garcia’s 2-out single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead after it
looked like Peavy would escape the leadoff triple. The Padres would
not break through until the 5th. Brian Buchanon came to
the plate with 2 outs and I said to Rick “He looks like he could
hurt a baseball!” and sure enough, he crushed the next pitch for a
home run to tie the game up. Leiter would finish up this inning,
 but
not before walking his 7th batter, so in his 5 innings he
gave up 4 hits and 7 walks, but only one run.
After Peavy shut the Mets down again
in the top of the 6th, the Mets decided to throw in the
white flag and bring in the all-time blown saves leader (I think),
John Franco. Although it was not a save situation, he still blew
the game. Sean Burroughs started the damage with a 1-out walk in
front of Brian Giles 2-out 2-run homer. After Franco walked Phil
Nevin and gave up a single to x-Met Jay Payton, Mets manager Art
Howe finally removed the blown-saves king from the game, much to the
delight of this Mets fan, as Orber Moreno struck out Buchanon to end
the inning. Scott Linebrink replaced Peavy in the 7th
and after a leadoff single by Mike Cameron, he induced Mike Piazza
to hit into a 6-4-3 double play (which I believe is on the 3-7 spot
on his Strat-O-Matic card) to erase the Mets last threat of the
game.. The Padres would not reach base against Moreno in the 8th
or Braden Looper in the 9th, but once Hells Bells started
to scream from the loud speakers as Trevor Hoffman (the former
all-time saves leader) entered the game, the Mets were done. He
gave up a single to Rickey Gutierrez, but nothing else. Once again,
I have travelled to a new stadium to see the Mets lose!
Bottom line – This has quickly become
one of my favorite stadiums. I am happy that I can drive there in
under 2 hours to catch weekend (and sometimes weeknight) games.
Basic trip facts:
-Stadium # 33
-Old Stadium Sites visited –
Qualcomm Stadium (Total – 22)
-Under construction Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 2)
-Miles traveled – 22 via Driving and 4,892 via Air (Totals: Driving
– 18,711, Subway - 20, Air - 11,360, Total – 30,097)
-States, provinces, Districts and/or commonwealths passed through –
California (Totals: States – 48, Provinces – 2, Districts – 1,
Commonwealths - 1)
-Seats – Section 122, Row 6, Seat 13 – Left Field on Field Level
-Prices: Parking – $10.00, Beer – $5-6, Hot Dogs - $3.25, Program
(including pencil) – $5.00, Souvenir Soda Cup – $5.00
-Credit Card giveaway – None
-First Pitch - 1:20 PM
-Attendance – 42,064
-Results – Padres 3, Mets 1, W – Jake Peavy, L – John Franco, S –
Trevor Hoffman
-Home team record to date – 21 wins, 16 losses
-Record of “team I was routing for” to date – 16 wins, 21 losses
-Lodging – TJ’s House – San Diego, California
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