Tonight I have given myself an inadvertent challenge all
because my friend Bryan Mapes (@IAmMapes) suggested that I write about the San
Diego Padres tonight. The way this whole decision came about had to do with a
lack of historical events in Major League Baseball history occurring on June 4th
and June 5th. I’ve touched on this in prior posts, but I always do
my best to stay up to date with “this day in baseball” Web sites in order to
find truly interesting or forgotten stories of MLB’s past. Having found nothing
of real note I decided to take my campaign to Twitter and ask for suggestions
from my followers as to which team to write about next. Mapes gave me two
teams: the Padres and the Kansas City Royals. My biggest issue with the Royals
is that, outside of their Stars and Stripes and batting practice caps, they’ve
only had four caps they’ve worn on the field throughout their history. Somehow
I’ve managed to burn through three (February 4th, February 24th
and March 26th) of the four all ready and we’re not even close to
the All-Star break yet. Hell, I wrote about all three of those before the
season even started. WHYYYYYYY!?!? So, rather than finish one team off for the
rest of the year, I opted to go with the Padres.
Like the Royals, I’ve managed to write about three of the
team’s caps thus far (February 1st, March 10th and April12th). Unlike the Royals, the Padres actually have quite the
assortment of hats in their catalog, which is quite impressive considering the
fact that they’ve only been around in the Majors since 1969. What I am still
trying to track down; however, is their 1936 cap from their old Pacific Coast
League days when Boston Red Sox great Ted Williams played for the team. This
particular cap, as I said above, gave me a bit of a headache when trying to
pinpoint an exact year in which it was first used. Because I’m a huge sucker
for details, I always make sure to consult two specific Web sites before
writing down any of the dates in stone on any of the caps I write about,
because after all, some one may be doing the same research I’ve been conducting
and the last thing I want to do is give someone shoddy information. The two
sites I use are Sportslogos.net and BaseballHallOfFame.org. Oddly enough, they
gave contradictory information about this cap, a huge problem I’ve been dealing
with since I started on this mission. According to the National Baseball Hall
of Fame’s Web site the Padres didn’t start using this cap until 2004 in which
they have been using it as their home come through the present. According to
Sportslogos.net this cap was first used in 1998 and then went through a slight
color variation from 1999-2003 until becoming the cap the Padres where during
all of their home games. So, for those of you playing at home, the cap is
definitely the home cap and it for sure has been used since 2004 through the
present. But what about the previous six years? This is where things get a pit
tricky and I had to put on my detective cap to verify a few details.
The 1998 part is the most confusing of all because I
remember vividly watching the Padres playing in and losing the World Series to
the New York Yankees wear this cap...
the white and orange interlocking “SD” logo. I don’t really
recall the white “SD” at all. Oh, and side note, the way Steve Finley looks in
this card is ridiculously amazing. Even when combing through pages and pages of
photos from ’98 I still couldn’t find anyone wearing it with the exception of
former pitch Brian Boehringer who played with the Padres from 1998 until 2000.
My only beef with this card is that I came cross it when I
looked under “1999 San Diego Padres cards.” So, 1998 still remains a mystery.
The only thing I can come up with is that the Padres wore the caps and a
specific uniform set during Spring Training; however, no matter which Web site
I use there is nothing to provide this detail.
Moving on to 1999; yes, this cap was definitely used then as
the Boehringer card obviously proves. The other note from 1999 is that it was
the first year New Era started making specific batting practice caps, which
happened to feature the white “SD,” which the Padres used until the end of the
2003 season where they replaced the “SD” for the white slanted “P” logo and
changed the cap from a mesh 59/50 into the low profile 39/30. Upon my research
I was able to find photographic evidence to prove that the cap was used on the
field for home games from 2000-2003, one of which being the final game of the
2001 season which was a truly historic day as Tony Gwynn played his final home
game of his career AND Rickey Henderson recorded his 3,000th career
hit with a double off of Colorado Rockies pitch John Thomson.
Alas, the mystery has been solved, well, except for 1998,
which I leave to any of you who read this post to try finding evidence so I can
add it to the story and give you full credit for. That is, unless I find it
first.
In retrospect of my research I probably should have waited
until the end of the season to write about this cap in regard to the final day
of the 2001 season. I mean, Gwynn retiring and Rickey getting #3000 are two
pretty extraordinary events in MLB history. Not to mention the fact that during
that season Rickey also broke Babe Ruth’s all-time walks record (2062*), Ty
Cobb’s runs scored record (2246*) and Zack Wheat’s all-time record of games
started in left field (2328*). However, I marked this cap up with a few guys
who are still currently wearing this cap as I actually wrote the numbers I have
back in March of 2012 while I was in the MLB Fan Cave. No worries though. I’m
happy with the choices I made, but more important, now all of those facts I
just listed will be more in the open, and that’s what’s most important.
*numbers listed indicate previous records.
#24- One of the few guys from the Padres organization I had
the fortune of meeting in the Fan Cave, Cameron Maybin was the 10th
overall pick in the 2005 amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers out of high school
in North Carolina. Maybin played in 24 games with the Tigers in 2007, but was
traded to the Florida Marlins during the offseason as part of a blockbuster
trade in which the Marlins sent Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera to Detroit. Maybin played in
144 games for the Marlins from 2008 until the end of the 2010 season in which
he hit .257/12/43 during his days playing at Joe Robbie Stadium, or whatever
the hell it’s called.
AT the end of the 2010 season Maybin was traded once again,
this time to the Padres for Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica. The benefit of Maybin
going to the Padres was that he quickly became and every day guy. Maybin played
in 137 games, batting .264 with nine home runs and 40 RBI. Maybin also stole 40
bases that season, becoming the ninth player in Padres history to do so. In
2012 Maybin had a little bit of a drop in his numbers, but he was still one of
the best offensive producers on the team hitting .243 with eight home runs and
45 RBI, as well as 26 stolen bases.
When Maybin came to the Fan Cave
last season he was all smiles. He and I talked about surfing a bit as I have
still yet to surf at any beach south of Huntington Beach…
which really isn’t that far from San
Diego. Maybin didn’t come alone though, Yonder Alonso
and current Oakland Athletic Andy Parrino dropped by as well. One of the more
interesting moments came when MLB.com writer Mark Newman pulled me aside and
asked me if I knew of anything of note off the top of my head about Maybin.
Naturally I brought up the 40 stolen bases in 2011; something I thought was
really weird of him not to research before he came in. Then again, most people
sought my knowledge more times than you can imagine as opposed to looking it up
themselves during my time there. During Newman’s interview with
Maybin I made sure to pop “the shark” and photobomb him; however, those bits
were edited out. But, the video still lives on, and if you look quick enough you
can see the tail end of me teaching all three guys how to do it. Also, the link for the Eric Byrnes shark is right next to it.
#7- Another member of the 2005 amateur draft class, Chase
Headley was selected by the Padres in the second round out of the University of Tennessee,
but after transferring from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Headley made his MLB debut on June 15, 2007 but only played for eight games as
a fill-in for Kevin Kouzmanoff. Headley played for the Eugene Emeralds the year
he was drafted, two years before I moved there. Rats!
In 2008, after playing batting .305 and playing in 65 games
with the AAA Portland Beavers, Headley was brought back up to the Majors where
he has been ever since, with the exception of a four-game rehab stint with the
Lake Elsinore Storm this season. From 2008-2011 Headley put up decent numbers,
but nothing extraordinary. His average hung around .271 those three seasons and
he only hit 27 home runs and 166 RBI. Headley proved he had the potential throughout
his Minor League days; however, something just wasn’t clicking for him in the
Majors. But, if there’s one things hitters do, it’s stay patient and keep
swinging away… which Headley did very well in 2012.
Something clicked around the All-Star break. At the end of
the day on July 8th Headley was batting .267 with eight home runs
and 42 RBI. For the rest of the season (75 games) Headley would boost his
batting average to .286, but crank out 23 more home runs and 73 RBI, the most
productive of any player in the National League during that stretch besides San
Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey. Headley’s surge would land him in fifth
place for the NL MVP award as well as give him his first Silver Slugger award. Headley
also played stellar defense last year as well, winning his first Gold Glove at
third base.
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