July 14- San Diego Padres

It’s kind of crazy to think that in the 17 years that I lived in California (born and raised) I never went to San Diego until years after I moved away. Living in Bakersfield for the majority of my life this really doesn’t make much sense, especially since the two cities are less than four hour apart from one another. An even weirder thing to consider out of this is that from when I was 13-years-old until I was 19 I was a pretty avid surfer. The furthest south my board and I had ever gotten in California was down to San Clemente, which is still only about an hour north of “a whale’s vagina.” I don’t know. I can’t think of an reasonable explanation as to how I dodged it for so long, but I’m glad that I was finally able to make it out there this last year to catch a game with fellow MLB Fan Cave hopeful Andy Bishop.

Andy and I hit it off almost immediately when we first met in person in February of 2012 for the top-30 of the Fan Cave auditions. He and I have the same appreciation for weird, outlandish, off-the-wall comedy and we are both Mormon. Well, he’s a bit more adherent to the rules than I am; nonetheless, we were both raised with the same faith and struck a common accord during our time together. I thought he would have been a lock as one of the final nine from last season, but then again, I felt that way about a lot of the people that I met. Like Los Angeles Dodgers fan Nick Hamilton, Andy was one of the many people who I told that I would go south to visit him and take him to a San Diego Padres game no matter what the outcome of the Fan Cave experience would be. Just a few days after Independence Day 2012 I lived up to my word.

The timing of my visit technically couldn’t be any worse. Yes, Andy was around; however, Andy was also in the process of moving and didn’t really have a place for me to crash, but we did end up slitting a hotel room downtown. Aside from being an aspiring sports play-by-play announcer, Andy served as a tour guide at Petco Park on off days and before Padres games. Sadly, I never got to get the grand tour from the man, but he did show me around a bit before the game started and after we got to shoot the breeze with Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips. Andy took me to the warehouse in left field and we made our way to the sandbox in centerfield and the grass knoll-area which sat behind. The Padres were hosting a beer and wine tasting event at the time which was a really cool bonus for fans who don’t otherwise want to just sit in their seat waiting for the game to start. One thing I wanted to do was check out the Padres team store as I was in search of a Tucson Padres cap, the AAA-affiliate of the Padres, for my collection. As luck would have it they had a score in stock; however, the price on the caps was $50, and this was before tax. I passed without thinking twice about it.

The game itself was pretty rough. Even our rally caps couldn't thwart the Padres 0-6 loss, but we didn’t let that spoil our night. 

Andy and I retreated to a local ale house for a quick beverage, well, I did and we stayed there until the end of the Seattle Mariners versus the Oakland Athletics game that was in the bottom off the ninth inning. Andy and I spent most of the time chatting about what we’ve got going on over the next couple of days when the next thing I knew Chris Carter had just blasted a three-run home run off of Steve Delabar in the bottom of the 11^th inning to give the A’s a 4-1 win over the Mariners. Worn out an both with busy days the next morning, we went to the hotel, turned on MLB Network and passed out. Andy had all ready paid for the hotel so I headed outside in the middle of the night to grab a smoke and run to an ATM to get money to pay him back. Of all the things that I will ever forget from that trip, the one that sticks out the most is how I left the cash sitting on the nightstand next to Andy’s bed. When I didn’t see Andy leave the next morning, but saw the money gone, I couldn’t help but laugh at that exchange being almost like I paid Andy for a date that night. I have a twisted sense of humor sometimes.

If you’re an avid follower of my blog you might have recognized the cap I’m wearing in the photos with Andy as the Padres Military Day cap I wrote about on April 12^th. Seeing how I didn’t write about the game I went to with Andy I felt that this was a good enough platform to bring it up, especially considering the fact that Petco Park, and the numbers I have marked are all relevant to the cap that I’m writing about. The Padres introduced it, along with this cap, at the start of the 2004 season when they retired the white “S” with orange “D”-logoed cap at the end of the 2003 season; this cap. In the case of this sand-colored “SD” logo cap, the Padres wore it as their road and alternate cap and retired it at the end of the 2011 season. The all-navy blue with a white “SD” cap then took over as their regular game cap. I couldn’t believe that I had never worn this cap until I put it on today; the price tag was still on the bottom.

Picking players to mark this cap up was actually a pretty easy move. 

#44- Of all the players to move on from the Padres over the last decade, the hardest to swallow has to be Jake Peavy. I had actually written about Peavy back on February 12^th for one of my Lake Elsinore pieces, but there’s so much that I left out as I focused primarily on his time with the Storm. 

Peavy grew up in Mobile, Alabama and cheered the Crimson Tide through and through. As a kid he followed the Atlanta Braves whose core of the 1990s was built around the brilliant pitching of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and one of his sports heroes Greg Maddux. Jake’s father, Donny, was a skilled carpenter who made cabinets along with his father, Blanche, on their three-acre plot of land in the outskirt town of Semmes. Donny was an especially gifted and well-known ball player around town, as was Blanche. Jake was especially close to his grandfather who was still playing fast-pitch softball. He drove Jake to school in his old El Camino most mornings. After school, his grandfather would videotape Jake pitching, pop the tape in the VCR and analyze his motions. Despite all of this keen analysis, no one noticed that Jake was profoundly near sighted. After he got his first pair of glasses, he turned into an excellent hitter, too. One day, in 1994, Blanche turned on a fan in the shop and the unthinkable happened. The blade snapped and went through his eye and into his brain. He fell into a coma, and his family later agreed to let him go. Jake was devastated. From that day forward the loss motivated Jake as he gave it his all for his “Paw-Paw.”

When Jake was ready for high school, his parents sent him to St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile. The school had a reputation for its tremendous sports program, and his parents felt that this was a smart path for their son. St. Paul’s was a private school, so Debbie, his mother, had to take a job in the post office so they could afford the tuition. Money well spent.

As Jake grew into his burly 6-1 frame, he blossomed into an unbeatable pitcher. He had a hard fastball that he slung across his body, and a change up that was very advanced for a boy his age. In his first three varsity seasons, Jake went 31-1. He exhibited the kind of wildness one would expect in a live young arm, but after throwing an occasional pitch to the backstop, he was usually able to collect himself and get back down to business. The scouts who began showing up at his games took note of this quality. –JockBio.com

During Jakes senior season, 1999, he led the Saints to the state championship and never lost one of his 13 decisions on the mound. Of all the colleges who were interested in him, the University of Alabama was the one he wanted to attend the most. Upon hearing this Peavy was invited to Alabama’s campus in Tuscaloosa by then head coach Jim Wells for a tour and an offer… or so Peavy thought. Peavy though that Bama was going to roll out the red carpet for him, instead he was welcomed with little-to-no fanfare and the only offer he was given was Wells’ promise to pay for his books. Yup! The best high school pitcher in the state of Alabama was offered books. Dejected, Peavy took an audience with Auburn University head coach Hal Baird who offered him a full ride if he played for the Tigers. Peavy was at a cross road. He now had even more motivational fuel by playing for Auburn to stick it Alabama, or he could roll the dice and see where he ended up in the draft and make his decision from there. Peavy had all ready told most scouts that he would commit to Auburn if he wasn’t drafted in the first four rounds, which scared a lot of teams off… except one, the Padres. Padres’ scout, Mark Wasinger, had gotten to know Jake’s other grandfather, and was convinced that the kid had all the intangibles necessary to be a star. Wasinger called the Padres late in the draft and asked how high Jake had gone. When he was informed that his name was still on the board, he begged the club to take him. They did, in the 15th round. When the draft concluded Wasinger got Jake to agree that he would sign a contract if he was given fourth-round bonus money. Wasinger put his reputation on the line and convinced the Padres to offer six figures. Jake signed, making Hal Baird the unhappiest man in the state of Alabama.

Peavy made his Major League debut on June 22, 2002 and became an immediate fixture in the Padres rotation despite going 6-7 with a 4.52 ERA in his first year. From 2003-2006 Peavy would win at least 11 games per season, only having one losing year in 2006 where he went 11-14. His ERA was cut in half as he led the National League with a 2.27. In 2005 he made his first All-Star game as he lead the NL in strikeouts that season with 216. But all of these accomplishments were merely the warm-up to his phenomenal year in 2007.

Peavy’s final year in San Diego came in 2008, but it was his triple crown, second All-Star Game appearance, Cy Young-winning season in 2007 which will always make Peavy a legend in San Diego. That season he went 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA, 240 strikeouts and even a league-leading 1.061 WHIP to boot. Had the Padres made the playoffs that season Peavy may have won the NL MVP as well, but he finished in seventh place.

#30- If there is one player throughout my years whose name has come up at the most unusual times in my life; it has to be Ryan Klesko. Klesko was a fifth round draft pick by the Braves back in 1989 out of Westminster High School in Westminster, California. He made his Major League debut on September 12, 1992 and hung with the Braves all the way through their World Series run in 1995 and until the end of the season in 1999. In fact, Klesko is the only person in World Series history to knock a home run a three consecutive road games, which he did against the Cleveland Indians in ’95. At the end of the 1999 season he was traded to with Bret Boone and Jason Shiell to the Padres for Quilvio Veras, Reggie Sanders and Wally Joyner.

From 2000-2006 Klesko played first base and left field in San Diego where he made his one and only All-Star appearance in 2001 after hitting .286 with 30 home runs and a career-high 113 RBI. In 2002, he hit .300 with 29 HR and 95 RBI, and collected career-highs in hits (162) and doubles (39). In his career he has a .370 on base percentage with a .500 slugging average, for a .870 OPS. His .525 slugging percentage as a Brave ranks 4th all-time among the team's career leaders, ahead of Eddie Mathews. His .886 OPS as a Brave ranks him 5th among Braves' all-time leaders. Klesko hit .279 with 278 home runs and 987 for his career. He also had a really sweet mustache for most of his career.

My one story that has to do with him came in 2004 when I was interning at a newspaper in Salem, Oregon called The Statesman Journal. My first assignment was to interview a bunch of kids who were on a Little League team that was gearing up to make a solid run for Williamsport. One of the questions that I had to ask all of the kids was, “who is your favorite player?” One of the kids said his favorite player was “Brian Flesko.” I even had him write it down. Well, guess who got their ass chewed out for not correcting it to Ryan Klesko? It wasn’t that I didn’t know who the kid was talking about; I just knew that he was being a smartass so I decided not to change it, which is also why I made him write it down. Needless to say, I never let that happen again.

#3- Khalil Greene was one of my favorite players to come up through the Padres organization. A 2002 Baseball America All-American, Dick Hoswer Trophy winner, ACC Player of the Year, All-ACC first team, Rotary Smith Award winner, Golden Spikes Award winner (best college baseball player), sociology degree recipient out of Clemson University, Greene entered the MLB draft and was taken with the 13^th overall pick by the Padres. Greene moved through the Padres farm system with ease in a year-and-a-half starting with the short season-A Eugene Emeralds on to the Lake Elsinore Storm on to the AA Mobile Bears and then for a brief time in 2003 with the Portland Beavers before making his MLB debut on September 3^rd.

Greene became a regular fixture in the Padres lineup in 2004 and put up solid numbers in his first year, but finished second for the Rookie of the Year award behind Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jason Bay. Greene hit .273 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI on the season. Greene became a fan favorite overnight. He looked like Jeff Spicoli and played with reckless abandon.

Hell, he even won me over.

But Greene’s time with the Padres would be short-lived as he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals during the 2008 Winter Meetings. What’s actually pretty crazy is that even though Greene only played in five full season with the Padres, he still holds the franchise record for most home runs hit by a shortstop with 84. Greene took several weeks off during May and June 2009, after it was revealed that he was possibly injuring himself in mental anguish (revealed to be social anxiety disorder) due to a slow start for the Cardinals, hitting .197 with only three home runs at the time. He returned to the Cards lineup on June 19 at the Kansas City Royals. Playing third base for the first time since college, he went 2-for-2 with a double, a solo home run and a walk, eventually being substituted after fouling a ball off his foot. Following a 1 for 17 stretch over five games, Greene was placed back on the disabled list with social anxiety disorder on June 29. Greene filed for free agency for the 2010 season, and signed with the Texas Rangers. He announced on February 22, 2010 that, suffering another episode of social anxiety disorder, he would not be reporting to Rangers spring training. On February 25, the Rangers voided Greene's contract. Greene’s final game in MLB was October 4, 2009.

#32- Sean Burroughs was born in Atlanta, Georgia but grew up in Long Beach, California and is regarded as one of the greatest Little League World Series stars. His father Jeff, former American League MVP with the Texas Rangers, was the Long Beach coach and led his son and company to the LLWS and won back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993. Sean is also the only player to pitch back-to-back no-hitters in the LLWS. Before breaking into the Major Leagues Sean was also a somewhat accomplished writer as a piece of his was included as one of the freedom writers as his is diary entry #132.

Burroughs was selected with the ninth overall pick in the 1998 amateur draft by the Padres, bolstering solid numbers with the gold medal-winning 2000 USA Olympic team and the AAA Beavers in 2001 before getting called up and making his MLB debut on April 2, 2002. Burroughs’s career with the Padres had a lot of promise. His best season came in 2004 where he batted .298 with 156 hits, two home runs and 47 RBI, but after the 2005 season the Padres dealt him to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Dewon Brazelton. Burroughs only made it through August before the Devil Rays released him. After that, he faded into obscurity… or so people thought.

After getting released by the Seattle Mariners in June of 2007 Burroughs disappeared, literally. He ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada moving around from motel to motel, drinking up to eight Slurpees a day and eating cheeseburgers out of trashcans. Sounds unbelievable, right? It gets worse. During an interview with ESPN Burroughs admitted, "I was doing a lot of things that were morally not correct and physically not correct. I was knocking at death's door. I was flirting with going to jail and getting locked up someplace. It was scary. Some people kind of came to my rescue. It was pure insanity, but I got myself back together and I'm coming back out of the haze I was in for so many years.''

The former LLWS star, Olympic gold medalist and highly-touted prospect picked up the broken pieces of his life and got back into baseball in 2011 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and then the Minnesota Twins in 2012. In 2013 he was signed to a minor league deal by the Los Angeles Dodgers and played 57 games with the AA Chattanooga Lookouts.

April 12- San Diego Padres

I’ve developed a bit of a bad habit over the last two weeks to work on my New Era Cap blog posts after the final game had ended. I suppose I could justify my reasoning around the slight chance that something extraordinary might happen at which I could quickly switch up the hat I’m going to write about and center it around whatever event took place. Alas, this was not the case tonight as I had chosen to write about this particular San Diego Padres hat earlier in the day. What can I say? I’m just a huge sucker for Oakland Athletics games.

On March 10 I wrote about the Padres military appreciation day hat the team has been wearing every Sunday since 2011; however, it was not the first hat to be used for such occasion. In fact, Sunday wasn’t even the original day in which the team used it. The actual first day sates back to… well… April 12, today. On a Wednesday back in 2000 the Padres took to the field wearing dark green and khaki jerseys with the team name and numbers stitched on in white complimented with the hat being adorned on the top of my head, as well as Sterling Hitchcock’s below.

Believe it or not it took three hours to track down this photo, and I wasn’t even the one to find it. I got a lot of help from the Twitterverse, but it was Matthew Young (@mjoven1975) who tweeted me the photo. One would think that something so trivial might be easy to find. Well, I have news for you; it isn’t.

The biggest indicators, as far as trying to date this photo are concerned, lie within, not only the player, but the particular fonts and color schemes being used by the Padres at the time, as well as the surroundings. The first thing to note is that Hitchcock played for the Padres from 1997- halfway into the 2001 season and again in 2004, his final year. Nowhere in any of my research did I find anything about the team using camouflage jerseys prior to 2000. The next thing to look at is what’s behind him: a navy blue wall with orange horizontal strips. This would indicate that the team was playing at home at Qualcomm Stadium after looking at other photos. The Padres played at Qualcomm (a.k.a. San Diego Stadium/Jack Murphy Stadium) from 1969-2003; therefore, the 2004 season is scratched. The only other piece of evidence is the typeface in which the “Padres” and the number are written. That particular font was used from 1985-2003, which still leaves it up in the air whether this photo was taken from 2000 or 2001. Based on the intel I received from Matthew, I’m pretty positive all signs point to 2000. Another really interesting fact about this hat is that of all the caps the Padres wore on the field, this one had the longest shelf-life. Every other hat in the 44-year history of the team lasted roughly 5-7 years.

There’s a particular Web site (Sportslogos.net) that I frequent run by a Canadian gentleman names Chris Creamer, who catalogs all the logos, jerseys and hat styles worn by each teams throughout their existence. Whenever I get hung up about a particular year in which a hat is used I call upon it to verify my research. Unfortunately in this case, the Web site let me down. On his site it says that the Padres used this hat from 2006-2010. I suppose in some way that bit is true; they did use it during those years; however, the entire timeframe between 2000 and 2005 is missing. Another unfortunate wrong turn I was led down was by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and their uniform database. Once again, only at times when I need to verify something do I use this site, but once again I was shut down. The Hall of Fame’s database doesn’t even have this hat listed, along with a lot of other hats used by various teams throughout the last 25 years. Even Wikipedia was a complete was today as the team photo they had listed saying “Padres players in their first camouflage uniforms” is incorrect. See?

Upon first glance you might think I’m crazy as a lot of the usual suspects from the 2000 team including then manager Bruce Bochy are present; however, the one giveaway is the presence of David Wells who only played in San Diego in 2006. I think I’ve mentioned this several time before, especially during the American League umpires cap post I did on February 19; a lot of time, work and research go into these little posts I do every single day. Not because I want to prove of my intelligence, because I don’t want to let any of you down. I don’t want any of you to go down the same paths of seemingly wasted hours to find this information. I also do it because I love telling stories. While someone else telling a story of discovery might be boring to others, I try to pep it up a little bit. And honestly, I really want to do great by everyone who reads these because I sincerely do care and value your opinions.

I bought this cap on Ebay back in July of 2011 since I couldn’t find it in any stores... I’ve always been a huge fan of this shade of green and felt it would be an excellent addition to my collection, not to mention something really awesome to wear. Most importantly though, I bought it because of my best friend Ronnie Forrest, a naval vet stationed in San Diego, who went to several Padres games before he was killed shortly after deployment to Iraq during Operation: Iraqi Freedom back in 2003. I still miss him every single day.

There really wasn’t much a patter, from what I recall, when I marked this cap up. Mainly just player on the Padres during this era that I felt didn’t get enough credit for their careers.

#22- There’s an interesting little game that could be played here as I picked two every interesting, ambiguous numbers to roll with. Since this hat was used from 2000-2010 there were four guys who wore #22, but only two of them were for more than a season: Xavier Nady (2000-2005) and David Eckstein (2009-2010). As much as I love Eckstein and his abilities to win at life, I have a greater personal attachment to Nady.

Nady was a second round draft pick by the padres out of the University of California-Berkeley in the 2000 amateur draft. He is also one of the few guys to play in a Major League game in the same year he was drafted. On the second to last day of the season (September 30) Nady made his MLB debut as a pinch hitter for pitcher Todd Erdos against the Los Angeles Dodgers. With one swing of the bat Nady got a base hit, which he later turned into a run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Nady didn’t see another second of action in the Show until 2003; however, at the end of that day and season, his batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage were 1.000.

In 2001 and a bit of 2002 he started out with the Lake Elsinore Storm in the California League, batting .289 with 39 home runs and 137 RBI before moving up to the AAA affiliate, the Portland Beavers. From 2002-2004 I watched Nady and company for the few games he was with the team at PGE Park. Hands down those were some of the best summers I ever had in Portland just being able to relax with a cold beer in my hand, watching the future stars of tomorrow trying to make it to the big leagues. His best season in Portland was in 2004 when he hit .330 with 22 home runs and 70 RBI in 74 games. Amazing! I remember one game specifically when he hit a home run so hard and so far that it tagged the light rail train as it crept passed the stadium. His time in the majors has been a bit checkered, by which I mean he’s become a bit of a journeyman. Eight teams he’s played for in his 13 year career in baseball, the longest of which came with the Padres. During his time in the majors he hit .263/25/91 in 269 games.

#23- This is another one I bit the pickle on as two guys wore this number for pretty long stretched between 2000 and 2010. From 2006-2010 Adrian Gonzalez was a first base masher for the Padres before moving on to the Boston Red Sox and now the Dodgers. Currently Yonder Alonso wear #23, but he never played under this cap. Nope, the biggest name from 1999-2005 was Phil Nevin.

Most people don’t really recall Nevin’s playing career, even though he did have a decent 12-year career with seven different teams. No, most people remember his for being the first overall pick in the 1992 amateur draft by the Houston Astros out of Cal State Fullerton. Now, the best version of this story I’ve heard was by New York Yankees die-hard fan and fellow 2012 MLB Fan Cave Dweller Eddie Mata during our time in New York City. At the time I knew all the info behind this, but it was very entertaining to watch and listen to him tell it with his thick Brooklyn accent.

So, the story goes that there was a scout within the Astros system (Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser) who told then-general manager Bill Wood that the team HAS to take this kid out of Kalamazoo, Michigan with the first overall pick as he would “anchor a winning team.” Fearing that it would cost the Astros a cool $1 million signing bonus to sway this kid away from the University of Michigan, Wood passed and took Nevin instead. With the sixth overall pick in that year’s draft the Yankees took the kid, DEREK JETER, on the advice from scout Dick Groch who told the Yankees brass, after their concerns with Jeter going to college, “the only place Derek Jeter’s going is Cooperstown.” Plus, it only cost them $800,000. The best part of the story is how every year after Jeter and the Yankees won their first World Series in 1996, Newhouser would give them a call asking “how that Jeter kid is working out for the Yankees.” Poor Nevin. He did his best.

The only part of the story that’s a bit questionable is whether or not Newhouser actually made the calls beyond 1996. I only say this because he passed away in 1998.

Nevin’s time with the Padres was the longest of his career. He hit .288 with 156 home runs and 573 RBI. His best year came in 2001 when he made his one, and only All-Star Game appearance and finished 21^st in the National League MVP vote going .306/41/126-every stat that year including runs (97), hits (167) and walks (71) was a career-high.

Nevin’s career ended with the Minnesota Twins at the end of the 2006 season, but he’ll sadly be remembered as the guy who got taken over Derek Jeter. Also, he’ll be known to you as the guy who first wore the Padres camouflage jersey back in 2000. See!

It all came back around again. Scott G (@JustBaseball25) found this 2000 Fleer Showcase card for me, thus ending the search. Excellent work Scott!

March 29- Portland Beavers

The 2013 baseball season is only a few days away, and for some reason it doesn’t feel like it where I am.  Few weeks ago I wrote a post on my history with Portland baseball, and I can assure you that very little has changed to sway my opinion on the matter. Yes, there will be a new team moving in about three miles away from where I’m currently living, but it’s a short season-A club that relocated from Yakima, Washington. This isn’t a knock on the Hillsboro Hops; I’m honestly looking forward to watching them play. It’s just a mere observation in a city that houses two top-tier sports franchises (Trailblazers and Timbers) and yet the best it can do is attract, and hopefully maintain, a short season-A club when the Seattle Mariners reside 185 north of where I’m currently sitting and writing this piece. I think one of the more remarkable, and real eye-opening things about this move and the demise of the Portland Beavers all revolves around how I acquired this cap.

Despite the fact that the Beavers relocated at the end of the 2010 season, you can still find a few of their items all over Portland. What’s most insulting is that most of the shops are still charging full price for merchandise of a team that no longer exists. The Beavers hat that I wrote about on March 6 was one I had purchased from PGE Park (now Jeld Wen Field) in the concourse area during a game against the Sacramento River Cats. I think I paid about $30 for it. The one that I am writing about was one of two that I didn’t all ready own which happened to be sitting on the top row (not even mixed in with the other MLB or MiLB caps) collecting dust at the Lids in the Clackamas Town Center Mall in September. As soon as I saw them I said I wanted them as long as they had my size. Sure enough they did, and sure enough I was a bit shocked when they still rang up as $35 each. Granted, I do have a Lids Club card, but it was still a weird concept to have to pay full price initially for the hat of a Minor League team that no longer exists. Oh well. I’ll always be a little sad and upset over what happened.

This particular hat was introduced in 2008 when the Beavers changed their colors and logo from the traditional black/red/white that had been popular throughout the century. I remember thinking it was a bit weird, but I did like the new color scheme. I’ll be honest; I’m not that big of a fan of red. This featured logo served primarily on the front of the batting practice caps and batting helmets; however, those caps were all black. This cap was merely a random second style the team came up with the feature the logo on a different colored cap. The concept for a team to do that is quite genius actually. I’ve never been too much of a fan of mesh caps; however, there have been a lot of logos that only appear on the batting practice caps that I really enjoy; the 1999 Arizona Diamondbacks batting practice cap is the first that comes to mind.

Because this is the batting practice logo I figured it would be best to find numbers from a few guys who were big names with the Beavers, but most important, got the job done with their hitting.

#21- A lifetime pinch hitter and Minor League journeyman, Wily Mo Pena was originally signed as a free agent by the New York Mets back in 1998. Over the next 14 years Pena made a few half-of-a-season appearances at the Major League level whenever an extra power hitter was needed, but the other, longer half was spent in AAA. No matter who your team is, there’s a pretty good chance he was on the payroll at some point. In 2010, Pena never saw a second of action in the Majors as he was signed to an Atlantic League team called the Bridgeport Bluefish along with “One At-Bat” subject and current Baltimore Oriole Adam Greenberg. About midway through the season Pena got inked to a Minor League deal with the San Diego Padres which sent him to Portland for 40 games. During his time there he hit .324 with nine home runs and 24 RBI. From the few games that I saw I could never figure out why he never stayed up in the Big Leagues. The man can certainly hit. For the last season Pena played 130 games in Japan with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks along with former Oakland Athletics prospect Brandon Allen and former/current MLB pitchers Brad Penny and Brian Falkenborg.

#29- I went to a lot of Beavers games in 2005 as they had a lot of talent on the squad back then. One player in particular received the most attention simply because of his last name. I imagine that he knew it and had been hearing it all his life, which I can, once again, only imagine how frustrating that might be. Nonetheless, Josh Barfield did a fine job of earning his way to the Major that season hitting .310 with 15 home runs and 72 RBI. He was called up before the season was over, rightfully so, and stayed with the Padres through the entire 2006 season, but was traded to the Cleveland Indians in the offseason for Kevin Kouzmanoff and Andrew Brown.

Barfield played 130 games for the Indians in 2007, but didn’t quite have the bat flair he showed in San Diego as he finished the season hitting .240 with three home runs and 50 RBI. Barfield was demoted to the Buffalo Bisons, the Indians AAA affiliate, and replaced by prospect Asdrubal Cabrera in 2008. When Cabrera went on a skid Barfield was called up to replace him, but Barfield sprained his finger within days of getting back in the Bigs and ended up on the DL. 2009 was primarily spent in Columbus with the Clippers, the new AAA affiliate of the Indians.

In 2010 the Padres signed Barfield to a Minor League contract in which he played 78 games in the Rose City. If I remember correctly I caught him in four or five games that season. From what I could tell, very little had changed in his swing and side-to-side motions on the field. Granted, it had only been five years since I last saw him and he is only two months older than me. That year he hit .294 with five home runs and 36 RBI, but he never got called up on account of David Eckstein being the everyday guy. Barfield bounced around through the Philadelphia Phillies and Orioles organizations over the last two years, but has yet to see any MLB action since 2009. It’s a damn shame.

March 6- Portland Beavers

I’ve been in an especially feisty mood today, which has certainly helped fuel this blog post. Take warning. It’s going to get ugly.

Portland, Oregon is a horrible baseball city. Yah, that’s right, I said it. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest (specifically Vancouver, Washington) I was regaled by stories and banter from hardcore Portland sports fans about how amazing it would be to have a Major League Baseball team within the confines of the city. For years I was told that Portlanders would give undying support if a team was ever relocated, because after all, “we’re huge sports fans.” I bought that bullshit for years. The illusion of seeing a top tier in the city I called home was brought on by this…

a more than clever bumper sticker which I first saw in the manager’s office at the Just Sports (@JustSportspdx) location at the Lloyd Center Mall. For those who don’t know, Lloyd Center is the state’s largest indoor mall and it sits roughly 10-12 blocks away from the Rose Garden, the home of the Portland Trailblazers of the National Basketball Association. It’s not very becoming of me to mention other sports within my baseball articles; however, the important thing to know about Trailblazers fans is that they are extremely loyal, more so than most other franchises. I know that seems like a “homer” thing to say, but you should probably take into consideration that I’m a huge Indiana Pacers fan. In fact, the one thing to prove my assertion true is that the Trailblazers hold the record for most consecutive sell-outs at 814 from 1977 (the year of their only championship) through 1995. Oh yah, and by record, I don’t mean NBA record. I’m talking about most consecutive sell-outs in American sports history. The next closest streak? The 2003 through present Boston Red Sox at 712 games. For those doing the math at home, the Trailblazers record will more than likely be broken in 2014. Now, with that logic, one might think that the validity of Portlanders supporting a baseball team might be true. Think again.

In 2000 Portland all ready had a professional baseball team, the Portland Rockies. What was incredibly shocking about this is that 1. They were a short season-A squad in a major city. 2. They hardly drew anyone. Trust me on this one; I caught a few games at the old Civic Stadium and saw how empty it was. But… hope was just around the corner. What I didn’t know before moving North was that Portland was once a decent baseball city who housed a storied AAA franchise known as the Portland Beavers. From 1903-1917, 1919-1972 and 1978-1993 the Beavers came and went, but always seemed to find its footing anytime they set up shop. If you read my Salt Lake City Bees post from January 28 you’d know about the last run of the Beavers, and how then owner Joe Buzas cut and run at the end of the 1993 season to not only establish the franchise in Utah, but also had the balls to name the team after himself (Buzz). Every now-and-then when I get back up to Portland for a few beers with my friends Buzas’s name comes up in conversation. To this day I have yet to hear one positive thing about the man other than, “I’m glad he’s dead.”

Following the 2000 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres swapped AAA affiliates. The Albuquerque Dukes (a charter franchise of the PCL in 1903 as the Los Angeles Angels) moved to Portland, becoming the Beavers, as the San Diego Padres affiliate. As part of the relocation agreement, Civic Stadium was renovated in 2000 and renamed PGE Park. Things were certainly looking bright. Like most new franchises, attendance was booming. The team brought up such budding talents as Sean Burroughs, Kevin Witt, Ernie Young and Ryan Radmanovich as well as brought down/rehabbed such stars as Jim Leyritz, Jeremy Powell, Jason Middlebrook and even Rickey Henderson. Popularity of the sport was certainly on the rise, and one moment I will never forget took place on March 29, 2002 as the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners played one exhibition game in front of a sold out crowd. The Mariners, coming off their 116-win season proved to be the perfect draw. The Padres won the game 3-1 thanks to a two-run shot by Phil Nevin and six strong innings of pitching from Brian Lawrence. Attendance drew pretty well for the rest of the season and on into the 2003 season when the news “we all wanted” broke.

Back in June 2001 a story was released, but very few people knew about it. Bud Selig had sent one of his representatives, Corey Busch, to Portland to attend a Beavers game as the Montreal Expos were considering playing a few home games at PGE Park as, a Montreal Gazette article mentioned, the Expos were looking for a temporary home until a new stadium in Montreal was built. At the end of the 2002 season the possibility of a new stadium in Montreal was looking rather bleak, but the possibility of the Expos moving to Portland was looking promising. As a long-time Expos fan, I was champing at the bit with just the thought. Another thing that most people didn’t know is that Lynn Lashbrook, the founder and President of Sports Management Worldwide, had been rallying for a Major League team in Oregon for the previous six years, and made sure to head the committee to try to bring the Expos westward. For almost the entire winter on into spring of 2003 I helped work in the campaign. Well, as much as they would let me do: hand out fliers, make calls, send emails; you know, bitch work. At the end of January 2003 things were moving at an incredible pace. Only Washington, D.C. and Portland remained in the running for the team. Then Portland Mayor Vera Katz was in great support of it as she met with representatives from MLB in New York despite criticism from Republican politicians who didn’t see the benefits of allocating $350-400 million for a new stadium, especially with unemployment rates being one of the highest in the country at the time at 7% (the rate went as high as 11.6% in 2009, but is now around 8.3%). At the same time; however, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos was protesting the move to D.C. as the Orioles had territorial rights. Oddly enough, the Mariners tried to pull the same move with Oregon with little merit. Even more interesting is that the Oakland Athletics and Florida Marlins names were being tossed around as other possibilities of relocation if Portland lost the Expos bid by the end of 2003.

On into 2004 very little seemed to be moving forward. The Expos and their fans in Montreal were well aware of the fact that the team would be playing its last season in Canada, but no one knew where that would be. All appeared to be going well for Portland as one of the Native American tribes even offered to front $250 million to build a new stadium as long as they were allowed to build a casino within the city limits. Mayor Katz balked at the idea and somehow around September 29 the announcement was made that the Expos would be moving to D.C. And I mean, it was really out of the blue. We were all dumbfounded, and we especially wanted to throw Katz out of office for not accepting the offer. But in the end, there wasn’t much that even Katz could do. Angelos had back off from his previous comments (more than likely paid off) and D.C. was getting their THIRD team throughout MLB’s history (because the first two panned out so well).   

As the years progressed attendance figures for the Beavers dwindled. Every game I attended from 2005-2007 seemed to be a jab to the ribs. I would have thought that in lieu of everything going to Hell that people would support the team in protest to MLB which would hopefully pave the way to luring another team to the city. Nope!

Years continued to roll on with little hope. The Beavers weren’t all that successful on the field which deterred a lot of people from going to the games. I had moved to Eugene in April of 2007 which made going to games on a regular basis a bit of a challenge, but I always made sure to catch the Sacramento River Cats (the A’s affiliate) when they visited.

In 2009 the AAA All-Star game was held at PGE Park. I was one of a little over 16,000 of the possible 18,000 it could fit to attend. Not too long after that the Portland Timbers were promoted from the United Soccer League to Major League Soccer under the stipulation that PGE Park be converted into a soccer/football specific stadium. The Beavers were forced out, but were given a slew of possible locations in which to build another stadium… at which ever possible site was protested. Without a home to play in, Merritt Paulson, the then owner of the Beavers sold the team to a group headed by Padres owner Jeff Moorad before the end of the 2010 season. Ever since that day I've had a lingering hatred of Portland and its residents. 10 years of boasting itself as a great baseball town went right out the window.

On September 6, 2010 the Beavers played their final game at PGE Park. The game ended with a 6-5 win over the Las Vegas 51s. I didn’t know it until today, but that was only the third sell-out the Beavers had since returning in 2001. The other two games were their first game back on August 30, 2001 and a July 4 fireworks night in 2009. I happened to attend all three.

For years I had kept this hat blank, even after I established my marking system. Today I finally set on one…

9/6/10- The Beavers wore this hat on their final game, a thought that still brings me to tears even as I write this two and a half years after the fact. It served as their home hat from 2008-2010. A lot of my other hats have specific dates, but I will wait to feature those on their specific anniversary. In the case of this hat I made an exception for the sake of my depression on this matter. When I went to Montreal this summer and visited my friend Dave Kaufman, all the heartbreak and sense of loss came rushing back anytime we talked about our teams. With Dave it was something deeper rooted as his beloved Expos were ripped out of the hands of the fans in Montreal despite their best efforts to hold on. I felt awful for all of the hours I put in to try to bring the team here, not really seeing both sides of the coin at the times.

In the case of the Beavers it became an oversight; something that only true baseball fans were affected by including then owner Paulson who regretted not doing more to keep the team in Portland. In an open letter following the last game Paulson predicted that the Beavers would make a return to Portland in the future. I guess we’ll wait and see.

January 5- Tucson Padres

Believe it or not this hat turned out to be one of the hardest hats to track down over the last year. Even more unusual was where I ended up buying it. The story really dates back to 2008, long before the Tucson Padres were even a glint in anyone’s eye. I was a regular attendee of the then Portland Beavers, the AAA franchise of the San Diego Padres, while at the same time I was a season ticket holder for the then-USL Portland Timbers. Having moved to Eugene the previous year to attend the University of Oregon full time, it became a bit difficult to make the trip north to a lot of games. Yes, I realize we’re talking about summer sports; however, I was taking summer classes, so in your face! 2008 proved to be the last year I attended either team’s games at a high frequency as the hit my wallet was taking due to gas prices was becoming a bit crazy. It was also around this time that the Timbers were being considered for a call-up to Major League Soccer, something I really didn’t think would have such a major impact on the baseball market in Portland.

The AAA All-Star game in 2009 was the last time I attended a game at, then-PGE Park. Something that big was pretty hard to resist. The most notable part of that game was that Oklahoma City RedHawks infielder Esteban German was named one of the “Top Stars” of the game. This was personally amusing to me as I had a brief encounter with him back in 2000 when he was playing for the Modesto A’s and I was the bat boy for the Bakersfield Blaze. (That story will come in another post.) The really interesting thing about the game being played in Portland; however, was that it was supposed to be THE large stepping stone to keep the team in Portland and prove how big of a baseball town Portland actually was. Well, a year after that, the team played its final season as the stadium was now going to be renovated to a soccer-specific park for the Timbers as their promotion was approved.

Since October 19, 2010 the Beavers/Padres have been in a weird state of limbo. The team was supposed to move to Escondido, CA in 2013, thus making their home in Tucson temporary; however, as of May 2011 the plans for said move were put on indefinite hold. On July 30, 2012, after a large legal battle, the team was purchased by a group in El Paso, Texas which will move the team there by the start of the 2014 season once a new stadium has been constructed.

Now, as far as acquiring and marking the hat: I was a bit stewed after the team was sold and moved out of Portland, but not terribly upset as I still had the Eugene Emeralds to visit anytime I wanted only 2 miles away from my house. One night toward the end of the 2011 season I combed through the assortment of Minor League caps that Lids had to offer and came across the Tucson Padres. Needless to say, I was impressed. I’ve always loved the swinging Padre logo, hence why I hat it tattooed on my body. Also, I the color scheme was quite impressive so I put it on my “to get list.” I had all ready placed a 6 hat order a few days earlier so I was in no rush to scoop it up. My size (7 3/8) was available to so I didn’t worry too much about it. About 2 weeks later when I was ready to final get it, my size was gone. Seeing how the season had just ended, I was a bit screwed in hoping that there would be a restock in the near future. So I waited…. an entire year!

Almost everyday I checked Lids’ inventory for a restock with no success. The only other time I came across one was when I went to San Diego to catch a Padres/Reds game with my fellow MLB Fan Cave Top 50 finalist and friend Andy Bishop, at which the stadium store was asking $45 for the hat. Hell no! Months would pass, and still no restock available. I kind of figured the hat would be popular, but not like this. It wasn’t until late August when I was traveling between Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland, OH and Buffalo, NY that I finally came across it. Having met and made a few friends with New Era, I was invited to their home office in Buffalo for a tour by retail marketing coordinator Seth Ehrenberg and events marketing manager Jim Wannemacher. At the end of the tour I took a peek inside the Flagship store they had set up. I spent a good 20 minutes canvassing the joint when I finally came across the “holy grail.” I was especially shocked when they had my size in stock. I tried it on and quickly threw it up on the counter. There was no way I was letting that bad boy go.

I really didn’t have any plans on marking my Minor League caps as players come and go too quickly to really add something of note; however, in this case, adding 2011 (their first year) seemed like a good fit. I put a – next to that to mark their final year played, but won’t put the exact date until their move to El Paso becomes a reality. The significance of this also marks one of the shortest stints for an AAA team in any location; something that really surprised me as Arizona is a hot bed for MLB talent. I guess it really shows what I know about the business of baseball.