SAN DIEGO (AP) As the San Diego Padres prepare to vacate
Qualcomm Stadium for a snazzy new downtown ballpark, the memories
come flooding back.
Who could forget Roseanne Barr screeching through the national
anthem, grabbing her crotch and spitting on the ground?
Or team president Chub Feeney punctuating Fan Appreciation Day
with a middle finger, aimed at two fans?
There was the magic moment when owner Ray Kroc grabbed the PA
microphone on opening night and began ripping into his players,
only to be interrupted by a streaker.
The team won't be commemorating those events when it says
goodbye to Qualcomm Stadium this weekend. But really, they've
become part of the lore of a franchise that did precious little
winning in its 35 years at the big concrete bowl in the middle of
Mission Valley.
``It must be that little friar,'' team president Dick Freeman
joked about the Padres' ``Swinging Friar'' mascot. ``As long as
he's around, we're going to have these things happen. Some of them
were not intended to be as far out as they were, or memorable, but
they are probably part of what makes the personality of this
stadium.''
In Philadelphia, the Phillies are closing out their park,
Veterans Stadium, this weekend. They will move into Citizens Bank
Park next year.
OK, so the Padres did have some baseball highlights at the
``Q,'' which also was called San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy
Stadium or simply, The Murph.
They played in two World Series losing both and hosted two
All-Star games. Tony Gwynn had 1,555 of his 3,141 hits here, but to
him, the most electric moment came when Steve Garvey hit the
winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4 of the
1984 playoffs against the Chicago Cubs. The next day, the Padres
won their first pennant.
Ken Caminiti won the NL MVP honor in 1996, and three Padres won
Cy Young Awards Randy Jones in 1976, Gaylord Perry in 1978 and
Mark Davis in 1989. In 2001, Rickey Henderson broke records by Babe
Ruth and Ty Cobb here, then got his 3,000th hit on the last day of
the season.
But even stuff between the lines could be a little odd.
Pittsburgh's Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter here on June 12, 1970,
and later admitted that he was on LSD that day.
Eight weeks later, Padres manager Preston Gomez lifted Clay
Kirby after eight no-hit innings against New York. To this day, the
Padres haven't had a pitcher throw a no-hitter. Or a player hit for
the cycle.
Skunks and foxes wandered across the field during games, and a
swarm of bees once chased Gwynn away from his spot in right field.
``There was a lot of good and a lot of bad,'' said Gwynn, who
two years after he retired will be on hand as the last baseball
games are played at Qualcomm.
Roseanne, clearly, hit the sourest note in Qualcomm history.
The infamous moment came on July 25, 1990, when Barr sang the
national anthem in front of 30,000 fans between games of a
double-header.
Appearing to struggle with an echo from the sound system, Barr
plugged her ears with her fingers at the start of the song, then
sang in a shrill voice. The crowd began to boo, and Barr reached
toward her crotch and spit on the ground.
Barr had been invited to sing by then-Padres chairman Tom
Werner, who also was co-creator and executive producer of
``Roseanne.''
Gwynn said he had seen Barr on a TV show the night before, ``so
I knew it wasn't going to be good.''
He stood near the tunnel to the clubhouse, ``and if she hit a
bad note, I was going to run up the tunnel. She started and I flew
up the tunnel,'' he said.
``I didn't really realize what the reaction was going to be,
either. I think people let it be known that that's not the way to
do the national anthem. The thing at the end, I think, really made
a lot of people mad.''
Even now, Freeman practically blanches when Roseanne is
mentioned.
``This one I may beg off on answering too many questions,'' he
said. ``That was a tough, tough night.
``Nobody likes to be seen in the light that we were seen in that
day, making an unbelievable blunder,'' he added. ``It was a
mistake. It was national news. I can remember watching Dan Rather
talking about it on the news, President Bush commenting about it.''
Bush called Barr's rendition ``disgraceful.''
Two years earlier, on Fan Appreciation Day, an obscene gesture
cost Feeney, a former NL president, his job as Padres president.
Two fans got Feeney's attention with a sign urging Padres ownership
to ``Scrub Chub.'' Feeney responded with a middle finger, which was
seen by thousands of fans and caught by a film crew.
Feeney resigned the next day.
``That's how I became president of a major league baseball
team,'' said Feeney, who had been executive VP and chief operating
officer.
The 1974 home opener was notable for two reasons.
Three months after buying the team and saving it from being
moved to Washington, D.C., Kroc, who owned McDonald's, grabbed the
stadium PA mike in the eighth inning and told the fans, ``I've
never seen this much stupid ball-playing in my life.''
That same night, a college student named Ted Giannoulas began
his career as the KGB Chicken later to be known as the San Diego
Chicken.
Giannoulas was working the Plaza Level when Kroc began his rant.
``I'm thinking, `He's going to cap on me next,'' Giannoulas
said. ``He's going to say, `And get rid of that chicken. We're
hamburger fans around here!' I'm paranoid; I just hoofed it, right
out of that stadium, all the way out to the parking lot, threw off
my head into my little Nova, jumped behind the wheel in costume and
I drove out of there.
``That was before McDonald's had chicken on the menu.''
One thing Qualcomm has on its menu is fish tacos.
``It's like the original home of the fish taco,'' Gwynn said.
``San Diegans take a whole lot of abuse for that, but anybody who's
had one, they'll just brush it off. It's part of San Diego.''
After Sunday, it'll all be a memory. While Qualcomm will
continue to be used for football and other events, the Padres will
move close to the waterfront, into Petco Park.
With a name like that, it'll be begging for nicknames and maybe
a new batch of wackiness.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)