Fresh eyes from Wisconsin took in the San Diego ballpark last month, feasting on the East Village gem and bay scene where the Milwaukee Brewers opened their season.
The hometown star to the three games was not anyone who plays for the Padres, said the Cheese Heads, but the place where the Pads play.
Why, it feels so new.
Told that it opened in 2004, the Wisconsin folks were agog.
Can't be so, they said.
Tis, as sure as cheese goes on pizza.
The Pads are slogging through another bad start to the season.
The ballpark, once again, is something to brag about.
Give the Pads high marks for house-keeping, if not ball-playing. They've kept the place spiffy through 14 seasons and running.
It still feels fresh.
A Wisconsin hat tip went as well to the ushers and vendors who work Pads games.
Though the ballclub wrapped up a losing April for the eighth year in a row and sixth under current ownership, the ballpark and the bayside views it affords seems to be helping to effect decent success at the turnstiles.
San Diego's baseball club is chugging 12th of 30 in attendance and outpacing its 2017 averages for both April and the season.
Imagine the turnout if the Pads were coming off a playoff series, not a seventh consecutive losing season.
Along with maintaining the park with the zeal of Disneyland staffers, the Pads have served up promotions that resonate with fans.
I'd suggest another one: Taxpayer Appreciation Night.
The ballpark was largely funded by voter approval to spend about $300 million in public money, a sum that exceeds $400 million in today's dollars.
Make no mistake: San Diegans are good to the Pads. When state money dried up, an additional IOU of about $14 million yearly fell on the City of San Diego, reported Voice of San Diego.
Ballpark maintenance is a relentless task, perhaps more expensive than the team first thought, said then-Padres CEO Dick Freeman a year after the place opened in 2004.
Adding to the housekeeping incentive, the club rents the place out for non-baseball events.
The people who wash, sweep and manicure the ballpark can do only so much, however.
It's up to the ballplayers to imbue a ballpark with October flair.
Although the East Village was home to a playoff game in 2005 and two more in 2006, the Pads have yet to win a playoff game on downtown soil.
For now, competency would be an improvement.
The Pads are off to a 5-12 start at home. They've allowed way too many runs alongside 19 Tony Gwynn Drive.
As the ballpark has played smaller since a giant video board was installed and the outfield was shrunk to increase scoring, Pads pitchers have struggle to keep up.
The home ERA is 4.87. Fueled by the most doubles allowed to visitors, the run allowance is a yellow light flashing considering that pitching coach Darren Balsley is admired by scouts and executives of other teams.
One more set of statistics to chew on:
The last time the Pads went into May with a winning record, at 15-8 in 2010, they leaned on the excellent Adrian Gonzalez to anchor a modest offense but won largely through run prevention. The pitching staff would finish with a 2.92 ERA at home.
Five Pads pitchers started 25 games or more for the first time in club history.
Do you remember the five?
Start with Clayton Richard 1.0. The lefty was acquired in the trade with the White Sox that jettisoned Jake Peavy before one dollar of his much ballyhooed $52-million extension came due.
Rounding out the rotation were Jon Garland, also a Chisox alum; reclamation project Kevin Correia, formerly of Grossmont High; Mat Latos, who hasn't since matched that rookie season; and Wade LeBlanc, a change-up artist and Pads draftee.
Behind the consistent if limited rotation was a dominant bullpen headed by Heath Bell, Mike Adams and Luke Gregerson.
A sum-is-greater-than-the-parts team like few others, the 2010 Pads would win 90 games. Even if the season was something of a fluke, in comparison to the modestly talented Pads then, the seven successors have looked rather inept while never so much as threatening to join a playoff race.
As for this team, it's on pace to 100 defeats.
I doubt these Pads will crack triple digits, but the .294 win rate at home, at the least, deserves a power-wash.
