As Atlanta’s Ozzie Albies stepped to the plate in the third inning Thursday afternoon against Padres starting pitcher Michael King, a fun fact was posted on the Petco Park video board: On the day Albies was born, Jan. 7, 1997, the No. 1 song in the country was Toni Braxton’s “Un-Break My Heart.”
Three pitches later, Albies hit a two-run homer into the right field seats to give the Braves a 3-2 lead.
That was bad enough, but the heartache for Padres fans — one in particular — mounted moments later.
The ball Albies hit came to rest in the glove of Aaron Ward, a Padres fan from Lemon Grove who was wearing a Jackson Merrill jersey.
“The wind’s pushing it towards me, like, let’s get it,” Ward said. “I reach over the rail. Got it. And then everyone’s like, ‘Throw it back. Throw it back.’ “
That’s easy for those in the crowd to say. None of them had a major league souvenir to surrender.
Ward obliged, noting, “It’s from the Atlanta Braves. We don’t want it.”
He made a strong throw, to the cheers of his peers, with the ball bounding into short right field.
Ballpark security was not so thrilled with his decision.
“I got in trouble,” Ward said. “Got yelled at. I felt like I was in boot camp again.”
He was removed from his seat by security and led away as a chorus of boos came from the crowd. Ward discussed the matter with security guards behind the stands.
“I’ll never do it again,” he promised, adding, “I’m sorry. Now I understand you can’t throw it back. I wasn’t trying to hit anyone.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “Please keep me here. It’s opening day. I don’t want to mess anything up.”
Moments later, Ward reappeared and returned to his seat, setting off another round of applause.
Good thing the gendarmes were so generous. Otherwise, he would have been looking in from the outside as the Padres rallied for a 7-4 victory.
And the next time Ward finds himself in a similar situation?
“I’ll fake throwing the ball, but then I’ll put it in my pocket,” he said.
Western Metal Supply Co. Building renovations
Worth a (re)visit this season is the Western Metal Supply Co. Building, which was renovated from bottom to top during the offseason.
Fans will enjoy enhancements from the first floor, where the Padres Team Store was expanded and improved, to the upper areas, where social areas were transformed at the Budweiser Loft and the Western Metal Rooftop.
“We are constantly looking for areas of the ballpark that maybe hadn’t been touched,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said. “The Western Metal really had not been renovated in the first 21 years of the ballpark. We felt like it’s such a beautiful, iconic part of the ballpark, such rich history, it was deserving of an improvement and a renovation where you could bring more fans here and have them enjoy their experience in the Western Metal Building more than ever before. That was really the inspiration.”
The loft and rooftop spaces are available to fans whenever they have not been reserved by special groups.
What the Padres are calling the “grand staircase” now links the loft to the rooftop, allowing fans to easily move between the two spaces.
The Rooftop area includes a 4,000-square foot elevated deck and room for more than 300 fans to view the game from a unique perspective.
A new element facing the field is called the “feature wall,” notable for big yellow SD letters on top of a green background. There are more than 1,000 LED diode lights mounted beneath the greenery and orb lighting around the SD. Greupner said it will be used for celebratory moments, like a home run or Padres victory. The wall is programmable and lights up with twinkling star effects, colors and strobes.
“It really adds to the ambiance of the ballpark during celebratory moments,” Greupner said. “This is a very visible focal point within the ballpark, which is why we wanted to add this here.”
There was occasion to use the lights on Padres pinch hitter Gavin Sheets’ seventh-inning homer and again after Robert Suarez closed out the victory, but the effect wasn’t as impressive during daylight hours as it figures to be at night.
Pregame ceremonies
After introducing the players and staffs for both teams, the Padres honored Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson with a moment of silence before the national anthem was played.
Henderson, who died Dec. 20, had two stints for the Padres, from 1996-97 and in 2001. Longtime fans will recall Henderson’s 3,000th hit coinciding with Tony Gwynn’s final game with the Padres.
A helicopter flyover followed the anthem, then Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman came on to throw out the first pitch. Former Padres catcher Carlos Hernandez was on the receiving end of the throw.
Miller honored
The Padres honored San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Bryce Miller with a bouquet of flowers placed at his seat in the press box. Miller died Saturday after a two-year battle with cancer.
Record crowd
The Padres announced a Petco Park opening day record crowd of 45,568, one more than the 2014 gathering, a 3-1 win over the Dodgers.
Opener origin story
Lining the hallway leading to the Padres clubhouse is the opening day lineup for each of the Padres’ previous 56 seasons.
The lineup for the franchise’s 1969 debut (a 2-1 win over Houston): SS Rafael Robles, 2B Roberto Pena, CF Tony Gonzalez, RF Ollie Brown, 1B Bill Davis, LF Larry Stahl, 3B Ed Spezio, C Chris Cannizarro, RHP Dick Selma.
An aside: Selma struck out 12 in a complete-game performance. Two weeks later, he was traded to the Cubs.
Attendance for that very first opener was a surprisingly small gathering of 23,370.
It was even worse three years later, when only 16,555 showed up for the 1972 opener, a 6-5 win over the Braves.
The largest opening day crowd in franchise history was the 61,707 who gathered in 2003, the team’s last year at Qualcomm Stadium. San Francisco spoiled the moment, handing the Padres a 5-2 loss.
This and that
• Fans exiting Highway 94 for the ballgame have ed a sign for years that reads “Downtown Petco Park left lane” — and a much more recent sign beneath it — “Home to Merrill Mania and Jackson Merrill, the real 2024 NL Rookie of the Year.”
• Just off the 94 is a billboard at F Street and 16th Avenue sponsored by Jamul Casino with a nod to Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn: “Bet it all on 19.” Below the billboard is a mural of Gwynn painted one wall of the Bottle Rocket Bar & Grill building.
• Two young Padres fans stepped onto a parking lot elevator to take them to the ballpark.
The girl was decked out in Padres gear. The boy was not. Asked for an explanation, the boy, Andre Simpson, explained that he always buys a new hat on opening day.
It’s a good thing Simpson arrived a couple of hours before first pitch. He faced a difficult decision at the new ballcap “rotunda” and adjacent walls at the Padres Team Store, where dozens and dozens of caps are for sale.
• Ted Leitner, who wrapped up his 45-year broadcasting career when the San Diego State men’s basketball team’s season ended with an NCAA Tournament loss to North Carolina, was spotted in the press box during the game.
One week into retirement, Leitner said: “I’m already bored.”
Parting thought
The second game of the season has come to be regarded as Tony Gwynn Opening Day, a reference to the Hall of Famer noting that’s when the “true fans” come out to the game. With the pomp and circumstance of Day 1 out of the way, everyone could get down to the 161-game grind.
“That is a Gwynn family staple,” Tony Gwynn Jr. said after broadcasting the game with radio partner Jesse Agler. “It used to be different, though. It used to be everybody would show up for Game 1 and nobody would show up for Game 2.
“We’re in a different era now, where I don’t know that it’s going to be as calm as the old Game 2s used to be. … It’s a little different now. He didn’t get to experience what we get to see here on an almost nightly basis. Although a little bit different, we still hold the tradition of the second day being Tony Gwynn’s opening day.”
