My First Baseball Game

Inspired by a somewhat recent post at the great Padres blog Ducksnorts, I'd like to write about the first baseball game I remember attending. I remember it mainly because I remember Tony Gwynn nearing 2,000 hits for his career, and there was an outside chance he'd reach that milestone at the game I was at. He needed four to make it. The game was August 6, 1993, and I was five years old. A doubleheader was scheduled, but it was unlikely we'd be able to stay for both games, so we wanted a vintage Gwynn, 4-4 performance in the early game so we could witness history.

Baseball-Reference's box score tells me the game started at 5:06 PM. That seems to match my memory of an evening-ish start; it certainly wasn't a day-night doubleheader. The first game ran a little over three hours, meaning the night game wasn't starting until almost 9. Almost 9 was a little late-ish for 5 year old Ben (er, carl), so the first game of the double-header was all he would see.

My main memories of the game are only of a lot of cheering. I can recall some sense of the Padres' best pitcher throwing for them that night. That was the case, as Andy Benes toed the rubber for the Friars that night. For a long time I would have guessed that Andy Ashby was the starter, so some part of the starting pitcher's identity (namely, his first name) stayed with me. Benes posted a 109 ERA+ in 230 IP that year, good numbers undoubtedly, yet probably not up to the ace level hoped for when the Padres took him with the first overall pick of the 1988 draft.

I think I can remember Tony Gwynn having a good game. The box score certainly confirms this: he was 3-3 on the day with two intentional walks, leaving him one shy of his historic hit at the end of the first game. In the bottom of the first he singled home the first run of the game. Baseball-reference's description of the play has it as a line drive single to short left-center field. It came on the second pitch of the at bat; it was probably one of Gwynn's masterpieces, taking an unhittable pitch on the outside corner and flicking it the other way. He singled again in the third, this time on a line drive to right. He worked the pitcher for five pitches, before getting a good pitch and turning on it to smack it to right (or so I imagine from the box score description). His hit helped fuel a 3 run outburst, putting the Padres up 4-0. He came up again in the fourth with runners on second and third, but the Rockies made the wise decision to intentionally walk him, possibly denying me the opportunity to witness his 2,000 hit later in the game. In the sixth he singled again, knocking the second pitch up middle on the ground. This put runners on first and second with no outs, yet the Padres failed to capitalize, ending the inning up 4-1.

In the top of the seventh, Benes ran into some trouble, giving up a leadoff homer, loading the bases, and giving up one run while recording only one out. In from the bullpen trotted a young, unproven reliever with two career saves to his name, unaccompanied by any peeling bells. Yes, Trevor Hoffman would look to preserve the narrow 4-3 lead in the seventh inning. He struck out his first batter faced, presumably relying upon his fastball in the 90s, his change-up undeveloped until the next year. He induced a groundout from the next batter to end the threat and maintain the lead, and Hoffman was well on the way to the first of 522 saves as a Padre.

The bottom of the seventh brought Gwynn to the plate at 1,999 hits. I can vaguely remember the cheering for Gwynn as he approached the plate for this at bat, followed quickly by disappointment as Gwynn accepted another intentional free pass. If only Don Baylor, the Rockies' manager at the time, has opted to pitch to Tony. If only the previous batter hadn't bunted into a double play, turning runners on first and second into a single runner at second with two outs. If he had just popped out, maybe I could have seen the milestone hit. But it was not to be. Hoffman notched his first save by retiring the Rockies in the 8th and 9th, the lone blemish against him a two out single. The Padres went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th, and Tony would have to wait for later that night to reach his milestone.

In the later game, Gwynn went hitless in his first three plate appearances before singling through the middle in the sixth. It was his mom's 58th birthday, and it was exactly six years before his 3,000 hit in Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

So that's what happened in the first trip to the ballpark I made that I can remember. With such an auspicious beginning, how could I possibly resist becoming a huge baseball fan?