| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
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.