Ron Roberts has been attending baseball games in San Diego for more than 70 years, dating to Padres games when the team played downtown the first time, in the Pacific Coast League.
“It’s a special day,” Roberts said. “First of all, we’re all tied with everybody. A lot of enthusiasm, for sure. Everybody thinks they have a chance, no matter how much of a chance they actually have.”
Attending opening day has been a longtime tradition for Roberts, the former San Diego city councilman and country supervisor. He was accompanied Thursday afternoon at Petco Park by 16-year-old grandson Sullivan Fischbein, who flew down from the Bay Area earlier in the day to watch the Padres open the season against the Detroit Tigers.
One thing that sets Roberts apart is that he is one of the few fans who still keep score at games.
“When I was kid, we went to games at Lane Field,” he said. “I went to a championship game there. The Padres won the PCL championship in a one-game playoff with the Hollywood Stars.
“Even back then, we were learning to keep score.”
It is a tradition Roberts has handed down to his grandson.
“I’m a huge baseball guy, so I like to pay attention to all the little details,” said Fischbein, a catcher on his high school team in Menlo Park. “I think he taught me how to keep score when I was 5 years old. That brought my love of the game to a much higher level, and it helped me understand it on a very technical level.”
Roberts used a lot of ink in the first inning when Detroit scored four runs off Padres starting pitcher Nick Pivetta.
It didn’t get much better over the next eight innings of the Padres’ 8-2 loss, though Roberts could turn the page and have a crisp, clean scorecard ready for Day 2.
What happened there?
Roberts said he received his scorebook template years ago from former Padres broadcaster Jerry Coleman.
That, of course, sparked a favorite Coleman anecdote.
Former Dodgers great Duke Snider, who was a Padres broadcaster when the franchise debuted in 1969, loved to tell the story of when former Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale was breaking into broadcasting and found himself sharing the booth with Coleman.
Drysdale eyed Coleman’s scorebook shorthand, like “BB” for baseball on balls, “K” for strikeout and “SAC” for sacrifice. Ok. Sure. But something puzzled him.
“Don said he understood everything Jerry wrote in the book, all the different marks he made and what they meant, except one,” Snider was quoted in a story on MLB.com. “There were a few at-bats where Jerry’d written ‘WW’ and Don kept wracking his brain, trying to figure out what ‘WW’ meant.
“Finally he asked and Jerry said, ‘Wasn’t watching.’ “
Ushering in new season
Before heading to his seats, Roberts made sure to say hello to usher Carolyn Jones, who seemed like something of a celebrity. Fan after fan came by to hug Jones, who has been a Petco Park usher the past 22 years. It has been her home away from home since retiring from her job as a teacher at Lakeside Middle School.
“She’s been here since they opened the ballpark,” Roberts said. “She’s got so much energy. If you watch her, she never sits down. She’s on the go constantly. She’s a huge baseball fan. We got to know her and she does such a good job with fans.”
Roberts and Jones share an extra special bond. Both are Kearny High School graduates. Roberts is Class of 1960, arriving on campus a year after Jones left with the Class of 1955.
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Ty, for the win
Between the top and bottom of the fourth inning, the Petco Park video board featured the “Outfit of the Day,” showing several Padres players in street clothes as they walked to the clubhouse before the game. Ty France, an infielder at San Diego State from 2013-15, had far and away the best look, sporting a No. 24 Tony Gwynn basketball jersey.
Can of corn
Gavin McVey was sitting in the left field stands with his mom, Celeste, brother Mason and friend David Maya when Padres outfielder Ramon Laureano launched a pitch from Tigers reliever Drew Anderson just inside the foul pole in the seventh inning for a solo homer.
The ball first hit in the seats outside the Western Metal Supply Co. building before McVey barehanded it two levels below. That made the trip down from their home in Culver City all the more worthwhile.
“I thought I had a chance,” McVey said of his first home run souvenir. “I saw a guy drop it, then it hit the railing and then I caught it.”
Asked if he caught it on the fly or on a bounce, McVey a 15-year-old outfielder for the Culver City High School baseball team, sounded almost offended by the question.
“If I dropped that, I would have needed to quit,” he said. “Baseball would not have been the sport for me.”
Randy Jones honored
The Padres held a moment of silence before the game for former pitcher Randy Jones, who died in November.
Jones’ wife Marie came out to the mound for the first pitch with daughters Jami and Staci, who threw the ball to Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman crouched behind the plate.
Before the second inning, a video highlighting Jones’ career was played, accompanied by the Counting Crows’ song “Mr. Jones.”
Padres players and coaches will wear a patch with Jones’ No. 35 on their jerseys this season.
Threat to win 30
This is the 50th anniversary of Jones winning the 1976 National League Cy Young Award, the first Padres pitcher so honored.
Jones made the cover of Sports Illustrated that summer with the headline “Threat to Win 30,” when he had a 16-3 record at midseason. He started and won the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, though Jones cooled off the second half of the season and finished 22-14.
Jones’ first victory of the season that year came on opening day, when he went all nine innings in an 8-2 victory over Atlanta before 44,728 at San Diego Stadium.
Memory lane
The hallway leading to the Padres clubhouse is lined with opening-day lineups for each of the franchise’s previous 57 seasons. A sampling …
50 years ago (8-2 win over Atlanta at San Diego Stadium): Johnny Grubb, LF; Tito Fuentes, 2B; Willie Davis, CF; Dave Winfield, RF; Mike Ivie, 1B; Doug Rader, 3B; Hector Torres, SS; Bob Davis, C; Randy Jones, LHP. Manager: John McNamara. 1976 record: 73-89.
40 years ago (2-1 loss to Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium): Bip Roberts, 2B; Tony Gwynn, RF; Kevin McReynolds, CF; Steve Garvey, 1B; Carmelo Martinez, LF; Garry Templeton, SS; Terry Kennedy, C; Jerry Royster, 3B; Eric Show, RHP. Manager: Steve Boros. 1986 record: 74-88.
30 years ago (5-4 loss to Chicago at Wrigley Field): Rickey Henderson, LF; Steve Finley, CF; Tony Gwynn, RF; Ken Caminiti, 3B; Wally Joyner, 1B; Brad Ausmus, C; Andujar Cedeno, SS; Jody Reed, 2B; Andy Ashby, RHP. Manager: Bruce Bochy. 1996 record: 91-71.
20 years ago (6-1 win over San Francisco at Petco Park): Dave Roberts, CF; Eric Young, LF; Brian Giles, RF, Mike Piazza, C; Adrian Gonzalez, 1B; Khalil Greene, SS; Vinny Castillo, 3B; Josh Barfield, 2B; Jake Peavy, RHP. Manager: Bruce Bochy. 2006 record: 88-74.
10 years ago (15-0 loss to Los Angeles at Petco Park): Jon Jay, CF; Derek Norris, C; Matt Kemp, RF; Wil Myers, 1B; Alexei Ramirez, SS; Yangervis Solarte, 3B; Melvin Upton Jr., LF; Cory Spangeberg, 2B; Tyson Ross, RHP. Manager: Andy Green. 2016 record: 68-94.
Parting thought
The Padres may want to recalibrate their decibel meter. It topped out at more than 200 decibels on the Petco Park video board when the Padres were trying to rally in the eighth inning against the Tigers. Umm, think not. For comparison: garbage disposal (80 decibels), chainsaw (120), jet engine (150).
The loudest sound ever produced is said to be the 1883 eruption of the volcanic island of Krakatoa, which was estimated to be 310 decibels, which ruptured eardrums 40 miles away and could be heard as far as 3,000 miles away.
Checked with a relative in La Mesa, 12 miles from Petco Park, and they didn’t hear any crowd noise from the ballpark.