GaryMrMets
09-27-2003, 09:35 PM
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/sports/article.adp?id=20030919104309990020
Updated: 04:55 PM EDT
Closing of Qualcomm Stadium Is a Laughing Matter
Some of Baseball's Most Embarrassing Moments Took Place at San Diego Park
By SCOTT MILLER, AOL Exclusive/SportsLine.com
SAN DIEGO -- Some stadium closings are emotional.
Some are timely.
San Diego's is... (pause)... excuse me for a moment... (tee-hee)... sorry, can't help myself... (ho, ho, ho!)... well, how to put this... (har, har, har!)... aw, I'm sorry, I'm crying here... (hee, hee, hee!)... San Diego's is... hilarious!
Yes, the Padres are playing their final games in Qualcomm Stadium this weekend, and no disrespect to the Philadelphia Phillies because they're also closing Veterans Stadium. But for sheer chuckles, it's going to be a long time before they build another stadium that will create memories similar to those in San Diego.
Qualcomm Stadium has been to baseball what a whoopee cushion is to the prom.
It is wholly appropriate that the Padres are in last place and close to 100 losses as the curtain closes for good on baseball at what once was known as Jack Murphy Stadium. Because while the biggest baseball events to take place there were the 1984 and 1998 World Series and the 1978 and 1992 All-Star Games, what makes Qualcomm Stadium memorable is... well... all that other stuff.
Like the time a live horse pooped in left field between innings during a game in 1984, pungently interrupting the no-hit bid of St. Louis' Ricky Horton.
Or the time owner Ray Kroc grabbed the public address microphone and berated his players.
Or the time president Chub Feeney flipped his middle finger at some fans... on Fan Appreciation Night.
The stuff that's happened at Qualcomm, you couldn't make it up.
The little-known horse incident has not come close to gaining the kind of attention it deserves. It occurred on June 29, 1984, in front of 45,468 fans during an appearance by the Famous Chicken.
"I just remember they were doing a 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' theme," said Padres manager Bruce Bochy, a backup catcher in 1984, grinning at the memory. "I remember the chicken jumping off the (outfield) wall onto the horse, the horse dumping and (then-manager) Dick Williams going nuts.
"Not that you wanted to get no-hit, but...."
But you didn't exactly want to blow the club budget on industrial strength laundry detergent to remove any unseemly stains from your left fielder's uniform, either.
The great thing was that after the horse did his business, with the Chicken aboard, the horse refused to leave the field. It just stood there belligerently, as if the groundskeepers were threatening a trip to the glue factory.
Meanwhile, Horton, who had no-hit the Padres for seven innings, finished warming up for the eighth but was forced to stand waiting on one mound while the groundkeepers dealt with another mound, this one steaming.
"Williams ended up apologizing to (then-St. Louis manager) Whitey Herzog," Bochy recalled. "I just remember him cussing in the dugout."
Doc Mattei, the Padres' long-time traveling secretary, says then-general manager Jack McKeon lost his temper, too. The Chicken was banned from appearing on the field for several years after that -- the Padres made him purchase a ticket and do his act in the stands.
"All I remember was the cleanup," Mattei said. "The crew went out there, and they had to stop the game and clean up. I remember a lot of criticism from the fans."
When the game resumed, Horton struck out Carmelo Martinez to start the eighth and then induced another out from Terry Kennedy. Then, with the horseplay still alarmingly fresh in everyone's mind, Kevin McReynolds stepped up and whacked a double to end Horton's bid at history.
"I don't think that one went over real big," Bochy said. "I don't think they rehearsed that one."
Nor did they rehearse many of the other Greatest Hits at an otherwise nondescript, round, multi-purpose, cement-centric stadium.
The Padres nearly moved to Washington, D.C., before the 1974 season, but Kroc, the McDonald's magnate, stepped in and saved the ballclub for the community. That benevolent gesture quickly was dwarfed on Opening Day, when another sloppy loss left Kroc humiliated.
His reaction was to commandeer the public address microphone and lashed into the team, apologize to the fans and mutter, among other gems, "I have never seen such stupid ballplaying in my life."
Priceless.
Doug Rader, Houston's third baseman, ripped Kroc afterward, complaining that the owner treated the players like a bunch of short-order cooks. So yes, later that season -- with Houston in town -- the Padres held Short-Order Cook Night. Anybody wearing a chef's hat got in free.
Kroc wasn't the only club executive to insult the fans. In the all-time classic Fan Appreciation moment at the end of the 1988 season, a couple of frustrated fans held up a sign reading "Scrub Chub."
An angry Feeney showed them his, uh, appreciation by flipping them off, then denied he had ever done so. Problem was, some of the local television affiliates had camera crews at the game because it was Fan Appreciation Night, and the tape showed up on the 11PM news.
It was Feeney's last official act as Padres' president.
The buffoonery, though, would continue. Roseanne Barr obnoxiously screeched the national anthem between games of a doubleheader in 1990, a move that backfired so badly on the Padres that their switchboard lit up like never before with complaints. The first President Bush even ripped that one.
There were rodent problems so severe that a skunk once brazenly crossed Tony Gwynn's path in right field during a game. In 1999, the Padres returned from spring training to discover they had no batting cage. A club employee mistakenly had given it to a local high school. It took several days before that mystery was solved, and the Padres were forced to obtain a makeshift cage during the interim.
The list could go on and on, and so could the stadium.
But it was the spirited horse that wouldn't step out of the way.
Fortunately, come Sunday, this stadium will.
Scott Miller is a Senior Writer for SportsLine.com. He has covered baseball for a variety of publications during the past 15 years and has served on the Baseball Writers Association of America's board of directors.
Do You Agree With Miller? Post your thoughts.
Copyright (c) 2003 SportsLine All Rights Reserved. Reprints, duplication or redistribution is prohibited without written permission from SportsLine.
09-26-03 16:14 EDT
http://cdn.news.aol.com/aolnews_articles/04/05/20030919104309990020.3f73d384-0032b-0436e-6e89bccd
The San Diego Chicken won't come home to roost anymore at Qualcomm Stadium... and that's not such a bad thing.
Updated: 04:55 PM EDT
Closing of Qualcomm Stadium Is a Laughing Matter
Some of Baseball's Most Embarrassing Moments Took Place at San Diego Park
By SCOTT MILLER, AOL Exclusive/SportsLine.com
SAN DIEGO -- Some stadium closings are emotional.
Some are timely.
San Diego's is... (pause)... excuse me for a moment... (tee-hee)... sorry, can't help myself... (ho, ho, ho!)... well, how to put this... (har, har, har!)... aw, I'm sorry, I'm crying here... (hee, hee, hee!)... San Diego's is... hilarious!
Yes, the Padres are playing their final games in Qualcomm Stadium this weekend, and no disrespect to the Philadelphia Phillies because they're also closing Veterans Stadium. But for sheer chuckles, it's going to be a long time before they build another stadium that will create memories similar to those in San Diego.
Qualcomm Stadium has been to baseball what a whoopee cushion is to the prom.
It is wholly appropriate that the Padres are in last place and close to 100 losses as the curtain closes for good on baseball at what once was known as Jack Murphy Stadium. Because while the biggest baseball events to take place there were the 1984 and 1998 World Series and the 1978 and 1992 All-Star Games, what makes Qualcomm Stadium memorable is... well... all that other stuff.
Like the time a live horse pooped in left field between innings during a game in 1984, pungently interrupting the no-hit bid of St. Louis' Ricky Horton.
Or the time owner Ray Kroc grabbed the public address microphone and berated his players.
Or the time president Chub Feeney flipped his middle finger at some fans... on Fan Appreciation Night.
The stuff that's happened at Qualcomm, you couldn't make it up.
The little-known horse incident has not come close to gaining the kind of attention it deserves. It occurred on June 29, 1984, in front of 45,468 fans during an appearance by the Famous Chicken.
"I just remember they were doing a 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' theme," said Padres manager Bruce Bochy, a backup catcher in 1984, grinning at the memory. "I remember the chicken jumping off the (outfield) wall onto the horse, the horse dumping and (then-manager) Dick Williams going nuts.
"Not that you wanted to get no-hit, but...."
But you didn't exactly want to blow the club budget on industrial strength laundry detergent to remove any unseemly stains from your left fielder's uniform, either.
The great thing was that after the horse did his business, with the Chicken aboard, the horse refused to leave the field. It just stood there belligerently, as if the groundskeepers were threatening a trip to the glue factory.
Meanwhile, Horton, who had no-hit the Padres for seven innings, finished warming up for the eighth but was forced to stand waiting on one mound while the groundkeepers dealt with another mound, this one steaming.
"Williams ended up apologizing to (then-St. Louis manager) Whitey Herzog," Bochy recalled. "I just remember him cussing in the dugout."
Doc Mattei, the Padres' long-time traveling secretary, says then-general manager Jack McKeon lost his temper, too. The Chicken was banned from appearing on the field for several years after that -- the Padres made him purchase a ticket and do his act in the stands.
"All I remember was the cleanup," Mattei said. "The crew went out there, and they had to stop the game and clean up. I remember a lot of criticism from the fans."
When the game resumed, Horton struck out Carmelo Martinez to start the eighth and then induced another out from Terry Kennedy. Then, with the horseplay still alarmingly fresh in everyone's mind, Kevin McReynolds stepped up and whacked a double to end Horton's bid at history.
"I don't think that one went over real big," Bochy said. "I don't think they rehearsed that one."
Nor did they rehearse many of the other Greatest Hits at an otherwise nondescript, round, multi-purpose, cement-centric stadium.
The Padres nearly moved to Washington, D.C., before the 1974 season, but Kroc, the McDonald's magnate, stepped in and saved the ballclub for the community. That benevolent gesture quickly was dwarfed on Opening Day, when another sloppy loss left Kroc humiliated.
His reaction was to commandeer the public address microphone and lashed into the team, apologize to the fans and mutter, among other gems, "I have never seen such stupid ballplaying in my life."
Priceless.
Doug Rader, Houston's third baseman, ripped Kroc afterward, complaining that the owner treated the players like a bunch of short-order cooks. So yes, later that season -- with Houston in town -- the Padres held Short-Order Cook Night. Anybody wearing a chef's hat got in free.
Kroc wasn't the only club executive to insult the fans. In the all-time classic Fan Appreciation moment at the end of the 1988 season, a couple of frustrated fans held up a sign reading "Scrub Chub."
An angry Feeney showed them his, uh, appreciation by flipping them off, then denied he had ever done so. Problem was, some of the local television affiliates had camera crews at the game because it was Fan Appreciation Night, and the tape showed up on the 11PM news.
It was Feeney's last official act as Padres' president.
The buffoonery, though, would continue. Roseanne Barr obnoxiously screeched the national anthem between games of a doubleheader in 1990, a move that backfired so badly on the Padres that their switchboard lit up like never before with complaints. The first President Bush even ripped that one.
There were rodent problems so severe that a skunk once brazenly crossed Tony Gwynn's path in right field during a game. In 1999, the Padres returned from spring training to discover they had no batting cage. A club employee mistakenly had given it to a local high school. It took several days before that mystery was solved, and the Padres were forced to obtain a makeshift cage during the interim.
The list could go on and on, and so could the stadium.
But it was the spirited horse that wouldn't step out of the way.
Fortunately, come Sunday, this stadium will.
Scott Miller is a Senior Writer for SportsLine.com. He has covered baseball for a variety of publications during the past 15 years and has served on the Baseball Writers Association of America's board of directors.
Do You Agree With Miller? Post your thoughts.
Copyright (c) 2003 SportsLine All Rights Reserved. Reprints, duplication or redistribution is prohibited without written permission from SportsLine.
09-26-03 16:14 EDT
http://cdn.news.aol.com/aolnews_articles/04/05/20030919104309990020.3f73d384-0032b-0436e-6e89bccd
The San Diego Chicken won't come home to roost anymore at Qualcomm Stadium... and that's not such a bad thing.