The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego, California. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won two NL pennants — in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both years. As of 2018, they have had 14 winning seasons in franchise history. The Padres are one of two Major League Baseball teams in California to originate from that state; the Athletics were originally from Philadelphia, and the Dodgers and Giants are originally from two New York City boroughs – Brooklyn and Manhattan, respectively. The Padres are the only MLB team that does not share its city with another franchise in the four major American professional sports leagues. The Padres are the only major professional sports franchise to be located in San Diego, following the relocation of the Chargers to Los Angeles in 2017. They are also the only franchise in the MLB to not have a no-hitter, having gone 8020 games without throwing one, a major league record to begin a franchise.
Petco Park is a baseball park located in the downtown area of San Diego, California, United States, that is home to the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). The park opened in 2004, replacing Qualcomm Stadium, which the Padres shared with the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). Petco Park is named after the San Diego-based pet supplies retailer Petco, which paid for the naming rights until 2026. In addition to baseball, the park also is used as venue for concerts, soccer, golf, and rugby sevens.
Gerald Francis Coleman was a Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman for the New York Yankees and manager of the San Diego Padres for one year. Coleman was named the rookie of the year in 1949 by Associated Press, and was an All-Star in 1950 and later that year was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. Yankees teams on which he was a player appeared in six World Series during his career, winning four times. Coleman served as a Marine Corps pilot in World War II and the Korean War, flying combat missions with the VMSB-341 Torrid Turtles (WWII) and VMA-323 Death Rattlers (Korea) in both wars. He later became a broadcaster, and he was honored in 2005 by the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award for his broadcasting contributions.
Petco Animal Supplies, Inc., or simply Petco, is an American pet retailer in the United States, with corporate offices in San Diego and San Antonio. Petco sells pet products and services, as well as certain types of live animals. Petco sells and holds fish, reptiles, small birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, and mice for adoption. Pet services include grooming and dog training. The company also owns the naming rights to the Petco Park baseball stadium, which is home of the San Diego Padres.
Anthony Keith Gwynn Jr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder. Gwynn played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Philadelphia Phillies. He is the son of the late baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, and now works as a broadcaster for the Padres’ radio and television network.
Unconditional Surrender is a series of sculptures by Seward Johnson resembling a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, V–J day in Times Square, but said by Johnson to be based on a similar, less well known, photograph by Victor Jorgensen. The original statue was first installed in Sarasota, Florida, then was moved to San Diego, California and New York City. Other versions have been installed in Hamilton, New Jersey; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Normandy, France.
Magic Carpet Ride is the official name of a 6-foot (1.8 m) high bronze sculpture of a surfer by Matthew Antichevich, an artist and sculpture instructor at Mt. San Jacinto College. The sculpture is mounted on a 6-foot high granite base with poetry inscription by Robert Nanninga, and is in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Encinitas, California, United States. Locals have nicknamed Magic Carpet Ride as The Cardiff Kook, a pejorative name popularized by the local surfing community.
The San Diego State Aztecs baseball team is the college baseball program that represents the San Diego State University. Along with the university's other athletic teams, the baseball team became a member of the Mountain West Conference during the 1999–00 academic year. Previously, the baseball program competed in the Western Athletic Conference. The Aztecs play in Tony Gwynn Stadium, on the SDSU campus in San Diego, California. From 2003 until his death in 2014, Tony Gwynn was the program's head coach.
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team in Major League Baseball (MLB) based in San Diego, California. The club was founded in 1969 as part of the league's expansion. The team's hall of fame, created in 1999 to honor the club's 30th anniversary, recognizes players, coaches, and executives who have made key contributions to the franchise. Voting is conducted by a 35-member committee. Candidates typically must wait at least two years after retiring to be eligible for induction, though Tony Gwynn was selected during his final season in 2001 before the last game of the year. He was also the Hall of Fame's first ever unanimous selection. There are 15 members in the team's Hall of Fame, the most recent inductee being Kevin Towers in 2018. The inductees are featured in an exhibit at the team's home stadium, Petco Park.
The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team in Major League Baseball (MLB) based in San Diego, California. The club was founded in 1969 as part of the league's expansion. MLB clubs have retired various uniform numbers, ensuring that those numbers are never worn within the respective clubs in honor of a particular player or manager of note. The Padres no longer issue six numbers that have been retired. The numbers are commemorated at the team's home stadium at Petco Park in a display at the park entrance as well as in the Ring of Honor.
Benito Juarez is one of two sculptures of the Mexican president of the same name, created by Julian Martinez. One full-length statue is installed in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois, and another bust is installed in Hermann Park's McGovern Centennial Gardens, in Houston, Texas. The Chicago statue replaces a previously installed bust.
Odyssey III is an abstract 1973 aluminum sculpture by Tony Rosenthal, installed outside the San Diego Museum of Art in San Diego's Balboa Park, in the U.S. state of California. The San Diego Union-Tribune described the work as a "riotous orangey-red-painted assembly of aluminum discs".
El Cid Campeador is an outdoor equestrian statue depicting the Spanish knight El Cid by artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, architect William Templeton Johnson, and the foundry General Bronze Company, installed at Balboa Park's Plaza de Panama, in San Diego, California. The bronze sculpture was created in 1927 and dedicated on July 5, 1930. The statue measures approximately 11 x 9 x 7 ft, with a 16-foot diameter, and its concrete or Indiana limestone base measures approximately 11 x 14 x 8 ft. It was surveyed and deemed "treatment needed" by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in March 1994.
Morning, also known as Morning Statue, is an outdoor sculpture by Donal Hord, installed at San Diego's Embarcadero Marina Park North, in the U.S. state of California. The 6-foot, 3-inch black granite statue depicts a muscular young man stretching. It was created between 1951 and 1956, and was kept at Hord's residence until being acquired by the Port of San Diego in 1983.
Guardian of Water is a 1939 fountain and sculpture by Donal Hord, installed outside the San Diego County Administration Center, in the U.S. state of California. The statue was dedicated on June 10, 1939.
Benito Juárez is an outdoor bronze sculpture depicting Mexican lawyer and politician Benito Juárez created by Mexican sculptor Ernesto Tamariz, installed at San Diego's Pantoja Park, in the U.S. state of California. The statue was gifted by the Mexican government in the 1980s.
Pete Wilson is a bronze sculpture depicting the Governor of California of the same name, installed outside San Diego's Horton Plaza, in the U.S. state of California. The statue, which cost $200,000, was dedicated in 2007. Approximately 500 people attended the ceremony.
The Watchers is a 1960 bronze sculpture by the British sculptor Lynn Chadwick depicting three abstracted figures. Multiple castings were made from this mould. One of these castings is installed in the San Diego Museum of Art's May S. Marcy Sculpture Garden, in the U.S. state of California. The work was gifted to SDMA by Jacquelyn Littlefield in 2002.
