Why I am a Padres Fangirl, a cathartic essay

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Why I am a Padres Fangirl, a cathartic essay

Postby luvpeebo » Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:15 pm

When most people see that I am a Padres fanatic, they often tell me, "I didn't know there were actual Padres fans out there." Well, I have loved this team ever since I was 4 years old when my Hero of my little world was Steve Garvey.

See, my dad was a pitcher when he was in high school. Nothing special, but he lived and breathed the game. He would often go to games to watch the Padres play. First at Lane Field in the Pacific League, and then in Mission Valley when they emerged as a minor league team, and then in Jack Murphy Stadium when they became a major league team in 1969. He also followed them, many years later to my beloved, brand new, Petco Park, where he witnessed their opening season before he died the next year. One of my dad's last sentences were said to my husband; "If I could only go to one more game."

I am the only daughter of a baseball fanatic father, so needless to say I tried my best to be the player he always wanted in a son, but alas, I prefer reading and classical music to softball. However, I inherited the love for watching the game at a young age.

In 1984, the Padres went to the World series for the first time in franchise history. My dad, a rebel for the age, was a Mr. Mom while my mother went out to her executive banking job. I loved my dad, I went everywhere with him. My dad, in his infinite sense of humor, bought me and him matching World Series shirts and we wore them everywhere together. They were tan, and had the little friar mascot on them and everything. Women in the supermarket would always go nuts over me and my dad (he was a handsome man, too!); but especially me as I would recite to them proudly Steve Garvey's accomplishments that got the Padres to the World Series against the Cubs.

Needless to say, they choked, as the Padres always do, but after the World Series that year, Steve Garvey came to my local mall, and of course, there is me and my dad, in matching shirts, waiting to see my Hero of Heroes. And I did, too, Steve Garvey gave a kiss to this little toehead fangirl. I will never forget it.

Fast forward 23 years. I have a mortgage, and a husband, but no one to share this love for my team with quite as much as my dad did. He went to heaven and is undoubtedly talking it up with previous Padres members that have died as well. (You tell Caminiti that we are still fans and are sorry for his drug addiction, and Mike Darr was the most promising center fielder out there!) I freak out by the end of the year when the Padres are close to contention. I throw pillows at bad calls and I'm right there with Peavy and Young and Hoffman at every pitch.

Monday's game with the Rockies was the most grueling that I have ever witnessed. And we lost. We lost with our greatest closer that the game might ever know, and against a nobody team. It was the Wildcard tiebreaker, the 163 game the Padres played, and the 21st game in 21 days. I was so pissed at fate, how could she do this to me again?!?!?!, but after a day or two realized...

That there is always next year. I also realized how cliche that is to say, but it's true. There will always be my team, and no matter how bad they are some years (and they can be awfully bad) they will always remind me of me and my dad sharing something that nobody can really understand. All I ask is that maybe, Dad, you could somehow make a deal for them to get in the postseason next year, pretty please?

Oh, and I also hope the Phillies grind those bitch-Rockies into the ground!

Go Padres!!!
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Postby HeavyArmsCustum » Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:06 am

They didn't get off to a good start for that.
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Postby Pilsner » Thu Oct 04, 2007 2:03 pm

In 1984 the Padres defeated the Cubs in 5 games, after losing the first 2, to capture the NL Championship. Thus continued the then 46 year World Series drought for the Cubbies.
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Postby luvpeebo » Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:45 pm

Pilsner wrote:In 1984 the Padres defeated the Cubs in 5 games, after losing the first 2, to capture the NL Championship. Thus continued the then 46 year World Series drought for the Cubbies.


Wah wah, Cubs had their chances. ;)

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