For a Night, They Are Welcomed Home in San Diego

The same week that Baltimore’s bean counters counted out 32.5 million beans to assure that Cal Ripken Jr. will continue playing shortstop for them, something happened on the other side of the country--in San Diego--that deserved equal publicity, if not more.

Maybe you already know about it. If you don’t, you should.

Last Tuesday night at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, the hometown Padres did something special. Something noble.

No, they didn’t pay $32.5 million to Gary Sheffield. Maybe they will someday, but that isn’t what they did.

They did something better.

What the Padres did was invite thousands of people to attend a game free--no admission, plus two free hot dogs and two free 16-ounce drinks.

Which people?

Jobless people.

At a time in our lives when well-meaning people talk about doing something but seldom do anything more than mean well, the Padres put their money where others merely put their mouths. They gave thousands of unemployed workers a night at the ballpark--nine innings away from their troubles.

They gave away their product for nothing.

One gentleman told a reporter that being able to attend a baseball game while being out of work was like “manna from heaven.”

Others said they had to ask friends for transportation to the game because they no longer own cars.

They got to see the Padres play the Chicago Cubs. They got to go out and cheer at a time when cheer is not an easy thing to come by.

The Padres should be proud.

Baseball fans see the word million batted around like a fungo. A million this. Ten million that. Thirty-two-point-five million there. One of the Cub players they watched in that game makes $7 million per year.

Some of them wouldn’t begrudge him a dollar. They enjoy a good infielder when they see one. They know that baseball players and movie stars and financiers make big money. Life isn’t necessarily unfair.

But that hardly eases the sting. It isn’t easy to love baseball when you don’t even have a car with a radio so you can listen. Or if you are living in a car and can’t afford to let the battery run down.

Those who can afford a newspaper must occasionally read of a player who rejects tens of millions of dollars because: “I have to do what’s best for my family.”

It must bring tears to a whole lot of eyes.

There are an estimated 98,000 unemployed people in San Diego County alone.

Several thousand of them were sitting last week in $5 seats with sandwiches in one hand, beverages in the other and long-gone smiles on their faces. Each jobless person was eligible for two free tickets.

A Padre spokesman said the time had come “to show some consideration for these people.”

The Padres and other teams cannot cure what ails civilization. Some of these teams cannot meet their own payrolls.

Yet the Padres went out of their way to make a gesture. They took one night out of 81 home dates and made it a night to remember.

There are many generous players--some who act privately, avoiding publicity--who voluntarily buy pockets of stadium seats for impoverished fans.

Sometimes free tickets are awards for merit--rewards for straight-A students, for example. It’s nice when people can earn something.

But these people in the San Diego area, they want to earn. They want to pay their own way.

They simply can’t.

It makes you think of the 2,600 workers whose General Motors plant shut down last week in Van Nuys, or of the thousands of laid-off Wang Computer employees, or the men and women left jobless by the aerospace industry, or civil service or schools. They’re everywhere.

Baseball puts people out of work, too. There are men in the minor leagues making relative peanuts. There are major leaguers who get put out to pasture before they are 30, or even 25.

On the whole, though, baseball is a thriving business. There soon will be new teams, new jobs. The game may go global. Teams increase in value like jewelry or fine paintings.

Baseball is a moneymaker.

But it wouldn’t be for long if nobody paid to see it played.

The chairman and owner of the San Diego Padres is Tom Werner. Club president is Dick Freeman. General manager is Joe McIlvaine. Vice president of business operations is Bill Adams. The team’s offices are at 9449 Friars Road, San Diego 92108.

Thought you might like to write and tell them what you think.

Maybe a simple postcard that says: “Nice going.” Postcards are cheaper than letters.