The Padres were the dream come true of San Diego sportswriter Jack Murphy, who sought to bring major league baseball to the city. Murphy, the brother of Mets announcer Bob Murphy, campaigned for years and even pushed the city to build a new stadium before a team had been offered. Thus, in 1969, the Padres were the only one of the four expansion teams to open in a new park. After Murphy's death, San Diego Stadium was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium in his memory.

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Like most expansion teams, the Padres were weak in their early years, but their period of weakness lasted longer than most. The team finished in last place their first six seasons; in four of them, they lost 100 or more games. This made it difficult to attract fans, and owner C. Arnholt Smith had arranged to sell the team to a buyer who would move it to Washington, D.C. The move was so expected that not only had the club packed everything to ship, the Topps baseball card company had printed the Padres' cards for the 1974 season without giving the team name; in its place was Washington. But McDonald's founder Ray Kroc stepped in at the final hour to purchase the team and keep it in San Diego.

Dave Winfield had come up in 1973, and Kroc built around him, spending money freely. Home attendance improved as Kroc brought his controversial style to the team. He once commandeered the ballpark's public-address system to apologize to the fans for a particularly poor on-field performance. With the turnaround of Randy Jones, who won 20 games, the club climbed to fourth place in 1975. Jones won the Cy Young Award in 1976. Each year new talent was added (relief ace Rollie Fingers in 1977, Gaylord Perry in 1978), and the franchise had its first winning record in 1978. Although they lapsed back into last in 1979, they were a relatively close 19-1/2 games out.

Trader Jack McKeon became head of baseball operations in 1980 and rebuilt the team. San Diego won the Western Division title in 1984 on the strength of acquisitions Steve Garvey, Graig Nettles, and Goose Gossage and homegrown talents Carmelo Martinez and Kevin McReynolds. They upset the Cubs in the LCS in a championship dedicated to Ray Kroc, who had died that January. His wife, Joan, took over the team and became known for her antipathy toward ballplayers with drug problems in their past. She almost sold the Padres to Mariners owner George Argyros in 1987 before deciding that his parsimonious fiscal policies would hurt the franchise. (JFC)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » August 5, 1921: The first radio broadcast of a ML game is heard over KDKA in Pittsburgh when Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phils game. The Pirates score three runs in the 8th inning, beating the Phils 8–5. Arlin broadcast the first football game between Pittsburgh and West Virginia. His grandson Steve Arlin will pitch for the future San Diego Padres. » April 5, 1953: In the 6th inning of a PCL game against Hollywood, San Diego Padres OF Herb Gorman suffers a heart attack and dies on the way to the hospital. » April 8, 1969: Expansion teams Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Pilots make things look easy by winning their first regular-season games. The Expos win by scoring 11 runs against the Mets to win 11–10. Pitcher Dan McGinn cracks the Expos first homer to help keep the Mets winless for openers. The host Royals edge the Twins in 12 innings, 4–3. » September 28, 1976: Cincy's Big Red Machine notches its 100th win, a 5–4 victory over the San Diego Padres. Jack Billingham (12–10) is the winner. Randy Jones takes the loss but sets a National League record with 112 errorless chances. The major-league record is held Frank Owen of the 1904 White Sox, who did not commit an error in 151 chances (121 assists, 30 PO). Jones finishes the year with 12 DPs, tying the NL record. He also finishes with the NL lead in wins (22), games started (40) and completed (25), IP (315.1) and hits allowed. » December 14, 1976: Relief specialist Rollie Fingers signs with the San Diego Padres. » April 19, 1979: Starter Vide Blue allows ten runs against the San Diego Padres but is still the winning pitcher in the 14-10 game. Nine of the runs are earned. It is the most runs allowed in a win since Bob Friend allowed 10 runs, all earned, in 1954. » August 4, 1980: The Reds score eight runs in the 7th enroute to a 11–2 win over the San Diego Padres. » October 5, 1980: Jerry Coleman is fired as manager of the last-place San Diego Padres. He will return to the club's broadcasting booth, where he had spent the previous eight seasons, and will be replaced by former Senators slugger Frank Howard. » December 21, 1982: Free-agent 1B Steve Garvey signs a 5-year contract with the San Diego Padres. » January 12, 1984: Rich Gossage signs with the San Diego Padres. » October 21, 1994: The Chicago Cubs name Jim Riggleman as manager and the San Diego Padres name Bruce Bochy as manager. » April 22, 1997: After four months of on-and-off negotiations, the Yankees acquire the rights to Japanese P Hideki Irabu from the San Diego Padres for $3 million. New York sends injured OF Ruben Rivera and minor leaguer P Rafael Medina to San Diego. The Padres sweeten the deal by sending three minor leaguers to NY: 2B Homer Bush and outfielders Gordon Amerson and Vernon Maxwell. Irabu's team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, gave the San Diego exclusive rights to the 27-year-old righthander, but Irabu refused to sign with the Padres, saying he would only go with the Yankees. » May 22, 1997: San Diego P Joey Hamilton homers and Tony Gwynn has three hits off Hideo Nomo as the San Diego Padres top the Dodgers, 4-1. It is the Pads' seventh straight win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gwynn, whose wife, Alicia, is being sued by Nomo, goes 3-for-4 to raise his average to .387. Nomo sued Alicia Gwynn last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming the unauthorized use of his name and picture in a jigsaw puzzle. » June 29, 1997: Dodger pitcher Pedro Astacio wins for the first time in 11 starts and Eric Karros knocks in four runs as Los Angeles beats the San Diego Padres, 10–4. It is LA's first win in 11 games with the Pads. Danny Jackson loses and is now 0–4 since the Padres acquired him for Fernando Valenzuela. » August 12, 1997: Rickey Henderson leads off the 7th with his 250th career homer and Greg Vaughn adds a two-run double in the inning as the San Diego Padres rally to beat the Montreal Expos, 6-4. » May 17, 2001: Desi Relaford of the New York Mets became the third position player this year to take the mound as he pitches the ninth inning of a 15-3 blowout by the San Diego Padres. Relaford displays a 91-mph fastball as he fires a perfect inning. Starter Steve Trachsel takes the loss and sets a club record by serving up four homers (to Alex Arias, Rickey Henderson, Ryan Klesko, and Bubba Trammell) in the 3rd inning. The Pads set a team record with 11 extra base hits. » February 15, 2002: San Diego Padres OF Mike Darr is killed in an early morning accident when his car rolls over in Phoenix near the team's spring training camp. Surviving is pitcher Ben Howard, who was sitting in the back seat wearing a seatbelt.