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Top 5 Villains in San Diego Padres History

By Nick Lee |
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Batman has the Joker. The Avengers have Thanos. Superman has Lex Luthor. The San Diego Padres have had their fair share of bad breaks and people who have ruined the fun along the way. This team is still without a World Series win, no-hitter or cycle. Let’s be honest, it hasn’t been easy being a San Diego Padres fan all these years.

We have had great moments and players. But today let’s explore the top 5 villains in San Diego Padres history. I don’t do this to rip open old scars, mind you. These are just as painful for me as they are for you. These are the people that have tortured Padres fans for one reason or another…

Aug 29, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (23) follows through during the sixth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

5. Adrian Gonzalez

While him being traded to the Boston Red Sox after the 2010 season wasn’t entirely his fault, he has tortured the Padres since leaving San Diego. He then was traded to the division rival Los Angeles Dodgers in August of 2012. That year he hit .440 against the Padres in 6 games. In 2013, he played 19 games against the Padres and hit .314 with 6 home runs with a .952 OPS.

In 2014, he hit two home runs with four doubles. This season he had that three-homer game against Andrew Cashner in early April. So far he is hitting .391 with 6 home runs, 14 RBI and a 1.286 OPS against the Padres this season. The hometown boy from Eastlake High School in Chula Vista has turned into a Padre-killer. He has also made a couple of cheeky comments about the Padres organization since leaving.

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4. Barry Bonds

Another Padre-killer makes the list. He never played for the Padres but he sure made life miserable in San Diego every time he came to town. Also, all the PED accusations swirling around his career make him all the more a villain. Bonds is the all-time leader in home runs (*) with 762.

87 of those home runs came against the Padres. That is by far the most home runs he has hit against any team by more than 20. It also seemed like every one of his milestone home runs came against Padres pitching. He hit career home runs number 100, 563 (to tie Reggie Jackson), 587 (to pass Frank Robinson for 9th all-time), 612 (to tie Jim Thome for 7th), 700, and the big number 755 to tie Hank Aaron to lead all of baseball history. He loved making history against the Padres.

His career will forever be tainted but there is no question, he loved hitting Padres pitching.

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Feb 22, 2015; Mesa, AZ, USA; Chicago Cubs General Manager Jed Hoyer looks on during a workout at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

3. Jed Hoyer

I am not saying the former Padres General Manager is an evil villain like the Green Goblin or Ultron. I am saying that he didn’t do the Padres or their future any favors with some of the moves he made as the Padres GM or afterwards. This is the man that traded away a player you saw earlier on this list who has had nothing but 100+ RBI and .800+ OPS seasons since being traded in Adrian Gonzalez. In that deal the Padres acquired touted first base prospect Anthony Rizzo.

Then, after being hired to be in the Chicago Cubs’ front office in the Winter of 2011, one of the first things Hoyer did was coax the Padres to trade away Rizzo, the only meaningful piece they got for Gonzalez in the deal with the Boston Red Sox. He brought Rizzo to Chicago and sent starting pitcher Andrew Cashner to the Padres.

Cashner is having an abysmal season with 9 losses and has already allowed 13 home runs. That is twice as many as he allowed last year and one more than he allowed in 2013 with twice as many appearances.

And Anthony Rizzo? All he has done is become the centerpiece for the Cubs in possibly making the playoffs this season. In his first season with the Cubs, he hit 15 home runs and hit .285 in just half a season. Then in 2013 he hit 23 home runs and 80 RBI.

Last season he was an All-Star, hitting 32 home runs with a .286 average. He is picking up right where he left off so far this season. Through 72 games, he leads in the NL in doubles with 23 and has 15 home runs with a .307 batting average. Until this season, the Padres haven’t had anyone close to those numbers in the past two seasons. What would have happened if the Padres stuck with Rizzo and didn’t let Hoyer ship him to Chicago with him? Who knows.

Hoyer left the Padres without an offensive star that they had when he got the job. He took away both power-hitting first basemen. Now you see the Cubs thriving and are one of the most exciting teams to watch in baseball this year.

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2. Joe Randa

Some Padres fans might be thinking…who? In 2006, he was in his last year in the big leagues. He had just played with the Padres in 2005 and hit .256 in 58 games. He then signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he would end his solid 12-year career where he collected over 1,500 hits.

A year after leaving San Diego, he came into town with the Pirates and altered Padres history forever. On September 22, 2006 the Padres had Chris Young on the mound. The Friars were in the middle of a heated NL West race. The Pirates were over 20 games below .500.

Young started the game with 5 perfect innings and 4 strikeouts. In the 6th, he walked one batter but remained un-hit. He then retired the next 8 batters in a row. Young was taking a no-hitter into the 9th inning at home. The Padres have never had a no-hitter in their franchise’s 37 years up to that point.

The 9th inning started with Ryan Doumit lining out to right fielder Brian Giles. He was two outs from a no-hitter. He then walked Jose Bautista. The Padres were well in control with a 6-0 lead so manager Bruce Bochy was going to let history play out.

Then 36 year-old Joe Randa pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot. He faced a Padres pitcher two outs away from a no-hitter. Perhaps he would ground into a double play to give the Padres their first one. Randa had other ideas. On a 3-1 pitch, Randa lined a pitch over the centerfield wall, ending Young’s and all of San Diego’s hope for a no-hitter. The Padres would eventually win 6-2 but the ballpark was somewhat solemn after the game despite the victory.

There were so many “what-ifs” to consider after that game. What if the Padres had kept Randa after the 2005 season? What if he didn’t fall behind 3-1 in the count? That would be Randa’s last career home run, spoiling a no-hitter with one out in the 9th at Petco Park.

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1. Scott Brosius

The New York Yankees third baseman hasn’t had anything to do with the Padres before or since the 1998 World Series. However, had he not gotten so hot in the World Series to win the MVP, the ’98 Fall Classic may have turned out differently between the Padres and Yankees. He may have been the difference in the Yankees sweeping the Padres that year.

The first two games of the series were hard-fought but the Yankees took each game by scoring 9 runs. The series was headed to San Diego in hopes that the Padres could even things up. Game 3 started out very well for the Padres. Sterling Hitchcock was dealing and didn’t allow a hit until the 4th inning. The Padres took a 3-0 lead in the 6th inning after a two-run single by Tony Gwynn and a sacrifice fly by Ken Caminiti.

The very next top half of the inning, Scott Brosius took a little air out of Qualcomm Stadium by leading off with a solo home run, making the score 3-1. The Yankees later made it 3-2 in that inning. The Friars took the lead into the 8th inning and Bruce Bochy put Trevor Hoffman on the mound.

After two walks, Brosius came up again with runners on first and second and one out. He then launched a 2-2 pitch over the centerfield wall to give the Yankees an 8th inning 5-3 lead. He hit two home runs and had 4 RBI in two innings. You could just feel the momentum shift and the stadium deflate. That was the deciding moment.

The Yankees would win Game 3. In the World Series clinching Game 4, Brosius more or less put the nail in the coffin with an RBI single in the 8th inning off of Kevin Brown to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. They would win the game 3-0 and the World Series championship. Brosius was the MVP with a .471 average, two home runs and 6 RBI.

Honorable Mentions: The entire Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants Organization, Matt Holliday for not touching home plate in Game #163 against the Colorado Rockies in 2007.

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