Starter and defending Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy pitched a seven-inning shutout to lead the San Diego Padres to a 4-0 opening-day win over the Houston Astros on Monday at Petco Park. Peavy helped his own cause at the plate with a hit and two RBIs.
Padres second baseman Tadahito Iguchi also had a great game. One of the club’s biggest off-season acquisitions led a 14-hit attack against Houston, going 3 for 5 with two doubles and a run.
A crowd of 44,695, second largest to watch a ballgame at Petco, enjoyed the Padres season opener. San Diego would also beat Houston 2-1 the following night. Meanwhile, Peavy’s first pitch to Astros outfielder Michael Bourn in Monday’s game marked the beginning of the team’s fifth Petco season.
On April 8, 2004, the Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-3 in extra innings to christen their new downtown home, built at a cost of nearly $460 million. HOK Sport’s Joe Spear, principal architect in charge of Petco’s design, didn’t respond to a telephone inquiry on the challenges, if any, the physical plant has posed in the intervening seasons. But a team official cited several issues related to internal logistics at the park early on.
“We had issues that ranged from speed of service to the type of cooking equipment we had,” said Petco general manager Richard Andersen. “We had a number of opportunities we had to address relating to recycling and trash hauling.”
Andersen said these early issues have been addressed, adding that the work has not gone without notice. Petco Park was one of 12 organizations to win the San Diego Recyclers of the Year award in 2005. In addition, Andersen said, the stadium’s food services are ranked number one among the Delaware North Sportservice family of stadium concessions.
Andersen said the ballpark’s staff has also focused on improving the fan experience.
“In that period of time,” Andersen said, “we’ve been able to adapt and adjust our service model to be more focused on what the guests were asking us for.” Regular surveys and roundtable discussions, he said, lead to feedback from fans on topics from the variety of food available to the speed of ballpark services.
Andersen said the branding of the Padres organization throughout the stadium is a change that fans will see this season.
“As you walk through the building now, you would see sort of a continuous flow of Padres colors, of the wave, of the starburst, of our logos, of player imagery throughout the building,” Andersen said, “and it really makes it come alive.”
This new signage is one of the main changes the ballpark has undergone since its inception. “When the ballpark was opened, intentionally, there were very few, hardly any, internal logos or colorization models that were connected to the actual Padres theme,” Andersen said.
“Each year we’ve been able to more and more create that emotion,” Andersen said, “connect (the team) to fans.”
One thing about Petco Park, however, has not changed in its brief history: It is still a significant facet of downtown. And that is one thing that may never change.