{"id":236275,"date":"2013-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/local-boy-steals-home\/"},"modified":"2013-06-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T07:00:00","slug":"local-boy-steals-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/local-boy-steals-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Local boy steals home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201clifelong\u201d fan takes over as Padres director of communications<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor<\/p>\n

When native San Diegan David Holtzman was 4 years old, he could recite the starting lineup of the San Diego Padres the way their announcer did it over the public address system. At 5, he got a few lessons on how to swing a bat from none other than Tony Gwynn at the San Diego School of Baseball.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>
David Holtzman, new director of communications for the San Diego Padres, is happy to be back home. (Photo by Anulak Singphiphat)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFrom the [first] moment I remember I was a Padres fan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to just last month, when that same Padres fan \u2013 hooked at a very young age \u2013 took over as director of communications for the ballclub. He\u2019s certainly come full circle, but it was far from a direct line getting there.<\/p>\n

Raised in El Cajon as the youngest of three \u201csports fanatic\u201d boys, baseball was a huge part of Hotlzman\u2019s life. When the fervent young fan wasn\u2019t attending Padres games or watching them on television, he played Little League and spent some time with his high school team at Valhalla before graduating in 1996 and setting his sights on a biology degree at the University of Kansas.<\/p>\n

A long way from the Jack Murphy Stadium but with the Padres never far from his mind, Holtzman managed to make it back home often, landing a job at Jack Murphy in the scoreboard department one year, later doing an internship with the Holiday Bowl, and even returning for the 1998 World Series game. But it was the decision to switch his undergrad degree to sports management and tack on a graduate program in sports administration that ensured the path he was on would make a career out of his first love.<\/p>\n

It just wouldn\u2019t be in San Diego.<\/p>\n

A seasonal internship in 2004 with the Kansas City Royals turned into a full time coordinator position, and by 2007, Holtzman had moved up to director of communications, settled in and was starting a family. \u201cI was really fond of the city, the fans, a lot of the players and the organization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leaving the Royals after nearly 10 years was tough, but the thought of working for his hometown team was definitely a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d possibly have the chance to come back home, at least and work in the capacity I have been working in,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it was a natural fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, Holtzman said the decision still wasn\u2019t an automatic one.<\/p>\n

\"Holtzman<\/a>
Holtzman at age 5 with his baseball hero, Tony Gwynn. (Photo by SDCNN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAlthough this is my dream job, I loved Kansas City and I would not have left unless it was not the exact right position,\u201d he said. \u201cI went into my interview process being interested, but knowing that if it wasn\u2019t the right fit organizationally, I wasn\u2019t gonna take it.”<\/p>\n

It was.<\/p>\n

Gwynn has long since retired, but Holtzman hasn\u2019t forgotten the impact he made on him as a child. Gwynn\u2019s choice to stick with the Padres his entire career meant a lot to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was special,\u201d Holtzman said. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t have meant as much to me as a Padres fan, as a San Diegan, if at some point in his career he had left for more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping attendance up and making those types of connections with young fans was at the top of his list in Kansas City and now he plans to make those same priorities in San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a group of young kids from age 5-12 become attached to players and a club, as I was, you never let that go,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are always a fan. To me that was my most important impact [in Kansas City], helping that transition to the next generation of Royals fans and not losing them to the Yankees or to any other clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

With San Diego being such a transient city, Holtzman knows it might be a challenge to build a Yankee or Red Sox culture, but he sees things developing. Downtown is becoming much more urban, and the ballpark will attract more and more native fans as the years pass.<\/p>\n

\"Holtzman,<\/a>
Holtzman, shown at the Padres’ business office, stands among notable members of the ballclub’s history. (Photo by Anulak Singphiphat)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have 81 dates every year within walking distance,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really is an entertainment center for Downtown, a really fun place to come if you are young, or if you have a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said community outreach remains equally important to the mission of the ballclub and he and his team plan to expand their reach with social media (@Padres), focusing on what he calls \u201cfringie\u201d fans who don\u2019t read the sports page or listen to sports radio every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Padres aren\u2019t just a team that plays 162 games a year, it\u2019s a team that is a part of the community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to get that message out there on top of the fact we\u2019re playing good, exciting baseball and have people come out to support us, support the players and just have a night of enjoyment and know that this is their hometown team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to help the Padres organization grow, to help them win on the field, to help them win off the field community-wise and I can see all of those things taking root right now.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A \u201clifelong\u201d fan takes over as Padres director of communications Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor When native San Diegan David Holtzman was 4 years old, he could recite the starting lineup of the San Diego Padres the way their announcer did it over the public address system. At 5, he got a few lessons […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Local boy steals home","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}