The San Diego Padres will celebrate Ted Williams and the 80th anniversary of the team beginning play in the Pacific Coast League at Wednesday night’s interleague game against the Boston Red Sox at Petco Park.
The Padres will wear reproductions of their 1936 PCL jerseys while the Red Sox will also wear throwback jerseys from the same time period.
Williams joined the Padres in 1936 at the age of 17, hitting .271 in 42 games. He hit .291 with 23 home runs in 138 games in 1937, helping the Padres win the PCL title, San Diego’s first professional baseball championship.
The Padres also won PCL titles in 1962 and 1964, when they were the Cincinnati Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, and 1967, when they were a Philadelphia Phillies’ farm club.
After playing with the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association in 1938, Williams was promoted to the Red Sox in 1939. He played 19 seasons with the team, missing three seasons when he served in the Marine Corps during World War II.
A pregame ceremony will be held honoring retiring Boston designated hitter David Ortiz. Ortiz will receive a retirement gift from the team from Padres broadcaster Don Orsillo, a former Red Sox broadcaster.
Today is Major League Baseball’s 15th annual Roberto Clemente Day, established to honor the Hall of Fame outfielder’s legacy and officially acknowledge team nominees for the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the player “who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.”
The Padres nominee is pitcher Tyson Ross, who was primarily recognized for his community contributions through the Ross Rotation, where he hosts, funds and plans a youth event every month.
The goal of the monthly event is to bring joy to children at the Jackie Robinson YMCA and the Monarch School for children affected by homelessness.
Ross is also involved in other youth clinics and animal welfare.
Fans can vote for the award winner on social media for the first time by posting hashtags to Twitter and Facebook. The hashtag for Ross is #VoteRoss.
Major League Baseball established Seat 21 for this year’s Roberto Clemente Day, a designated seat in each stadium dedicated to a well-known or local hero who will be recognized in addition to the club Clemente Award nominee.
The Padres Seat 21 honoree is Andrea Skorepa, the CEO of Casa Familiar, which provides more than 40 bilingual programs and services at six sites, seeking to empower residents in San Ysidro and South San Diego to take an active role in their communities by engaging them in civic, sustainability and quality of life issues affecting the region.
Clemente wore 21 during his major league career, all spent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Clemente was killed in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
—City News Service