June 15, 1973: Washington, DC viewers watch ‘their Padres’ lose late

Over the decades, residents of Washington, D.C., have turned to television station WTTG to watch Washington Redskins/Commanders football, Georgetown University Hoyas college basketball, and San Diego Padres baseball.1

This last item calls for some explanation. In May 1973 Washington supermarket tycoon Joseph Danzansky submitted a $12 million offer to buy the failing Padres.2 The baseball world spent much of 1973 believing the San Diego team was moving to the nation’s capital the following year.3 Topps even produced 1974 cards of Padres players labeled “Washington ‘Nat’l. Lea.,’” which linger as a tangible legacy of this unsettled period.4

Spotting an opportunity, WTTG arranged with WOR, flagship station of the New York Mets, to carry the broadcasts of Mets-Padres games from Shea Stadium on June 15 and 16.5 “Wouldn’t the fans be so very pleased to get a close-up glimpse of the team that was to be their own?” Washington sportswriter Shirley Povich wrote sarcastically.6 Unfortunately for the Padres and their East Coast “fans,” the team fell short on June 15. A late home run gave New York a 5-2 victory.

Manager Don Zimmer’s Padres, who had joined the NL as an expansion club in 1969, entered the day with a 20-42 record and the major leagues’ worst winning percentage, .323. San Diego had lost 9 of its previous 10 games, including three-game sweeps by the Montreal Expos and Philadelphia Phillies. Several key players missed the Padres’ Washington TV debut, including the injured Johnny Grubb and Enzo Hernández; Dave Roberts, down with a virus; and slumping Leron Lee.7

On the positive side, San Diego had taken two of three games from the Mets at the start of June, as Bill Greif and Clay Kirby pitched shutouts. The Padres also made news on June 15 by signing their first-round draft choice, University of Minnesota multisport star Dave Winfield. The future Hall of Famer went straight to the majors, debuting on June 19.8

The Padres had consistently finished last in the NL in attendance, and news of their impending departure didn’t help.9 The Mets-Padres weekend series in San Diego from June 1 through 3 drew just 23,435 across three games.10 By comparison, the June 15 game at Shea – a Friday night affair – drew 27,524.

The Mets of mid-June 1973 weren’t an inspirational crew either. They were parked in fourth place in the NL East Division at 25-29, eight games out of first.11 Yogi Berra’s team had been troubled by injuries to Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones, Félix Millan, and Bud Harrelson.12 Perhaps all one needed to know about the shorthanded team could be seen at the top of its batting order. A hobbled Willie Mays, hitting .115 at age 42, led off and played center field.

The Padres sent righty Steve Arlin to the mound. Arlin had led the league in losses in each of the previous two seasons, with 19 and 21. In 1972 he’d issued more walks than any other NL pitcher, 122, and thrown the most wild pitches, 15. Shuffled between starting and the bullpen in 1973, Arlin entered with a 2-3 record and a 6.35 ERA. Arlin later said that the Padres’ planned relocation took the heart out of the team: “All of us were in a state of shock and depressed the rest of the season.”13

The Mets started lefty Jon Matlack, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year and Rookie Pitcher of the Year, who went 15-10 with a 2.32 ERA in 1972. On May 8 he’d suffered a dramatic injury when a line drive by Atlanta’s Marty Perez fractured his skull.14 Remarkably, Matlack was back on the mound 11 days later. On June 9 he went the distance against Los Angeles to claim his first win in more than a month. He entered the June 15 game with a 3-8 record and a 4.22 ERA.

San Diego rookie Gene Locklear, acquired from Cincinnati three days earlier, led off the game with a walk. Jerry Morales’s infield pop and Dwain Anderson’s double-play grounder kept the Padres off the scoreboard.15

The Mets threatened in the bottom half. Singles by Mays and Millan, followed by a walk to Rusty Staub, loaded the bases with none out. John Milner hit a hard grounder that handcuffed second baseman Rich Morales. Morales’s only play was to second, and Mays scored for a 1-0 lead.16 Ed Kranepool, making a start in left field, lined to first baseman Nate Colbert, who caught Milner off the bag for a rally-killing double play.17

The Mets wasted a similar chance in the second. Jim Fregosi singled with one out. Catcher Ron Hodges, playing his second big-league game, hit a liner to Locklear, who misplayed it; Hodges reached second and Fregosi third on the error.18 A walk to Matlack brought the top of the lineup to the plate. But Mays popped foul to catcher Fred Kendall and Millan grounded into a force.

The Padres treated their Washington viewers to a run in the fourth. Jerry Morales singled past Garrett at third,19 moved to second on Anderson’s grounder, and took third on Colbert’s fly to right. Cito Gaston’s single into center scored Morales to tie the game.

Arlin didn’t hold the tie for long. With one out in the bottom half, Fregosi tripled off the fence in right-center field, then scored on Hodges’ fly to Locklear for a 2-1 Mets lead.20 It was the first RBI for Hodges in a major-league career spanning 12 seasons with the Mets.21 In the sixth inning, a pair of singles and a force put Mets on first and third for Hodges with two outs. This time, the rookie hit an inning-ending foul fly to left fielder Locklear.

Gaston knotted the score at 2-2 in the seventh, leading off with his fifth homer of the season over a leaping Kranepool and into the left-field bullpen.22 A walk to Kendall and a bunt put a runner on second for the Padres. Their eighth- and ninth-place hitters were next, and neither could capitalize. Rich Morales struck out looking, and Arlin – who had singled in the third inning – grounded to shortstop.

Things stayed quiet until the bottom of the eighth. After a groundout by Staub, Milner and Kranepool whacked singles to right field. This brought up Wayne Garrett , hitting .211 and mired in a 1-for-18 slump.23 Zimmer said later he did not consider bringing in a left-handed pitcher against the lefty-swinging Garrett. Instead, he held a mound meeting to counsel Arlin to keep the ball low for a double-play grounder.24

Garrett had been nicknamed “Warning Track” by his teammates, as many of his best swings seemed to fall just short of home-run distance.25 But Garrett delivered his fourth homer of the season, driving a high fastball 370 feet to right field to give the Mets a 5-2 lead.26

In the ninth, Matlack got two outs, then gave up a single to Kendall for the Padres’ sixth hit. Derrel Thomas flied to replacement center fielder Don Hahn to end the game in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The San Diego Evening Tribune likened the evening’s broadcast to Demolition Derby, or perhaps The Twilight Zone, adding: “Thousands of startled viewers were given a preview of what they’re in store for next year.”27

Things got worse for the Padres and their Washington viewers the next night. San Diego committed six errors and lost, 10-2.28 Sportswriters predicted a bleak future for the team in Washington. “The victory-starved fans have seen enough losers in Washington and the Padres will continue to be faced with an empty stadium unless they improve their calibre of baseball upon moving to the Nation’s Capitol [sic],” one scribe from nearby Maryland wrote, in a column headlined “Padres Didn’t Impress Anyone.”29

The Mets struggled until September, when they won 20 of their final 28 regular-season games to claim the NL East title. They upset Cincinnati in the NL Championship Series and took a 3-games-to-2 World Series lead over the Oakland A’s before losing the final two games. Garrett had the dubious distinction of being the final batter of the 1973 season, popping to shortstop to end Game Seven.30

NL owners approved the Padres’ sale in December 1973.31 The team’s front office was packed up to move.32 But the Padres still had 15 years on their lease at San Diego Stadium, and the city sued the team over its plan to break the lease. The NL looked to Danzansky to indemnify it – that is, protect it against financial harm – and Danzansky looked to Padres owner C. Arnholt Smith, who had agreed to do the same for him. But Smith, financially underwater, couldn’t live up to the agreement, and the Danzansky deal collapsed.33 On January 23, 1974, hamburger magnate Ray Kroc confirmed that he would buy the Padres and keep them in San Diego.34

Big-league baseball finally returned to Washington, D.C., in 2005, as the Montreal Expos moved to town and became the Nationals.35 The Nationals won the World Series in 2019. By that time, WTTG was affiliated with the Fox network, which owned broadcast rights to the World Series. Perhaps a few fans who watched the Nationals’ victory remembered watching Washington’s “future team” on the same station 46 years earlier.

Author’s note and acknowledgments

The author thanks SABR members Tom Larwin and Laura Peebles for research assistance. This story was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data and the box scores for this game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN197306150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B06150NYN1973.htm

Image of “Washington Nat’l Lea.” variation of 1974 Topps card #374 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 “About Us,” WTTG Fox 5 DC website, accessed June 16, 2023, https://www.fox5dc.com/about-us; Jack Bogaczyk, “Cable’s WTTG Gives Redskins Fans All They Could Want,” Roanoke (Virginia) Times and World News, August 3, 1985: B3.

2 Rumors at the time also claimed that a contingent of Japanese businessmen were interested in investing in the Padres, leading the San Diego Evening Tribune to make the queasy joke that Harry Caray might be hired as announcer. The rumored Japanese investment did not materialize. Scott Stewart, “T.V. Beams New York Action to D.C. Fans,” San Diego Evening Tribune, June 16, 1973: B5.

3 For context, Washington’s previous major-league team – the expansion Senators team created for the 1961 season – had moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area only two years before, at the close of the 1971 season. Maxwell Kates, “A Brief History of the Washington Stars,” The National Pastime: Monumental Baseball (Society for American Baseball Research, 2009). Accessed online June 16, 2023.

4 More information on the Washington Nat’l. Lea. cards can be found in Adam Sanders, “Heading East? 1974 Topps ‘Washington Nat’l League’ Cards,” SABR Baseball Card Blog, posted August 26, 2019, and accessed June 16, 2023.

5 United Press International, “Washington Fans Get TV Treat (?),” Nevada State Journal (Reno), June 16, 1973: 20.

6 Shirley Povich (Washington Post Service), “Padres on TV: Indecent Exposure,” Honolulu Advertiser, June 20, 1973: F1.

7 George Minot Jr., “Sacrifice Fly Goes Awry as Padres Drop 7th in Row,” Washington Post, June 16, 1973: C1.

8 Associated Press, “Pads Sign First Draft Pick,” Fresno (California) Bee, June 16, 1973: B2.

9 The Padres trailed the NL in attendance once again in 1973, drawing 611,826 fans, or 7,553 per game.

10 The teams drew 6,394 fans on Friday night, June 1; 7,376 on Saturday night, June 2; and 9,665 for a Sunday day game on June 3.

11 The Chicago Cubs were in first place with a 36-24 record on June 15.

12 On June 6 the New York Daily News ran a chart of significant Mets injuries to that time, including a broken left hand for Harrelson, a sore right hand for Jones, a jammed left ankle for Millan, and a broken right wrist for Grote, as well as a right-shoulder injury for Willie Mays. The chart omitted John Milner, who went on the disabled list in late April with a pulled hamstring, and Ed Kranepool and Harry Parker, who pulled muscles around the same time. “Medical Chart: Prognosis Sickly,” New York Daily News, June 6, 1973: C22.

13 Phil Collier, “Padres Preach New Gospel With Kroc’s Blessing,” The Sporting News, April 6, 1974: 3.

14 Thomas J. Brown, “Jon Matlack,” SABR Biography Project, accessed June 16, 2023.

15 Anderson was relatively new to San Diego: He’d been traded by the St. Louis Cardinals to the Padres on June 7. St. Louis received Dave Campbell in return.

16 Joe Donnelly, “Gloom Is Lifting in Mets Clubhouse,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), June 16, 1973: 25.

17 In an 18-season major-league career, Kranepool made 115 starts in left field. He appeared in 1,853 games. He appeared exclusively in left field between May 27 and July 13, 1973, following the injury to Cleon Jones.

18 Red Foley, “Matlack and Garrett Top Padres, 5-2, Third in Row,” New York Daily News, June 16, 1973: 32.

19 Foley, “Matlack and Garrett Top Padres, 5-2, Third in Row.”

20 Foley, “Matlack and Garrett Top Padres, 5-2, Third in Row.”

21 Hodges ended his career with 147 RBIs.

22 Thomas Rogers, “Matlack Triumphs, 5-2,” New York Times, June 16, 1973: 19; Donnelly, “Gloom Is Lifting in Mets Clubhouse.”

23 Foley, “Matlack and Garrett Top Padres, 5-2, Third in Row.”

24 Minot, “Sacrifice Fly Goes Awry as Padres Drop 7th in Row.”

25 Donnelly, “Gloom Is Lifting in Mets Clubhouse.”

26 Rogers, “Matlack Triumphs, 5-2;” Jack Lang, “Matlack Back on Beam as Mets Extend Streak,” Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), June 16, 1973: 13.

27 Stewart, “T.V. Beams New York Action to D.C. Fans.”

28 The June 16 game was mostly notable for the debut of future NL Cy Young Award winner Randy Jones, who was touched up for four hits and two runs in 1⅓ innings of relief.

29 Larry Yanos, “Padres Didn’t Impress Anyone,” Hagerstown (Maryland) Daily Mail, June 19, 1973: 14.

30 Garrett did hit a pair of home runs in the 1973 Series, in Games Two and Three. Meanwhile, the resurrected Matlack beat Cincinnati with a two-hit shutout in Game Two of the NLCS and pitched well in Games One and Four of the World Series, but was knocked out in the third inning of Game Seven.

31 Associated Press, “Mayor Blasts ‘Piracy’ Paid For by Taxpayers” and “Nixon Applauds Move,” both Kansas City Star, December 7, 1973: 19.

32  Kates, “A Brief History of the Washington Stars.”

33 United Press International, “Big Headaches for Danzansky,” San Rafael (California) Independent-Journal, December 28, 1973: 32;

34 Kroc owned the team until his death in January 1984; his widow, Joan, became owner until 1990. Bob LeMoine, “Ray and Joan Kroc,” SABR Biography Project, accessed June 18, 2023.

35 Joseph Danzansky, who tried to bring baseball back to Washington more than 30 years earlier, wasn’t around to see the Nationals’ arrival. He died of a heart attack at age 65 in November 1979. “Passings,” Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1979: I: 21.