Tom Krasovic: Padres winning the World Series would be the best outcome for baseball

Of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, there’s only one that lacks a World Series trophy and plays in a city that’s never won a Super Bowl or an NBA crown.

The San Diego Padres and their city’s parched sports fans are therefore unique, all the way down to their brown pinstriped uniforms and brown caps.

Unique stories make for better stories.

Which is why the best outcome for baseball, as a whole, would be for the Padres to win the World Series trophy.

A run to Rob Manfred’s hunk of metal would carry more weight than outsiders realize.

Hockey’s not our thing in San Diego, and the two NBA teams that set up shop here pulled out.

The Chargers reached one Super Bowl in 51 tries and lost big as a 19-point underdog.

The two times the Padres went to the World Series, one of the great teams in baseball history booted them out lickety-split.

The weather here is so pleasant, it’s surreal. The team sports’ history here is so barren, it’s also surreal.

San Diegans have celebrated no victory by a home team that compares in scope with the Super Bowl wins celebrated by folks in D.C. and Dallas before the Washington Nationals and the Texas Rangers broke through in 2019 and last fall, respectively, to win a franchise-first World Series title.

Sports fans in Chicago and Boston were treated to giddy runs to Super Bowl trophies, NBA crowns and the Stanley Cup trophy long before the Cubs, White Sox and Red Sox broke generations-long World Series-title droughts.

The last time the Kansas City Royals won the World Series was 2015. In San Diego time, that’s a blink.

Relatively speaking, San Diego sports fans have gotten nothing. That’s how it’s gone.

The weather. That’s what they have.

(The San Diego Weather would be an apt name for a San Diego sports team.)

A lot is made of how spirited sports fans are in cold-weather cities.

Here, they’re spirited as well — just not frostbitten.

Last year, the Padres finished second in MLB attendance, trailing only the Dodgers.

This year, the Padres ended up third. Among the big-market bluebloods they outdrew: the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox and Astros. By 8,000 fans per game San Diego crowds exceeded the average turnouts in Dallas, where Bruce Bochy’s Rangers were defending their title. The gap between Padres crowds and Mets crowds was 12,000 per game.

The 12-team World Series tournament that begins Tuesday could serve up other potential winners who would freshen up the sport.

Baseball would gain some credibility if the small-market Milwaukee Brewers advanced to their second World Series and won their first trophy.

But the celebration in America’s Dairyland wouldn’t be unique.

Three summers ago, thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s brilliance at basketball, the city celebrated the Bucks’ NBA championship. Go back to 1971. Sports fans in Milwaukee had it better than San Diegans ever have on the major sports scene, cheering Hall of Famers Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson and Bobby Dandridge in a title-winning season. That team won 78 of 94 games, an unfathomable feat to anyone who watched the San Diego Rockets or San Diego Clippers.

Cleveland baseball fans in sackcloth will dispute this, but the Padres winning the trophy would be bigger even than the Guardians claiming the franchise’s first World Series trophy since 1948.

Or was that a mirage eight years ago in Cleveland — the so-called Factory of Pain — when 1.3 million folks crammed into downtown to celebrate the NBA title won by LeBron James and friends?

The Padres need 13 more wins to become the last team standing in early November. If it happens, consider this a standing invitation to fans in other tough-luck sports cities.

You are hereby invited to San Diego this winter. Lobster tacos and margaritas will be on the Seidler family and Manny Machado.

Originally Published: September 30, 2024 at 4:59 p.m.