Big Tiger fan here and I was 20 in 1984. I remember being very disappointed when I found out that we were going to face the Padres. This was before the internet, ESPN was in its infancy, and the Padres were in a different time zone. Most of us only knew what the other players looked like because of baseball cards. Here in Detroit, we knew nothing of the antics, and heroics of that Padres team until they came back against the Cubs. With that being said, this documentary was moving, brilliantly done, and a testament to the toughness of that team. Knowing the story now, I wish somehow, that they would have won a championship with that core group of guys! Just not against us.
It was an honor to lose our first big dance against a great team like Detroit. And in truth, we were all burnt, town and team. We literally couldn't take much more after the long season, winning our first division, and the Chicago series. We were done, and happy to have won one game at home! Plus, those Tigers were greatness personified! Nothing but good, happy memories. Our dreams came true that year. 😊
THE reason I was rooting for the Padres in '84 World Series, Dodgers legend Steve Garvey. And how could you not love watching the up & coming Tony Gwynn in his 1st Series? Warming up to Goose & Nettles was tough as they'll forever be locked into the Dodgers/Yankees rivalry. But no doubt fine acquisitions for San Diego that season.
No surprise Gossage blew Game 5 to Gibson's majestic Home Run to win the Series. Goose was a gunslinger like Brett Favre, you win big games & you lose big games. And the losses you never forget
I was born and raised in San diego. I love baseball and I love the padres. Though I don't live in San Diego anymore I will always have a deep love for my hometown of San Diego and the padres.
That was an amazing year, 1984. It was only the second above .500 season in Padres history. It was a fun season and fun team watch. The summer of '84 was a dark time in San Diego as the city was hit with a mass murder in a San Diego McDonalds that July where 21 innocent men, women, children and babies were senselessly murdered by a crazed gunman. It was a time when mass shootings rarely happened, so it was horrifying and incredibly sad. I was only 13 that year and I remember the images of boys only slightly younger than me lying dead next to their bikes. But our Padres brought joy back to our city in the midst of that tragedy with their greatest season ever. They couldn't get passed those Tigers, who had an incredible season (35-5 start), but they are still champions in my heart. Thank you 1984 San Diego Padres! RIP Alan Wiggins, Eric Show and Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn.
That was a great team but didn't know of all the turmoil till now. I suffered through many a losing season until 84. Before then I always had tony gwynn to watch come to bat 5 times a game. I've never seen anyone hit the ball harder right at someone for outs than Tony. With luck he could of easily hit .375 every year. It's great to see the personalities of all the players and see the inside of professional sports.
That 1984 Detroit Tigers team was very good: 104 wins. A legendary manager in Sparky Anderson. Also on that team was a one Alan Trammell, who went to Kearny H.S. here in SD.
Growing up in 1967 I played colt league baseball for 15 to 16 year olds there at kearny high school. My 1st year I was only 14 and hit the 1st home run of the season. Later I was walking my dog to mesa college and a ball game was going on. 1 of the Colt league managers was watching his son play and I didn't even know he knew me and says "hey there's the home run king" I'll always remember that the pitcher hung a curveball right in my eyes and I drilled it way over the outfielders heads and had to run it out for a homer cuz the fences were 500ft away.
I watched the 1984 Tigers from start to finish, mostly because my father is such a huge fan. And that was a special team and a special year. But this documentary has given me a new respect and appreciation for what a special team the Padres were too. And yes, even though I was rooting for the other side I too loved those uniforms lol.
Been a Tiger fan since '69 (when I was 8). This documentary gives me a new found respect also for the Padres. Of course I always thought Tony Gwynn was special and was sad when Dave Dravecky broke his arm in '89 after winning his comeback game. I think if Alan Trammell wasn't a San Diego native, it might have been a different result. I missed Goose's saying he should have walked Gibson at the HOF speech but I appreciated the phone call he made to Dick Williams saying "this is the guy who should have walked Gibson". I'm glad this was available to watch!
I've been a Tigers fan for a long time since my childhood. The Tigers in 1984 had the best start of any team in baseball history to date in the first forty games of the season posting a record of 35-5. Baseball today is a comedy of lies, deceit, and cheating. I miss the 80's - the year the ball was juiced - 1987 - and the Tigers had another shot at getting back to the world series but were defeated by generic Twins team!!
1984, I was 16 and lived down the street from Jack Murphy Stadium. This team was an amazing show. Great documentary. Was at Game 5 of the Cubs' series, and Game 2 of the WS! Greatest baseball summer of my life. ❤❤❤ RIP to Show and Wiggins (Wiggins was my favorite '84 player 😢).
Gwynns 1 of baseballs all time hardest to strike out. Randy Jones live in Escondido and I work at his house installing a putting green ⛳️ in his back yard. He's 1 of the nicest guys you ever meet.
My most prized piece of memorabilia: I have that SPORT mag and, it took almost 30 years, but I was able to get Garvey and Goose to sign it. No clue if it's valuable, but it's priceless to me. "Mr Clean and Mr Mean!"
Very likely it's 1 of a kind. My friend and me were leaving the 1969 nba all star game in san diego and my friend got the then lew alcindor to sign his program in the parking as he was walking by to catch his ride. Like you his signed program is probably 1 of a kind. 😁
@@rodneysmith247 Yeah, that's why they should've always stuck with this color scheme with brown as the mai color to represent the robe color of the friar.
I'll always remember Sparky Anderson egging Goose Gossage on when he saw that Goose didn't want to walk Kirk Gibson in the WS. "Don't walk him, don't walk him".
W/o question the greatest call of all time is by a legend Don Drysdale. "Deep right field, way back, Cotto going back to the wall, it's gone, homerun Garvey, & there will be tomorrow". Epic!!!!
@@malcomlovejoy what a start they had. They basically had division in the bag by 4th of July. That Tiger team that year was a juggernaut fur sure. Next year the NLCS/ALCS went to 7 games & if that happens in 84 no way does San Diego win, they could have played 100 games vs Cubs in Chicago in October & would not have won 1. And let Igor add Igor is a die hard White Sox fan & South Sider. Think the WS would have been more interesting with Detroit vs Cubs
Reds fan here this documentary was outstanding thank you for posting it. Alan Wiggins talented so sad Eric Show smart away from the game. RIP Tony Gwynn as well.
I played for the Red's when I was seven in 1992 tee-ball. I played First base. Then I went to little league and was a LA Dodger. Right Field or the bench. I wanted to pitch but, had really no control. Looking back I could have made a little more of a effort. But, That's history.
Growing up in SD I remember this post season so very fondly. Bitter sweet of course. I was depressed for a week when it all ended. Anyone remember the cheesy "You're Our 10th Man" song the Padres came out with soon after?
Great story, and I am a Giants fan from Northern California, so I have never really rooted for the Padres for any reason. Also, I was born in 1983, so I didn't learn about this team until later in life, and it was my HS basketball coach who was from San Diego who taught us about it. It was Spring of 2000, and we were in a battle with one of our rivals, Folsom HS, for our league championship, and they were a game ahead of us with 3 games left. However, they lost a game they weren't supposed to lose to Ponderosa HS, and our coach came into practice the next day yelling, "We're still in it!" He then explained that he hadn't yelled that since 1984 when Garvey hit the home run against the Cubs to win Game 4. Seeing this reminded me of him. On a side note, we ended up winning the League Title.
I grew watching Willie Mays, McCovey, Bobbie Bonds, Juan Marichal. the Alou brothers and I think Gaylord Perry was there too. Saw the padres lose many a game televised back to San Diego from the local network. Man were the padres bad as a new expansion club for many years until 84. 😁
I'm a Tigers fan and in all honesty, I was rooting for a Tigers-Cubs Series because it would've been the fifth time those teams played each other in the Post-season. But I tip my cap to the Padres for winning the '84 pennant. Some people fail to realize how difficult it is to win a pennant. Our '06 AL champs had the samwe thing happen. Only 3 years removed from losing 119 games, we went to the Series. The Padres won the NL in '84 because they gave everything they had. They will always be a champion.
Kurt Bevacqua played 15 MLB seasons and hit .236 with 27 HRs. Only once did he hit better than .260 for a season, while 4 times he hit .200 or worse. Despite batting only .200 with 1 HR in 1984, the 37-year-old Bevacqua started every World Series game as DH vs Detroit, batting .412 with 2 HRs, including a game-winning 3-run HR in Game 2.
That 1984 Padres was special team and got off to a great start in 1985. At the AllStar break they were leading a tough NL West division and had sent 6 players to the AllStar game, amazingly 5 Padres started in the 85' Allstar game. But they fizzled out after the Allstar break as many veterans had poor 2nd half seasons. And those 1984 uniforms were epic, they went to the blue uniforms after the 1988 season but are now back to those 1984 unis. Thanks for this video AGENTARMES RIP: Ray Kroc, Alan Wiggins, Eric Show, Dick Williams, Greg Booker, Champ Summers, Mario Rameriz, Jack Krol and Norm Sherry.
I was at the 40th anniversary reunion before yesterday's game against Seattle. It was emotional, seeing them again, knowing that Tony, Jerry, Eric, and Allen, Ray, Dick, and Jack couldn't be there physically, but we all felt them in spirit. Father Time takes his toll...but the memories will live forever. What a time...what a town...what a team!
You always hear about that book "The boys of Summer" or something like that about that year involving the three NewYork teams. How about 1984 though? Special if you ask me. You had Harry Caray going crazy every day in front of millions on WGN, you had a little underdog story in Kansas City...who in all actuality gave Detroit a run for their money only losing by a run in each game they were swept in (But yes..Detroit was better that year). Then you had SanDiego who showed why you play the game and shocked pretty much everybody in that NLCS...the Garvey homerun, and then of course the famous Gibson homerun which was preceded months before with that 35-5 Tiger start. There was something very magical that year in baseball. Ive always thought that.
You are correct. In '84 the Padres ran into the best team of the decade, the Tigers and in '98 they unfortunately ran into probably the best team in baseball history, the '98 Yankees. It was two bad timings to make it to the World Series. Wish Gwynn could have gotten a Championship.
My Tony Gwynn autographed bat is one of my most prized possessions. RIP, buddy. You should have won at least one. I cheered for you in 1998, but unfortunately The Yankees were The Team of the '90s, not The Braves.
In Tony Gwynns playing days he was the hardest to strike. I grew up in san diego watching him play on televised local tv when the were lousy until 84. Never seen anyone hit the ball harder for outs than Tony. Wad a miracle he didn't hit .375 every year.
I had heard the agent who called Jack McKeon to say Wiggins wanted to see him. He said in a newspaper article that none of the 84 Padres attended Alan Wiggins funeral besides Steve Garvey I hope it's not true.
The only time we ever made it to the world series , we had to face what some called the top five teams of all time. The 84" Tigers and the 98" Yankees. Damn it Also My SD Chargers played one of the best football teams ever. One of thess years.......
steve b i wouldnt say that. its unfortunate that we dont truly know the dangers of certain products until someone gets hurt but its reality. chewing tobacco was widely accepted until the early 2000's in baseball. gwynn and other players of his era thought that is what you did. where gwynn went wrong was when he started dipping after his first surgery. i think on mlb network when he died his wife said in an interview that in the car 20 minutes after his surgery he put a thing of snuff in his jaw
2011, Luis Salazar got hit by a foul ball from Brian McCann in Spring Training and had his left eye removed due to the injuries he sustained from the incident.
I went to those two games in Chicago with my dad and a group of SD fans. We sat between 1B and the right field pole - great seats. I was interviewed by a Milwaukee TV station, got my picture in the Union Tribune, got Reggie Jackson's autograph in the airport and a bunch of batting practice balls from the coaches. We sat in shock watching the smoke bomb, Sutcliffe's HR, the two bad losses and worse how the Chicago fans mocked the death of Ray Kroc after game two. I had some Padres stuff grabbed from me an burned by jerks in the stands. Other than that, a great trip. Karma is a bitch. The Cubs got it x 3 in SD. What an incredible season that ended with a thud.
@@jamalmccoy2441 I agree. When they went back to the "Brown" they picked the wrong retro uniform to copy. They should have copied the 1984 Steve Garvey 'taco' uniforms which are featured in this video.
In 1984 at Jack Murphy Stadium, with Eric Show on the mound, I was 12 and concentrated as hard as I could to make him drop the ball as he went to make his next pitch. Don't know why. Weirdest thing. I put all my might into it. He went to make a pitch and the ball falls out of his hand on the ground. I couldn't believe it. Damnedest thing that ever happened to me and nothing like it has happened since.
If there's any city who deserves a WS Champions it's San Diego. When the Padres pull it off it will be for everyone who wore the Brown and Yellow. Especially Tony Gwyn❤️❤️❤️❤️
I remember the 1984 season. It was the year of the Cubs. I'm a Dodger fan and my Dad was not a baseball fan at all and still isn't. But there was an excitement and thrill with watching the Cubs that year in 84. My Dad would put on the Cubs games almost daily and became a big fan of Ryan Sandberg and admired how he played. Harry Carey brought a passion into those broadcasts too...then the Padres beat the Cubs and the party was over. I went back to being a Dodger fan and my Dad went back to never watching a season baseball game again. I don't recall watching the World Series that year.
The BOOM that came from Garvey's HR in game 4 and the BOOM that came when Flannery's grounder followed by Gwynn's rocket past Sandberg have never been heard since. The noise crowd could be heard for miles. The most famous play in SD sports history was Garvey's HR.
If you prayed for the Kenny Stabler "holy roller" play that'd be your number 1 san diego play in sports history. thought you get a laugh out a that one cuz I never have. 😢
Great, thanks for placing that online. It was my first year as a Padres Season Ticket holder. Nothing ever will beat that Cubs homestand in the playoffs.....
AGENTARMES: in 1978? Or maybe ‘77, we were in San Diego for my little sisters gymnastics camp. ( She was training for the ‘80 olympics) My dad took us to the San Diego Zoo. We were diehard Dodgers fans!! DIEHARD! My hero was Steve Yeager, but my mom lusted heavily after Steve Garvey. So. We are at the zoo, me with my LA cap on, and some dude with an incredible blonde and two kids says “Hey! I like that hat!” My mom fell all over herself, and asked me to go ask him for an autograph. I’m 12 years old. I ask, we had my sisters autograph book she carried everywhere, but NO PEN! MR GARVEY waited until a Zoo employee found a mechanical pencil!! The zoo lady waited to get her pencil back! Cindy was awesome, Steve was even better! Of course, we now know Steve was a.... horny dude. But he was and is a class act!
Excellent documentary. I collect all of the cards (up to 1990) of the following '84 Padres: Gwynn, Nettles, Gossage, Kennedy, Templeton, Bochy, Whitson, Hawkins, Dravecky, Bevacqua, McReynolds, Williams, Garvey, Show, Lefferts, and Wiggins.
Alan Wiggins Donnie Moore & Eric Show just to name a few back then played the game with so much heart I believe they blamed themselves back then & took it personal & very serious when they lost back then ( blaming themselves ).....not like today's player's nope they just care about the money $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
One other thing that may have been a precursor to the ultimate fate of this team is the fact that, before the season, Ray Kroc, the team's owner and the founder of McDonald's, passed away. Then during the middle of the season, the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre takes place while the team is playing the Cubs in Chicago on July 18. That's tragically ironic because of the franchise's ties to McDonald's. Then just more than three weeks after that took place came the game which gave the team and the sport a black eye, the brawlfest in Atlanta on August 12. (Several players involved in that mess, including Alan Wiggins, Pascual Perez, and Donnie Moore all met tragic fates.) And of course, after winning the NL West, they have to return to Chicago, where they would lose the first two games, including the most lopsided Game 1 loss in MLB post-season history, before coming home. But you wonder with what happened in Games 4 and 5 if Ray Kroc and those lost in the McDonald's Massacre didn't have a role in some of what went on (remember that they were in Chicago when that happened), particularly the Cubs collapse in the fifth and sixth innings, especially the ball going through Leon Durham's legs and Alan Wiggins scoring all the way from first on Tony Gwynn's 2-run double. Of course, they were never getting past the Tigers in the World Series, because that '84 Tigers team was probably the best team for one season that entire decade.
I just bought Mario Ramirez's BP from 84. A beaut! NEVER should have changed in 85 and later to blue?! Go Pads! With Tatis Jr am sure a WS crown is on the horizon!
@@cityhawk doesn't get any better than living in San Diego. Nobody & I mean nobody has better weather year round. The beaches, California, yeah life is better in America's finest.
Luckily I was able to see many of the Padres games televised on local 📺 loved it when guys tried to run on his arm. He was just a very gifted athletic and never got the credit he deserve being MVP
22:51, "Secret weapon's here". Kurt Bevacqua could hit! I was at Game 2 of the World Series in 1984. As DH Kurt hit a 3 run HR....they were the game winning RBI's.
Tommy Lasorda had a different opinion - 'Tell you what I think about it. I think that is very, very bad for that man to make an accusation like that. That is terrible. I have never ever since I've managed ever told a pitcher to throw at anybody, nor will I ever. And if I ever did, I certainly wouldn't make him throw at a fucking .130 hitter like Lefebvre or fucking Bevacqua, who couldn't hit water if he fell out of a fucking boat. And I guaran-fucking-tee you this, when I pitched, and I was going to pitch against a fucking team that had guys on it like Bevacqua, I'd sent a fucking limousine to get the cock sucker to make sure he was in the mother fucking line-up because I'd kick that cock sucker's ass any fucking day of the week. He's a fucking mother fucking big mouth; I'll tell you that.'
As good as the Padres were, the Tigers were a team of destiny that year. The Padres were dysfunctional as hell but found a way to win. Dick Williams best managerial season. The only man to win pennants in each league in three different divisions (Boston: AL East, Oakland: AL West San Diego: NL West) and almost came close with Montreal in the NL East losing to the Dodgers
Grew up watch the A's and his ahead of his time vision of the now term "closer" Rollie Fingers was so cool with the handlebar mustache and one of ⚾️ best sliders. What a personality Dick Williams was. 😁
I'm a Cubs fan, and I can't tell you what a gut punch this Padres team gave Cub Nation that year. I'll say this though, if Wrigley Field had lights in '84, that deciding game would've been played in Chicago, and there's no doubt in my mind the result would've been different.
This team had heart. As they proved during the season, they would not only fight you, they would fight each other. Maybe bringing Machado aboard in 2019 will give them a spark.
I fucking LOVE what they did against the Braves game, beaming the Atlanta batters!! Today’s game needs a bit more of this type of hatred for other teams!!
The 1984 San Diego Padres...Major League Baseball first mixed martial arts team. And they were one punch away from turning the Bean Brawl Game into the "Malice at Fullerton County Stadium" and lose out on the pennant.Plus Kurt Bevacqua the Padres equivalent of NBA player Stephen Jackson.
I like how they try and make Eric Show out to be such an intelligent guy, but yet had NO IDEA of the racists views held by the John Birch Society. He wasn't smart enough to accept his addiction and get his life in order.
Being a New York Yankees fan back then it just didn't sit well with me seeing craig nettles and goose gossage on the pads.... I never got use to it... They were always bronx zoo Yankees in my eyes.....
