Remembering the 1984 San Diego Padres
Credit: AP Photo
GARRY TEMPLETON- SHORTSTOP
Garry Templeton amassed 4,512 at-bats as a Padre with a .252/.325/.418 batting line. He totaled 43 home runs and drove in 427 runners with 101 stolen bases.
He played a total of 10 seasons with the Padres from 1981-1991. In 148 games that 1984 season, Templeton hit .258 with two homers and 35 runs batted in.
The St Louis Cardinals drafted him in the first round (13th pick) of the 1975 draft. It only took Templeton two years to reach the majors as he made his professional debut on August 9, 1976. He ended up hitting .291 that year in 213 at-bats. Very impressive for a 20-year old.
December 10, 1981, the St Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres agreed on a six-player trade. The Padres traded defensive wizard Ozzie Smith, Al Olmsted, and Steve Mura to the Cardinals for offensive shortstop Garry Templeton, Sixto Lezcano, and Luis DeLeon. Templeton had worn out his welcome in St. Louis while Smith was in a contract battle with the Padres so the deal seemed to make sense for both teams.
Templeton is probably most commonly known for his comments about not showing up to play the 1979 All-Star game (which he was elected as a reserve).
He had better numbers than Dave Concepcion and Larry Bowa, who were selected as starters. Templeton openly stated: “If I ain’t startin. I ain’t departin”. He did not play that year in the All-Star Game and was only elected to one more Mid-Season Classic. (1985 with Padres).
As a Padre, Templeton never really displayed that prolific bat or a bad attitude for that matter. He was still an above-average hitting shortstop, but never once hit .300 as a Padre. His best season was 1985 when he hit .282 with six home runs, 55 runs batted in and 16 stolen bases in 148 games. He was named team captain in 1987, by then manager Larry Bowa and remained captain until he was traded in 1991.
Garry Templeton stayed in the game of baseball and has managed in the Anaheim Angels organization for four different times. He lived in Poway for a time after his retirement. His son Garry Templeton Jr. played minor league baseball from 1999-2007 and became manager of the Hawaii Stars in 2012. The apple does not fall too far from the tree.
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James was born and raised in America’s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that’s our motto. Enjoy.
I just happened upon this article and I’ve got those memories coming back too. I was a 21-yr old punk rocker and surfer from Pacific Beach. I was also a pretty good pitcher and have loved baseball all my life.
I remember traffic just stopped on Ingraham St where I lived and people getting out of their cars to celebrate with the other motorists. Neighbors all running out of their apartments and houses. The whole city was partying!
What I remember the most was Tony Gwynn. Seemingly every damn day, 3 for 5, 3 for 5, 4 for 5, 2 for 4, and on and on. I’ve always been a big box score nut and every morning I’d have to get the San Diego Union and I’d go straight to the boxes and straight to Tony Gwynn’s line. Even if I already knew what he had! He was truly one of the greatest hitters of all time. Top 10, easily.
I miss surfing Blacks Beach every day at dawn, and I miss watching Tony Gwynn hit the ball wherever he wanted to put it. He could hit it into a bucket.
Cheers, Joey Coma.
thank you for the read and comments
Great write-up. Brings back a lot of memories. I went to more games that year than any year before or after, or ever will.
Yesterday I watched the 5th game of the playoffs with the Cubs (on Youtube). I never saw it on TV before as I was fortunate to be in the front row, right above Florence Henderson before she sang the National Anthem (the tickets for that game were easier to get because no one thought they would make it to game 5 after losing the first 2).
To me, the smash by Tony Gwynn through/over Ryne Sandberg was more important than Garvey’s HR the game before, yet Steverino gets all the cred.
In fact, Garvey was average at best. He had about a net 1.5 WAR over 5 years! That is 0.3 WAR per year, as the highest paid player. Yet he batted 3rd or 4th! This seems eerily similar to Hosmer………