Penant Pays Off For Yuma, Ariz. : Desert Town Rallies’ Round Padres’ Flag

The chief executive of a Southwestern restaurant chain is scheduled to make his first visit to this desert outpost late next month.

After inspecting the steaks, seafood and service at the other outlets in his chain, this corporate official was overdue to check out the Yuma branch.

His board of directors doesn’t have to know about this, but it isn’t really the restaurant business that prompted Yuma’s inclusion on the itinerary.

Nor is it the balmy desert climate, or even a desire to take in the infamous territorial prison that has made Yuma synonymous with the Old West for nearly 100 years.

The real reason this particular gentleman is headed for the very southwest corner of Arizona is to witness the spring training exertions of the San Diego Padres.

A springtime bastion of the Yuma economy since their inception in 1969, the Padres will be a big draw this March after their semi-miraculous transformation from a second-division ballclub to World Series participant in 1984.

Hotel accommodations--none of which could be confused with, say, the Beverly Hills Hotel in ambiance--are virtually nonexistent on dates the Padres are scheduled for one of their 12 exhibition appearances at newly enlarged Desert Sun Stadium, centerpiece of the Ray Kroc Baseball Complex.

One of the highlights will be the April 2 visit of the Chicago Cubs, losers of last fall’s stirring National League championship series. Tickets are scarce for that one, while reserved and grandstand seats are already sold out for four weekend games the Padres play against the Angels (March 16-17), Cleveland Indians (March 30) and Milwaukee Brewers (March 31).

And therein lies the rub for the local manager of the restaurant chain whose corporate chief is coming.

“I’ve had four box seats for every game for the last five years, but I’m going to have to relinquish them while the boss is here--and I can’t get anymore,” the Yuma restaurant operator said. A sense of discretion makes it necessary for him to remain anonymous.

The Padres, it appears, have become the In thing, both for the 50,000 citizens who live here year round, and the 40,000 snowbirds who flock here from October through the end of March.

Tourism pumps about $200 million into the local economy, according to the Chamber of Commerce, and baseball is responsible for perhaps 20% of that sum.

“The Padres are a tremendous economic boon for us,” a chamber of commerce official said. “Because of baseball, the Yuma dateline appears in papers all over the country, and spring training extends our winter tourist season by a full month.”

There are no figures on just how much baseball means to Yuma, but if spring training adds four weeks of nearly full hotels, it’s easy to come up with a figure in the millions.

“How can I get World Series tickets?” is the question most frequently asked this winter by snowbirds with license plates like Alberta, Montana and North Dakota.

Local fans, who became learned in these matters last October, try not to laugh when some unknowing tourist asks a silly question. “Let’s just pull for the Padres to get back in the Series,” is a common response.

Somewhat surprisingly, in view of the apparent depth of interest in the Padres, there isn’t as yet any visible evidence of their residence in Yuma.

Fourth Ave., the main artery through the heart of town, is barren of any signs or banners welcoming the Padres, whose pitchers and catchers are to report today (Sunday).

There are plenty of no vacancy signs, but nothing that says, “Yuma Welcomes the Padres,” as might be expected.

Perhaps, in its growing sophistication, Yuma is just beyond that stage.

Certainly, Yuma is growing.

Traffic on Fourth Ave., which is lined with motels, fast food joints, ersatz Western stores and a single cinema fourplex, slows at noontime to a creep suggestive of an L.A. freeway at rush hour.

Indicative of the growth is the addition of 6,000 parking spots for recreational vehicles, bringing the total to 16,000, up from 10,000 a year ago.

Since the motels are more than 80% booked for March, and sold out on game days, people must have somewhere to stay.

“We’re exploding now, and there doesn’t seem to be any organized opposition to growth,” said Jim Bjornstad, a chamber of commerce official.

“Oh, my wife resents standing in line at the grocery store, but that’s about as far as anyone goes with the complaints.”

Don Cutlip, head of a group called Caballeros de Yuma, said interest in the Padres has mushroomed in the last five years.

And his group, which numbers 70 businessmen and serves as a greeting arm of the community, has its eye on a second baseball team making Yuma its spring training base.

He couldn’t name names, but Cutlip suggested that Yuma has been in contact with interests pursuing major league expansion franchises.

Steve Garvey, Goose Gossage and Graig Nettles may be retired by then, but it’s conceivable Yuma may one day challenge Phoenix’s monopoly on Cactus League teams.

In conjunction with the Padres, the Caballeros were behind the construction of 1,000 new seats at the Ray Kroc Baseball Complex, plus expansion of press facilities, visiting locker room and even a room for umpires.

Yuma is anticipating visits from TV networks and national newspapers this spring, so accommodations at the complex had to be made. There is now space for 30 media representatives in the press box.

The demand for tickets to exhibition games has so taxed the chamber of commerce, which serves as a ticket agency, that a computerized system is scheduled to go begin next spring.

Some of the locals are a bit nervous about all the attention Yuma is going to receive.

“Every year we get copies of articles by visiting newspaper columnists complaining about the night life,” said Randy Hoeft, sports editor of the Yuma Daily Sun.

“They always write about how there is nothing to do here, like there is in Phoenix. Somehow, the Padres made it to the World Series last year in spite of the lack of night life in spring training. I wonder if we will read the same complaints this year.”

He isn’t alone in his apprehension.

Cutlip doesn’t want the world to get the wrong idea about Yuma, either. He wouldn’t want anyone to think this is a one-dimensional town.

“Baseball is not the only thing we’ve got going for us,” he said.

“Yuma is more than just a sleepy little railroad town in the desert between Phoenix and San Diego. We get tired of hearing there’s nothing to do here but watch a barber give a haircut.”

Cutlip has lived here 10 years after moving from Houston, and he would never consider moving to another big city. He doesn’t miss the smog, the congestion or the crime associated with metropolitan areas.

Cutlip had yet to discover the joys of Yuma when Buzzie Bavasi dispatched John Mattei to scout the area as a spring training base for the Padres.

That was in July, 1968, when Bavasi was a high-ranking Dodger executive about to transfer to the newly formed Padres, who joined the National League in 1969.

Mattei relinquished his duties as one of the Dodgers’ trainers to become traveling secretary for the expansion San Diego club, a title he has held ever since.

His first impression of Yuma was not entirely favorable. The temperature was in the vicinity of 120 degrees when he arrived from Los Angeles.

The “ballpark” consisted of a vacant field with a couple of light towers. There was also a fair to middling collection of scorpions.

Somehow, the enterprising townspeople had a facility ready for Mattei by the following spring. The first Padres had to exercise in Triple A uniforms, but that was the level of competence for most of them, anyway.

A fashion footnote certain to disappoint a goodly number of 1985 spring training viewers: the Padres will not be attired in their new uniforms during their stay in Yuma, according to Mattei.

The team’s new uniforms, which received favorable notices upon their introduction last month in San Diego, will not be worn until the regular season begins.

Instead, the Padres will be on display in their laughable old brown and gold togs, which were considered less than Triple A quality by many critics.