Free Padres Game Cheers S.D. Jobless

Forget “bat night” and “cap night.” In a sign of the times, it was Unemployment Night at the Padres baseball game here Tuesday.

The unemployed showed up by the thousands at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, lured by a first-of-its-kind promotion that offered the jobless two free $5 tickets, a coupon for two free hot dogs and two 16-ounce drinks, and a certificate for a free sandwich.

Some had their friends drive them, because they no longer own automobiles. “Can’t afford a car,” James Ekern said. “Not when I’m unemployed.”

Robert Casey said going to a baseball game when you’re unemployed is like “manna from heaven.” He hasn’t seen a game since losing his job as a sales representative for a uniform company here.

“I don’t go to movies. I don’t even rent movies. And I don’t date . . . unless you know any rich girls,” he said. “Then maybe I’m interested.”

They were among about 2,500 of the state’s unemployed who were honored at Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs.

“We thought it was an excellent move to try to get a few people out to the ballpark,” Padre official Bill McDonald said as the jobless lined up at the Gate C ticket window, “and to show some consideration for these people.”

Ekern and Casey, two of the 98,000 people who are unemployed in San Diego County, thought the team’s gesture was, in Casey’s word, “terrific.”

“You have no idea how depressing this gets,” Casey said. “It causes so much stress. The (unemployment) check I get doesn’t cover all the bills. It hardly comes close. And living off credit cards is never a desirable way to go, but sometimes you have to do it.”

Casey, 27, said he barely makes his $500 portion of the rent on the two-bedroom apartment he shares with a roommate. Unemployment means “scraping by for living expenses,” having no money for entertainment and praying that emergency expenses never crop up.

“My brother recently got married back home in Massachusetts,” he said. “And, of course, I had to go. Wouldn’t have missed it. But believe me, when I committed to fly back, I had no idea I wouldn’t have a job.”

Ekern, 29, a machinist by trade, was laid off the first week in August.

“We made parts for jet products,” he said. “Business was so slow, it was unbelievable. I should have known it was coming, but you never quite expect it when it does.”

Ekern finds unemployment “really boring. You put in all these applications, and nothing ever happens. Fortunately, my girlfriend and her son just got jobs (after being unemployed), and that’s made things easier.”

As for the presidential race that day in, day out, hammers at the unemployment issue, Ekern is listening to only one candidate:

“Bill Clinton is always asking, ‘Were you better off four years ago?’ and I have to say, ‘No way!’ ” he said. “I was living in Colorado, making $9 an hour, but I owned my home. Here, I was making $14.50 an hour, never could buy a home, and I’m out of work.”

As bad as it’s gotten, Kevin Kelly, 27, and Marta Macrina, 38, of El Cajon don’t blame President Bush, whom they plan to vote for.

“The economy sucks,” said Kelly, who lost his job as a smog technician when his employer went out of business. “Right now, it’s at a real low. But I don’t know how much any president can affect that.”

Macrina said she and her husband have a mortgage payment that’s “tougher and tougher to make” without her income. They also have three children. Macrina receives $84 a week in state unemployment compensation--about half her previous income.

Robert Solorzano, 25, who lost his job as a printer when his Santee company consolidated with a firm in Northern California, has had to resort to living with his mother. Indefinitely.

Jeannette Sandu, 42, has been jobless since December, when her work as a data-entry operator was suddenly “no more.”

“I feel my age hurts me too,” she said. “San Diego is notorious for that--for not hiring older employees because, let’s face it, they have to be paid more. But I go to the unemployment office, and the stories are just horrible. When will this ever end?”

“Who knows?” said Casey, showing the ticket agent the required proof to get into the game--stubs from a recent unemployment check.

“A little baseball will make things better for a while,” he said. “Maybe I’ll even get to see Gary Sheffield (the Padres’ All-Star third baseman) hit another home run.

“But then tomorrow, it’s back to the same old blues.”