Padres Try to Cross Great Divide

The World Series between the Surf City Padres and Big Apple Yankees provides a stark contrast in payrolls, revenues, management styles and, of course, respective cities.

An almost biblical contrast, San Diego owner John Moores was saying Thursday.

“It’s a David and Goliath story,” Moores suggested as he and wife Becky prepared to leave Atlanta for New York on their private jet, the Padres following via charter and armed with slingshots named Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby, Sterling Hitchcock and Trevor Hoffman, among others.

“It’s the rich guys against the poor guys, the haves against the have-nots,” Moores said. “The Yankees have unlimited revenues and we’re so strapped financially that we have to recycle Styrofoam cups.”

Really?

“Well, if we don’t, it’s just because no one has thought of it,” Moores said, obviously embellishing to make a point.

Which is?

“There’s probably more [payroll and revenue] disparity between the two clubs in the World Series than in any other comparable sports event,” he said. “And that makes it cool.

“It makes our meeting a good deal more memorable and highly implausible for us to having got there. We’re like country cousins going to the city for the first time, but I damn sure wouldn’t want to bet a lot of money against Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby, Sterling Hitchcock and Trevor Hoffman. Of course, the Yankees have some great pitching too.”

The Padres have been working this poor-cousin underdog bit through the playoffs, leaning on it as an incentive while eliminating the favored Houston Astros, who won 102 regular-season games, and the favored Atlanta Braves, who won a franchise-record 106 as the alleged team of the decade.

Now come the Yankees, who have an overall record of 121-50, and a payroll of more than $70 million, compared to the $50 million of the Padres.

If Moores, looking forward to his first Yankee Stadium visit, is having fun with his first pennant and the Padres’ first in 14 years, if he is milking the disparity--”Their payroll is 40% to 50% larger than ours and that’s enormous with a 25-man roster.”--well, who can blame him?

He claims to have subsidized the team with $70 million in personal stake since buying it for about $80 million in 1994, salvaging and rebuilding after the devastating reign of Tom Werner.

He knew going in this year that it could be the last chance for the core of a veteran team that could lose four or more key players to free agency, and a pivotal year for the Padres’ future in general, pending the outcome of a vote Nov. 3 on funding for a new ballpark.

“The season is not over, but just to get to the World Series is a big deal for us, kind of a fairy tale,” he said. “I wouldn’t put it in the context of a last chance, but we had a feeling the planets were aligning and we could make a realistic run. The big-market teams have dominated the postseason in recent years. Opportunities don’t present themselves that often for a small-market team, so it’s very rewarding to have taken advantage of it and played as well as we have.

“This has also been the best baseball year of my life and that makes it even sweeter. I mean, I don’t think baseball has ever had a more successful and exciting season. It’s like America reverting to its roots in recognition of something enduring, despite that awful, awful strike.”

Moores made his financial strike in the software business. At 54, he is one of the country’s leading philanthropists. He and his wife have donated more than $70 million to the University of Houston, their alma mater, and $10 million to San Diego State, funding the new Tony Gwynn baseball stadium. He has given more than $20 million and pledged $50 million more to the Carter Center at Emory University in Atlanta and he has initiated several community programs in San Diego involving Padre players.

In addition, Moores and other private investors are pledging $115 million of the proposed $411-million redevelopment project that features a $270-million ballpark near the San Diego waterfront. He said that without the guarantee of improved revenue in a baseball-only facility, it will be difficult to maintain a competitive roster, since he can’t continue to subsidize losses.

“Under no circumstances will you see us selling the Padres,” he said. “The club is too important to myself and my wife to do what Wayne Huizenga felt he had to do with the [Florida] Marlins, cutting payroll so that somebody else would buy it.”

However, if the stadium is voted down, the assumption is that Moores would consider moving the team.

“I’ve told people that we’ll jump off that bridge when the time comes,” he said.

“Absolutely, our first preference is to stay.”

It has also been assumed that with each playoff advance, the Padres have excited and influenced more voters.

Moores isn’t sure.

“I don’t think the World Series automatically guarantees success [at the polls],” he said. “We’re worried about a low turnout.

“The more successful we are on the field, the more inclined voters may be to think it’s a fait accompli.”

At this point, polls indicate Proposition C will pass narrowly, and that support is building.

“That’s positive, but the wild card is voter turnout,” Moores said. “There’s a malaise regarding politics that probably stems from Monica and Bill.”

Moores, of course, has been a major player in the stadium issue, but the team is left to President Larry Luchino and General Manager Kevin Towers, whom he credits for its success.

“I don’t meddle,” he said. “It’s not at all hard for me to stay out of it.

“I’ve been in enough successful businesses to recognize there’s a lot of people smarter than me. My management style is to find the best people and let them perform. When you are forced to operate with the limited revenue that we have, it comes down to winning with better management, which is what Larry and Kevin have provided.”

All of that is part of the contrast between the Padres and Yankees, between Moores and George Steinbrenner. If anything, Moores is the anti-Boss, almost never in the clubhouse or anyone’s face, whereas Steinbrenner almost always is.

“He’s always been very cordial to me, but we definitely have very different styles,” Moores said of Steinbrenner.

“He’s one of the original, Type A managers, but if everything I read is true, he’s been much more effective in the last few years, getting more bang for his bucks. The results speak for themselves.”

The Yankees may now be a team with more character than characters, but still, in John Moores’ view, very much the Goliath in this baseball epic.