Petco Park is an experience as much as a place. It’s the morning and mid-day sun shining on the Western Metal Supply Co. building, a brick giant built in 1909 that serves as the left-field anchor more than nine decades later.
It’s the downtown skyline rising beyond outfield walls, framing a beating heart among all that steel and concrete. It’s Gallagher Square, a spot that connects the region’s laid-back lifestyle with its heady dreams.
It’s the place where San Diego’s sports euphoria and angst intermingle.
More than anything, it’s the flourishing, technicolor vision of ballpark bulldog Larry Lucchino, who died Tuesday at age 78. He lives on, pitch by pitch and moment by moment, in the cathedral he brought to life 20 years ago.
“I think Petco is better, honestly, than when it opened,” Padres Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman said. “Really, there aren’t many venues that get better with age. Larry wanted a downtown venue in San Diego that was unlike any other.
“Hats off to what he did here.”
As Petco buzzed Wednesday during a 3-2 win over the Cardinals, all those details and touches that bounced around in Lucchino’s noggin endured.
Fans peered over the Western Metal Supply Co.’s bunting in left and lounged on blankets beyond center. Others watched from balconies and rooftops outside the park. The surrounding sidewalks teemed with activity.
A legacy, cemented.
Padres All-Star Manny Machado has toured all the parks and stadiums in the game. He counts Petco and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, another Lucchino-inspired shrine where Machado played, as his top two.
“They’re just different, you know?” he said. “A lot of baseball stadiums are pretty much similar. They just have their own little hits. You’ve got the Western Metal Supply (Co.) here, you have the brick tower (Baltimore & Ohio Warehouse) at Camden Yards. Both of those things tie them together.
“You walk into the stadium and you feel the presence of it.”
Petco Park bear hugs downtown, weaving the city itself into its DNA. Lucchino saw more than base lines, outfield grass and the basic skeletal structure of a baseball destination.
He demanded personality. He re-thought possible.
It was not enough to visit a ballpark. Lucchino wanted you to interact with it, relate to it, find the specialness in it. He wanted it to rob you of breath and be unforgettable.
“If you ask any player that comes here, I would say the majority of guys, this is like their favorite place to go,” Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth said. “The stadium’s beautiful, where it sits, how it’s laid out. It’s one of the few stadiums in baseball that the backdrop is the city skyline, us and Pittsburgh.
“I think it’s one of the best atmospheres in baseball.”
Lucchino ensured it, muscling through City Hall, lawsuits and a thicket of obstacles almost too daunting to believe. He willed the place into being, knowing how it could reshape a city and a franchise.
He saw what others didn’t. He fought when others wouldn’t.
“The Padres would be someplace else, that’s for sure,” Hoffman said. “Maybe in Washington or somewhere in South Florida. The franchise would have moved on.”
Some would argue the threats from John Moores, owner at the time, amounted to leverage and agenda-pushing bluster. Whatever the truth of it, Petco Park silenced the whispers.
Perhaps and hopefully, forever.
“The thing I think is impressive about it, it’s stood the test of time,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “It’s still feels like a new park. It’s so well thought out. It’s beautiful, it’s loud. It’s not traditional.
“If you don’t get it right in the beginning, you’re in trouble. He got it right.”
Lucchino thirsted for winning as much as the experiences he loved to create. That sense of the man caused former Padres manager and current Rangers boss Bruce Bochy to share a story.
“I still laugh about this,” Bochy said Tuesday. “Larry was so competitive. Randy Smith was our GM. One night early on in Trevor (Hoffman’s) career, he had one of his rare blown saves. Larry and I had an agreement we’d talk about the game the next day and let things settle down.
“Well, he was waiting at the hotel. He said, ‘I just wanted you to know you don’t have to use Trevor all the time.’ “
The next night, Bochy opted for Marc Kroon … who blew the save.
“I saw Larry and he said, ‘Never mind, never mind,’ ” said Bochy, with a laugh. “He pushed you. He challenged you. It was good for me.”
The brick-and-mortar impact of Petco Park, though, made Lucchino burst with pride. When I spoke to him in 2022 as the Padres prepared to induct him into their hall of fame, I asked a question.
What’s your San Diego legacy?
“I hope people see me as someone who contributed to the strength of the city and downtown,” Lucchino said. “Hopefully, it goes outside the foul lines.”
It did then. It still does today.
