The Sweet Spot: The Story of the San Diego Padres Petco Park [Hardcover]

Tony Gwynn (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2004

On April 9, 2004 the San Diego Padres inaugurated their new ballpark, Petco, with a win against upstate rival San Francisco Giants. The Sweet Spot lays out the story behind the construction of Petco, considered by many to be America's most beautiful ballpark. From commemorative bricks to acres of peat moss and sod to each and every one of the 42,000 seats, The Sweet Spot's 350-plus color photos, park trivia, interviews, and more clearly and beautifully reveal each step of Petco's four-year path from pre-groundbreaking to completion. Detailed behind-the-scenes information, including collaboration with Padres stars such as Phil Nevin and team MVP Mark Loretta, allows The Sweet Spot to deliver up secrets for curious fans. The only authorized history of San Diego’s Petco Park, The Sweet Spot features a foreword by Padres legend Tony Gwynn and is a vivid visual commemoration of Petco Park's backbreaking construction and victorious grand opening.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 189 pages
• Publisher: Canum (October 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932938001
• ISBN-13: 978-1932938005
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 10.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sweet Spot: The Story of the San Diego Padres Petco Park, January 28, 2005

By 

Douglas D. Rich "Retired English professor." (Warrenton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sweet Spot: The Story of the San Diego Padres Petco Park (Hardcover)

A minority owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, Jennifer Moores, writes in this book that "the magic of baseball is that everyone can play-the brilliance of it is that only a few can do it well." The same might be said of the genre of promotional pieces of which this book is a part: The magic of this kind of writing is that everyone tries to do it-the brilliance of it is that only a few do it well. As one whose livelihood has been dependent on reading books carefully, I'm convinced this book is one of the few of its kind that has done its job right.

Early in the book one of the writers explains its title, stating that hitting a ball on the sweet spot gives one the "exquisite feeling" of putting the "fat part of the lumber on the belly of the ball. The sensation is solid and satisfying. The same sentiments were felt by a collective front, which conceived and raised PETCO Park. With a focused and steadfast team, the resulting ballpark is not only alluring-it offers a home that is solid and satisfying for the players, neighborhood, and fans alike."

As someone who enjoys the game but who is naïve to much that is part of the culture of professional baseball, this book provides me with a helpful look into the sweet spot where much of it is staged-all the way from conception and design through the mechanics and Herculean struggles of construction through placing it in the context of the environment of San Diego and culminating in its dedication to "San Diego, baseball fans, and the women and men who built a dream."

What is most remarkable to me is the tribute this book pays to those women and men-most of whom are residents within the San Diego community-who actually constructed the ball park. Many of the names of the over-2000 construction workers can be found on the inside lining of both front and back covers of the book. Wonderfully detailed, full-page photographs of varied individuals posed on site adorn its pages. Almost one-third of the over-350 photographs are of workers active on the job, doing what they do best-hitting their own sweet spot, which will endure far past their time. As further tribute, majority owners John and Becky Moores purchased 2,084 memorial bricks on which were inscribed individual names of the workers with a hardhat emblem and had them installed along the walkways of Petco Park.

From the conception of a park within the Park-with its own diamond for kids to use and the low-cost seating sections available-to the tributes to players and military personnel stationed nearby, the movers and shakers of the Padres organization have made their priorities clear. One well used construction helmet shown center page partway through the book contains a Biblical reference to Romans 10:9-10, which reads, in part, "For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved." On this project their talk has been followed by their walk.

Doug Rich