This is No. 42 in our yearlong countdown of the greatest moments in San Diego sports history. Read more about “The 52” here.
Still in its infancy as a franchise, the Padres had yet to forge a winning season, let alone add any real hardware to the trophy case, when Randy Jones officially dragged the Padres onto the map. Of course, the story behind his 1976 NL Cy Young campaign begins long before a crowd of 44,728 rose to its feet to welcome “Junkman” to the mound for that year’s opener against the Braves, before his first 20-win campaign a year earlier, before having to go home tasting the bitterness of 22 losses for an entire offseason.