Steve Garvey tried to talk 5-year-old Travis Perreira off his initial request after the March of Dimes poster child threw out the ceremonial first pitch on this date — July 3 — in 1983.
A home run?
“How about a single?” Garvey replied.
Perreira persisted.
“How about a homer and a single?”
Garvey fell short but Perreira couldn’t have been complaining.
The Padres’ new first baseman missed the single but still accounted for all of his team’s runs with a fifth-inning grand slam in a 4-1 victory over the visiting San Francisco Giants.