Salt Lake Padres

Pacific Coast League (1970)

Background

For one season, during the summer of 1970, Salt Lake City, Utah hosted the top farm club of the San Diego Padres in the Pacific Coast League. The Salt Lake Padres suffered a wretched season on the field and the short-lived partnership remains sufficiently obscure that both Baseball-Reference.com and some editions of The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball published by Baseball America mis-identify the 1970 Salt Lake teams as the “Bees”, the historic name used by various Salt Lake City clubs dating back to the early 19th century.

Part of the confusion around the team’s name undoubtedly stems from its brief prior history with the San Diego Padres organization. San Diego itself was a long-time Pacific Coast League club from 1936 until 1968. In 1969, the Padres joined the Majors as a National League expansion club and took on a roster of minor league affiliates. The lowest among this group in 1969 was the team’s Rookie-level farm team in the Pioneer League located in Salt Lake City. The SLC club was known as the Salt Lake City Giants in 1968. When the Padres replaced San Francisco as the team’s Major League parent club in 1969, the club went back to its traditional name of “Bees”.  But in September 1969, San Diego announced that it would own and operate a new Salt Lake City club in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League and the Bees name was mothballed in favor of the Padres brand.

In Competition

Sometimes Minor League teams that fail in their developmental mission are quite successful in competition. Teams stocked with journeyman veterans no longer rated not quite good enough for the next level can often beat up on prospect-rich clubs more concerned with pitch counts that final scores.

Well … the 1970 Salt Lake Padres succeeded on neither front. Under manager Don Zimmer the Padres finished 44-99 for the worst record in the 8-team PCL.

On the developmental side, 19 players who spent time with Salt Lake during the 1970 season also spent time in Major Leagues. But most were already on the back nine of their careers. The team only developed on everyday Major Leaguer: Jerry Morales, who saw regular time patrolling the outfield for the Chicago Cubs during the mid-1970’s. Morales was also the last member of the 1970 Salt Lake Padres to remain active as a player, playing his final Major League game in 1983.

21-year old catcher Fred Kendall was the only other player from the 1970 Salt Lake Padres to play into the 1980’s.

Moving On

Shortly after the 1970 season, the Padres announced they would depart Salt Lake City and take over as parent club of the PCL’s Hawaii Islanders instead.  The move effectively amounted to a swap of PCL farm clubs with the California Angels, who had sponsored Hawaii during the 1970 season. The Angels took over in Salt Lake and Utah’s PCL franchise was re-named the Salt Lake City Angels ahead of the 1971 season.

Don Zimmer went to to manage the San Diego Padres in 1972 & 1973, and later the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs. He was part of six World Series champion teams as both a player and coach during a 65-year career in professional baseball.

Salt Lake Padres Shop

In Memoriam

Manager Don Zimmer died on June 4, 2014 at age 83. New York Times obituary.

Pitcher Vic Albury passed away on April 18, 2017 at age 69.

Links

Pacific Coast League Media Guides

Pacific Coast League Programs

###