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Petco Park Visionary Larry Lucchino a No-Doubt Hall of Fame Pick for Padres

July 9, 2022 - International League (IL)
Worcester Red Sox News Release


Many attribute Petco Park's existence to the sheer stubbornness of former Padres President and CEO Larry Lucchino. He fought through 17 lawsuits, two years of delays and an endless political thicket to usher through the roughly $456 million anchor of San Diego's invigorated downtown.

Then again, it also could have been his bone-deep distaste for drab and dreary Three Rivers Stadium in his hometown of Pittsburgh.

Lucchino lamented the move from Forbes Field, a character-rich place where Bill Mazeroski's walk-off homer toppled the larger-than-life Yankees in the 1960 World Series. Honus Wagner played there. So did Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Pirates star Dick Groat, Lucchino's favorite.

All the history oozing from one field's pores, sapped at another.

"You went from a real park to a concrete donut," Lucchino said. "You could have been anywhere. I thought the loss was substantial, which made me want me to do an old-style stadium."

That turned into stadiums, plural. Lucchino, the driving force behind Baltimore's Camden Yards, Petco and five ballparks in all, is being inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame inside the inspiring structure he brought to life.

The ceremony, which also will honor legendary broadcaster and fellow inductee Ted Leitner, will take place at home plate before Thursday's matchup with the Giants.

Lucchino, 76, won one World Series ring as president of the Orioles and three more after leaving the Padres to take over as president and CEO of the Red Sox in 2002. He also is a Super Bowl champion from his time in the front office with NFL's Washington franchise and owns a Final Four watch as a member of Princeton's 1965 basketball team.

Most impressively, Lucchino won in hazard-filled hallways and courtrooms as well.

The potent cocktail of dogged determination and fight created a living, breathing, legacy that has become as much a part of San Diego as postcard sunsets and fish tacos.

"I hope people see me as someone who contributed to the strength of the city and downtown," said Lucchino, chairman of the Worcester Red Sox. "Hopefully, it goes outside the foul lines. (Being inducted) means a lot to me."

The story of Lucchino's road to re-envisioning ballparks is not simply about what he did, but with whom he did it.

The kid who grew to love sports in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Greenfield landed at Princeton, where he played basketball with visionary star Bill Bradley. The team excelled under the All-American, who became a Rhodes Scholar, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate.

Bradley, an Olympic gold medalist, helped secure a pair of NBA titles with the Knicks.

"They were building a basketball dynasty at Princeton," Lucchino said. "I had to struggle for playing time the first two years, then I was the sixth man on the team that went to the NCAAs. It was very exciting.

"Bradley was a quiet guy. Reserved. He blossomed later in life and is a much more engaging, outgoing guy."

The next stop was law school at Yale, where Lucchino became a classmate of another future presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A later role placed the pair on the same, historic team.

"We got to know each other pretty well the following year when we worked on the Watergate investigation and the impeachment of (former President) Richard Nixon," Lucchino said. "It was a very distinguished and diverse group.

"Hillary, I came to like and respect her when I saw her work ethic."

The breakthrough into professional sports came after Lucchino was hired as an attorney at the famed Williams & Connolly firm in Washington, D.C. Founding partner Edward Bennett Williams owned a stake in the area's NFL team.

When litigation related to the team cropped up, Williams asked to be involved and eventually become general counsel. When the legal titan bought the Orioles, Lucchino became involved with Major League Baseball as well.

"If not for Edward Bennett Williams, I wouldn't have the life or career I've had," Lucchino said. "I owe him and his family an enormous debt of gratitude."

Tasked with breathing life into the Orioles new stadium, Lucchino recalled those days in Pittsburgh. He dreamed of blending feel and function. He again leaned on that thinking in San Diego.

The formula seemed simple.

"We wanted traditional, old-fashioned ballparks with modern amenities," Lucchino recalled. "If we said that one time, we said it 1,000 times. They both reflect their town. We wanted that.

"We wanted an industrial look, a warehouse setting in Baltimore. We wanted the red brick (of Petco's Western Metal Supply Co. building) and the outdoorsy reflection of the climate and culture in San Diego. We didn't want to fall for the 'mission look.'

"We wanted them to look and smell like the towns they represented and I think we succeeded in doing that."

Success on one coast led to a new challenge on the other.

"(Padres owner) John Moores wanted me to come to San Diego because of Camden Yards," Lucchino said.

As an executive, Lucchino guided the Padres to the 1996 playoffs before turning his sights fully on Petco Park. As Lucchino and Moores tackled the public-relations push - "We campaigned anywhere they would have us" - the team's run to the 1998 World Series offered a critical springboard.

The Padres landed nearly 60 percent of the vote to build Petco in November 1998.

"It clearly had an impact," Lucchino said.

Obstacles and frustrations needled the project for years, until Petco opened on April 8, 2004.

Lucchino's vision and perseverance delivered a civic gem.

"I think we established San Diego for generations to come as a great baseball town with a great facility," he said.

That's a hall-worthy legacy, without a doubt.

This piece originally ran in The San Diego Union-Tribune on July 6, 2022

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