We needed a few days to truly digest this. The San Diego Padres have announced that they are renaming Palm Court Plaza, the Bud Selig Hall of Fame Plaza, which is located outside of Left Field, near the busiest entrance in the park. The name change is to coincide with a relaunch of their own Hall of Fame, and a celebration of Padres history.
To date, with the addition of Relief Pitcher Trevor Hoffman last year, the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame includes nine men. The other eight who have been previously inducted are Buzzie Bavasi, Nate Colbert, Jerry Coleman, Tony Gwynn, Randy Jones, Ray Kroc, Dick Williams and Dave Winfield. The Padres, have been to two World Series, though have yet to hold the championship trophy in triumph.
Although San Diego has yet to win Baseball’s Holy Grail, the renaming of Palm Court Plaza to Selig Hall of Fame Plaza is a real headscratcher. Selig, has not exactly been a popular commissioner, and there is really no tie between him and the Padres organization. The intention was to honor Selig, who is leaving his post as the Major League Baseball Commissioner this year, though again, his tenure has been associated with only controversy.
With the death this past of year of Tony Gwynn, the Hall of Fame player and arguably the greatest San Diego Padre of all time, it is difficult to imagine that anyone other than the former multi-time Batting Champion as the man whom a Padres Hall of Fame is named after. If they were not going to select Gwynn, than at the very least they could have chosen who has had a positive affect on the franchise. This is not something that is usually attributed with Bud Selig.
Although we were happy to see the San Diego Padres attempt to celebrate their past history with a greater zeal, could they not have chosen to rename with it at least one hundred better choices than this?
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