Remember When Garth Brooks Played For The San Diego Padres?

Garth brooks country music

Happy Opening Day, everybody.

Today is one of the best days of the year.

The grass is cut, chalk-lines drawn, dirt raked, and the MLB season is ready to kick off with my Philadelphia Phillies taking on the Texas Rangers.

Every opening day, I’m taken back to so many memories the sport has provided for me over the years. From T-Ball to high school, the game was my first love and gave me my first sports heroes, like Mike Piazza and Chase Utley.

While most of those memories deal with games I played in or watched, there’s always one that almost haunts me, because I still mostly refuse to believe it’s real.

In 1999, Garth Brooks, yes, that Garth Brooks, played for the San Diego Padres during Spring Training.

Of course, it was mainly a gimmick to draw fans into the park and the team donated to one of his charities, but G played quite a bit with some pretty dismal results. According to Baseball Reference, he went 1 for 22 from the plate (a .045 batting average), not quite enough to shake it in the big leagues.

He also joined the Mets in 2000 for Spring Training, going 0 for 17 with 4 walks, and the Kansas City Royals in 2004, where he got an infield hit.

There’s not nearly enough video footage of his time on the diamond, but I was able to find a news piece from 1999 which shows a few at bats and G speaking about wanting those in the clubhouse to respect him as a ball player.

“I’m coming down there to play ball. It is hopefully going to benefit children, but at the same time this is something that I’m not taking not serious.

I’m going down there to stand next too Tony Gwynn and Wally Joiner and hopefully when they look at me and see the Padres uniform on my chest, I’d like for them to stand proud and say “The guy’s trying to be a ball player.”

Hard to imagine the great Tony Gwynn looking at Garth Brooks and seeing anything other than cheeseball in baseball pants, but hey, gotta give it to him for putting it out there and really trying.

Baseball is back, ladies and gents. Get the peanuts and crackerjacks ready.

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