The Sweet Spot: The Story of the San Diego Padres Petco Park

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Summary: The Sweet Spot: The Story of the San Diego Padres Petco Park
Review: A minority owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, Jennifer Moores, writes in this book that "the magic of baseball is that everyone can play-the brilliance of it is that only a few can do it well." The same might be said of the genre of promotional pieces of which this book is a part: The magic of this kind of writing is that everyone tries to do it-the brilliance of it is that only a few do it well. As one whose livelihood has been dependent on reading books carefully, I'm convinced this book is one of the few of its kind that has done its job right.

Early in the book one of the writers explains its title, stating that hitting a ball on the sweet spot gives one the "exquisite feeling" of putting the "fat part of the lumber on the belly of the ball. The sensation is solid and satisfying. The same sentiments were felt by a collective front, which conceived and raised PETCO Park. With a focused and steadfast team, the resulting ballpark is not only alluring-it offers a home that is solid and satisfying for the players, neighborhood, and fans alike."

As someone who enjoys the game but who is naïve to much that is part of the culture of professional baseball, this book provides me with a helpful look into the sweet spot where much of it is staged-all the way from conception and design through the mechanics and Herculean struggles of construction through placing it in the context of the environment of San Diego and culminating in its dedication to "San Diego, baseball fans, and the women and men who built a dream."

What is most remarkable to me is the tribute this book pays to those women and men-most of whom are residents within the San Diego community-who actually constructed the ball park. Many of the names of the over-2000 construction workers can be found on the inside lining of both front and back covers of the book. Wonderfully detailed, full-page photographs of varied individuals posed on site adorn its pages. Almost one-third of the over-350 photographs are of workers active on the job, doing what they do best-hitting their own sweet spot, which will endure far past their time. As further tribute, majority owners John and Becky Moores purchased 2,084 memorial bricks on which were inscribed individual names of the workers with a hardhat emblem and had them installed along the walkways of Petco Park.

From the conception of a park within the Park-with its own diamond for kids to use and the low-cost seating sections available-to the tributes to players and military personnel stationed nearby, the movers and shakers of the Padres organization have made their priorities clear. One well used construction helmet shown center page partway through the book contains a Biblical reference to Romans 10:9-10, which reads, in part, "For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved." On this project their talk has been followed by their walk.

Doug Rich