General

Oh My! Padres and Blue Jays Play Through An Earthquake

Jun 15, 2010, 2:00 PM UTC

The Padres hosted more than just the visiting Blue Jays on Monday night. In the bottom of the eighth inning, after a David Eckstein groundout to short, San Diego hosted an earthquake at PETCO Park as well. Here’s the footage, via KCAL Channel 9:
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â†µâ†µColor analyst Mark Grant was all over the first tremors before reacting to the biggest shake with “oh, there it goes…oh yeah, you betcha,” as the crowd began to stir and cheer. â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat that video didn’t show (you can hear it in MLB’s recap) is Dick Enberg’s hilarious response of, “that’s felt throughout the ballpark and some minor after…rolls. We had a little side to side shake-a-roo. I thought that was you (Grant) doing the Funky Chicken at first.” That, folks, is how you keep your composure while broadcasting an earthquake.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe largest quake – 5.7 magnitude – hit right near the U.S.-Mexico border. There were aftershocks of 4.5 and 4.3 as well that were felt throughout southern California (including at the game in Anaheim as well).â†µ

â†µâ†µSome of the players, including Padres third baseman Chase Headley – who stepped into the batter’s box as the quake hit – were not too keen on all that shaking going on. Others thought it was pretty cool. Per MLB.com’s Corey Brock:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“I don’t like it,” Headley said of the earthquake, which was felt for about 45 or so seconds. “Not being from around here ... it’s kind of freaky.”â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“My first earthquake,” Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum said. “That was pretty fun. I was in [the clubhouse]. I didn’t feel it until they said something on TV. So, I kind of stopped moving and the TVs were moving a little bit and I kind of started floating back and forth a little bit. That’s always fun.”â†µâ‡¥

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What’s funny about Headley’s comment is that the guy standing right next to him, Blue Jays catcher John Buck, didn’t feel anything.â†µâ†µâ‡¥“I didn’t even get to feel it,” Buck said. “All of a sudden [Headley] stepped out and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ He was like, ‘It’s an earthquake. You don’t feel it?’ I was like, ‘Man, I didn’t even feel it.’ Downsy didn’t feel it. All the guys in the infield said they didn’t feel it. They said you could feel the bench sway. That’s kind of a weird thing.”â†µâ†µVernon Wells thought a plane flew over the park and that’s what caused the shaking. Clearly there were different reactions to the seismic event.â†µâ†µThis is the second quake to shake PETCO Park this year, as a 7.2 earthquake hit the area during a Padres workout on April 5. The MLB.com story mentioned that there were only a handful of people in the park that day, so it’s hard to know the difference between that and Monday’s shaker. The announced attendance for the first place Padres in Interleague play: 16,542. By the looks of the video, they’re lucky if half that number was still in the ballpark when the quake hit. â†µ

â†µâ†µMaybe they can use this as a promotional tool: Earthquake Surprise Night. If a quake hits during your game, everyone in attendance gets an “I survived…” t-shirt and tickets to another game. Shoot, they could do a promotion every night. Kids 12 and under can get their own Padres hard hats and if a quake gets above 7.0, everyone in attendance gets their own Padres load-bearing doorframe. â†µ

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