The Padres first ever GM??

There are a lot of Padres fans who can name most of the teams past General Managers. Since there has been only 9 to date, that’s not exactly that hard of a feat. A member of the 3rd class of the Padres Hall of Fame in 2001, Buzzie Bavasi, is usually where people start their list. According to numerous sites, including an article on Padres.com, he held that role from the inaugural season of 1969 until 1972.

However there has long been talk of Eddie Leishman holding that role during that time and Bavasi was actually the President of the team. As an avid old program collector I was recently browsing through one from the 1970 season recently and spotted this.

1970April

1970 Padres Program

President Buzzie Bavasi - Page 1

President Buzzie Bavasi – Page 1

Eddie Leishman General Manager Page 4

Eddie Leishman General Manager – Page 4

BavasiPrezEddieGM

Officers – Page 9

There it is. Clear as day.

Add to that it is listed in that order in the 1969, 1970, 1971 & 1972 Media Guides. It’s pretty obvious that Presidents wield more power than the General Managers, so perhaps Bavasi was the one pulling the strings the whole time? However Leishman was replaced as GM in 1973 by Buzzie’s son Peter. Buzzie stayed on as the teams President until 1977. So Buzzie most likely continued to pull the strings until 1977. So why does Leishman’s name get erased from the record books and Peter Bavasi’s doesn’t?

Strange.

As per usual, the Padres website doesn’t help out at all when it comes to history. It currently only lists the last 6 GM’s (up to 1980). Good effort.

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 1.24.20 PM

Here are some more fun ads and what-nots from that program that I thought you’d enjoy.

Rick can be found all over the place these days. To make things easy on yourself, just follow him on Twitter @RJsFro and he’ll point you in the right direction.

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