Joining the Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1969 is the San Diego-based San Diego Padres that competes in the Western Division of the National League. The Padres, which means ‘Father’ in Spanish, was founded by businessman C. Arnholt Smith and was one of the four teams during the MLB’s expansion together with the Motreal Expos, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Kansas City Royals. Despite more than 40 years in professional baseball, the team only landed five West Division Titles playing against San Francisco Giants, LA Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Colorado Rockies. They also managed to grab two National League titles wherein one was in 1984 and the last was 1998, while the Padres chances in the World Series is far beyond their reach as they have not land the coveted title yet.

The seemingly challenging position of the Padres did not hinder them from pursuing and beating the challenges that faced the team including the change of ownership in mid 1970s. During that time, the Padres was rumored to change its home base to Washington D.C. but its new owners decided otherwise and maintained the team in San Diego up to this day. Perhaps that change did good to the Padres as it was in 1984 when the they first tasted their first Division title with a 92 win against 70 losses with a recorded .568 winning percentage. The said finals saw the Padres pitied against National League champion Chicago Cubs and won 3 games out of 5. The sweet victory, however, was followed 12 years later when they won another Division championship in 1996 but after a head-to-head match with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, yet they lost to St. Louis Cardinals in the NL match. The Padres, however, won the Division championship as well as their last NL title to date in 1998. They won other Division titles in 2005 and 2006 and still strive to land another title soon after more than six years of championship drought.

Find the 2013 San Diego Padres game schedule below: