Former president and son-in-law of owners pushed key buttons with Williams, Garvey, Gossage, Nettles
There’s a well-worn story of late Padres owner and McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc meeting Steve Garvey at his La Jolla home, where he jokingly told the All-Star he would pay him in Big Macs and those salty fries.Team president Ballard Smith said he had been told to slam the financial brakes by Kroc’s wife, Joan, as they began to build a winner.
“I went to Scott Jones of Ace Parking,” Smith said in a story confirmed by Jones. “I said, ‘Scott, we want to sign Garvey. We need to get a pile of money and your parking will go up.’ He gave us money without hesitation. Smith is the forgotten piece of the puzzle that reached a magical finish line four decades ago. He often yielded the stage to General Manager Jack McKeon and his role routinely was diluted in a public-perception sense because he married Joan’s daughter, Linda.“Was Ballard given enough credit? Probably not,” Garvey said. “He really started history.”
“The results speak for themselves and he’s in the Hall of Fame. I don’t know if we win in 1984 without him.”
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