San Diego Padres Go to Bat for Jobless--With Free Tickets

Forget “bat night” and “cap night.” In a sign of the times, it was Unemployment Night at the Padres baseball game here Tuesday.

Some of the jobless had their friends drive them, because they no longer own automobiles. “Can’t afford a car,” James Ekern said. “Not when I’m unemployed.”

Robert Casey said going to a baseball game when you’re unemployed is like “manna from heaven.” He hasn’t seen a game since losing his job as a sales representative for a uniform company here.

“I don’t go to movies. I don’t even rent movies. And I don’t date . . . unless you know any rich girls,” he said. “Then maybe I’m interested.”

The unemployed showed up by the thousands at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium on Tuesday, lured by a first-of-its-kind promotion that offered the jobless two free $5 tickets, a coupon for two free hot dogs and two 16-ounce drinks and a certificate for a free sandwich.

It was part of a special promotion staged by the San Diego Padres, who hoped to accomplish a twofold purpose by honoring an anticipated 2,500 of the region’s unemployed at Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs.

“We thought it was an excellent move to try to get a few people out to the ballpark,” said Padres official Bill McDonald, as jobless lined up at the Gate C ticket window, “and to show some consideration for these people.”

Ekern and Casey, two of the estimated 98,000 people currently unemployed in San Diego County, thought the team’s gesture was, in a word, “terrific.”

“You have no idea how depressing this gets,” Casey said. “It causes so much stress. The (unemployment) check I get doesn’t cover all the bills. It hardly comes close. And living off credit cards is never a desirable way to go, but sometimes, you have to do it.”

Casey, 27, said he can barely pay his $500 portion of the rent on a two-bedroom apartment he shares with a roommate. Unemployment means “scraping by for living expenses,” having no money for entertainment, and, he said, praying that emergency expenses never crop up.

“My brother recently got married back home in Massachusetts,” he said. “And, of course, I had to go. Wouldn’t have missed it. But believe me, when I committed to fly back, I had no idea I wouldn’t have a job.”

Ekern, 29, a machinist, was laid off the first week in August.

“We made parts for jet products,” he said. “Business was so slow, it was unbelievable. I should have known it was coming, but you never quite expect it when it does.”

Ekern finds unemployment “really boring. You put in all these applications, and nothing ever happens. Fortunately, my girlfriend and her son just got jobs (after being unemployed), and that’s made things easier.”

Robert Solorzano, 25, who lost his job as a printer when his employer consolidated operations with a firm in Northern California, said he has had to resort to an all-too-common circumstance--moving back home with his mother.

Jeannette Sandu, 42, said she has been jobless since December, when her work as a data-entry operator was suddenly “no more.”

“I feel my age hurts me too,” she said. “San Diego is notorious for that--for not hiring older employees, because, let’s face it, they have to be paid more. But I go to the unemployment office, and the stories are just horrible. When will this ever end?”

“Who knows?” replied Casey, showing the ticket agent the required proof for ballpark entry--stubs from a recent unemployment check.

“A little baseball will make things better for a while,” he said. “Maybe I’ll even get to see Gary Sheffield (the Padres’ third baseman) hit another home run. But then tomorrow, it’s back to the same old blues.”