Not much was expected for the expansion Padres in the 1970's and not many people were disappointed. San Diego seemed to take the approach of building from the draft up, then supplementing it with free agent signings. Home grown talent like Dave Winfield provided the base to build around. Later in the decade the Padres felt that they had a chance to contend and began adding former Oakland stars like Rollie Fingers, Gene Tenace and George Hendrick. This helped the team to it's first winning season in 1978, but it did not make them immediate contenders.
While the franchise did not have many team highlights during the decade, it did have individual highlights. Nate Colbert, who they stole from Houston in the expansion draft was a raw power hitter that gave their anemic lineup some respectability. Randy Jones and Gaylord Perry both won Cy Young awards. Sadly for the fans Perry stuck around for only 2 seasons. Jones would eventually grow tired of losing 2-1 ball games and eventually he was dealt away in the early 80's. Future HOF'er Ozzie Smith makes a 2 year cameo at the end of the decade, but does not qualify for the 3 year team. Future HOF'er Willie McCovey arrived in 1974 hoping to recapture the form that he displayed in the 1960's as a Giant. "Stretch" had 3 sub par years and eventually wound up back in the Bay Area to finish out his career.
The sun would shine and then eventually set around the star power of Dave Winfield, who carried San Diego's offense from 1973-1980 before taking George Steinbrenner's money and leaving for greener pastures.
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