Hello everyone!  A new year, a new blog. This year I will be posting on MLB.com using their cool blogging site. I will be writing exclusively about the San Diego Padres.

As I wrote on the "About the author" pages, I’m a wife, mother, and statistician in San Diego. I will be writing about the journeys of the San Diego Padres in 2007, which will hopefully begin on a very exciting note for Tony Gwynn! Hall of Fame induction results will be announced January 9th… see here.

I will also be writing about anything interesting I find about the Padres and Petco Park.

A little background on me. I grew up in Houston, Texas, and have always been a fan of the Astros. After all, I grew up just a few minutes from the Astrodome, and a few years was fortunate enough to enjoy in my father’s season tickets to see the Astros play.

I’ve never lived where there wasn’t a Major League Baseball team. I’ve been to the following parks:

Astrodome

Shea Stadium

Fenway Park

Three Rivers Stadium

Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards

Wrigley Field

Jack Murphy/Qualcomm (visited while under both names)

Angel Stadium

Petco Park

If I’m travelling during baseball season, I’ll get tickets to see a game while I’m in town. Otherwise, you’ll find me at home here at Petco Park. I can’t fathom living where I couldn’t go to see a MLB game.

I’ve been a Padres fan since I moved to San Diego in 1999, but as you can see, I’m a lifelong fan of the game. I was the only girl in my high school who had newspaper articles from the baseball section tacked to my bedroom walls!

I’ve been to one All-Star Game, in 1986 at the Astrodome.

So, today, in celebrating the end of 2006, I took my family (including my parents) on a wonderful guided tour of Petco Park. I took over 70 photos, so once I weed through them I will attempt to post photos here.

If you ever have the chance to go on one of these tours, I highly recommend them. You get to see parts of the park you don’t normally get to see on game days. We went in the VIP Suites, the dugout, the visitor’s locker room- for example. $9 for adults, $5 for chidlren, see the Padres website here for further information on a tour. Discounts for military and seniors, and for large groups.

Happy New Year! Go Padres!