San Diego Padres Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
48 free San Diego Padres trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This San Diego Padres trivia quiz covers a franchise named for Franciscan friars that spent six years in last place, was nearly moved to Washington, and was rescued by the man who built McDonald's. There are questions on Nate Colbert, Randy Jones, Dave Winfield, Steve Garvey's 1984 homer, Dick Williams and the first pennant, Tony Gwynn's eight batting titles and .394, Ken Caminiti's MVP, Trevor Hoffman and 'Hells Bells', the 1998 sweep, Petco Park's warehouse, Manny Machado's $300 million, Fernando Tatís Jr., Joe Musgrove finally ending the no-hitter drought, and 'Slam Diego'. The culture and colours get a round too: the Swinging Friar, the San Diego Chicken, brown and gold, camouflage Sundays, the Vedder Cup with Seattle and the retired numbers at Home Plate Plaza. Easy questions suit any Friars fan; the hard ones are for people who know which grocery magnate almost took the team to Washington. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name Padres, Spanish for 'fathers', honours which group?
The Franciscan friars of the local mission
The Franciscan friars of the local mission, founded by Junípero Serra in 1769, gave their name first to a minor-league club in 1936. The 1969 expansion team simply kept it.
Q 02Which veteran pitcher won the 1978 Cy Young Award as a Padre, the first to win it in both leagues?
Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Perry, so notorious for doctoring the ball that he called his memoir Me and the Spitter, won 21 games at 39. He had taken the American League award with Cleveland in 1972.
Q 03The Pacific Coast League Padres of 1937 won a title led by which 18-year-old San Diego native?
Ted Williams
Ted Williams signed with his hometown Padres while still at Hoover High School. Red Sox executive Eddie Collins spotted him on a trip to look over other Padres players, and Boston bought him that winter.
Q 04Which fast-food magnate bought the Padres in 1974 to keep them from leaving town?
Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc, the McDonald's chief, lasted one home game before losing patience. On opening night in 1974 he took the stadium microphone and told 39,000 fans it was the most stupid ballplaying he had ever seen.
Q 05A grocery-chain owner's 1973 deal to buy the Padres would have moved them to which city?
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. looked so certain to get the team that Topps printed 1974 baseball cards showing Padres players under a Washington name. Then Joseph Danzansky's deal fell through and the club stayed.
Q 06Which first baseman, an original 1969 Padre, was the club's career home run leader for half a century until 2024?
Nate Colbert
Nate Colbert hit five home runs and drove in 13 runs in one 1972 doubleheader. As a boy in St. Louis he had sat in the stands the day Stan Musial set the five-homer mark he tied.
Q 07Which pitcher won the Padres' first Cy Young Award, in 1976?
Randy Jones
Randy Jones lost 22 games for the Padres in 1974. Two years later the soft-tossing left-hander won 22 and took the Cy Young Award.
Q 08Which manager led the Padres to their first pennant in 1984?
Dick Williams
Dick Williams's Padres lost the first two playoff games in Chicago, 13-0 and 4-2. Back in San Diego they won three in a row to take the pennant.
Q 09Steve Garvey's walk-off homer in Game 4 of the 1984 NLCS came off which Cubs closer?
Lee Smith
Lee Smith, the Cubs' closer, gave up Steve Garvey's two-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 4, forcing a decisive Game 5 that the Padres won.
Q 10The Padres lost the 1984 World Series in five games to which team?
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers clinched in Game 5. Kirk Gibson homered off Goose Gossage, who had just talked his manager out of walking Gibson intentionally.
Q 11Steve Garvey, whose number the Padres retired in 1988, spent most of his career with which rival?
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers had Garvey for 14 seasons before San Diego signed him. His National League-record run of consecutive games ended as a Padre in 1983, when he hurt his thumb in a collision at home plate.
Q 12Tony Gwynn's eight batting titles tied a National League record set by which player?
Honus Wagner
Honus Wagner's eight titles, the last of them in 1911, had stood alone for 86 years. Gwynn drew level late, winning four in a row from the age of 34.
Q 13What ended Tony Gwynn's .394 season in 1994?
A players' strike
Q 21Which historic building was built into Petco Park, its corner serving as the left-field foul pole?
Western Metal Supply Co.
The Western Metal Supply Co. warehouse was a protected city landmark standing on the site. After talks with preservationists the builders renovated it and designed the ballpark around it.
Q 22Who threw the Padres' first-ever no-hitter in April 2021, ending MLB's longest drought?
Joe Musgrove
Joe Musgrove grew up a few miles away in El Cajon and had joined his hometown team only that winter. The no-hitter came in the club's 53rd season; Dylan Cease added a second in 2024.
Q 23The 2020 'Slam Diego' Padres hit grand slams in four straight games, all against which team?
A players' strike stopped play in August 1994 and the season never resumed. Gwynn, with 165 hits in 110 games, lost the last seven weeks of his chase for .400.
Q 14On the day he was drafted by the Padres, Tony Gwynn was also picked by which NBA team?
San Diego Clippers
The San Diego Clippers took Gwynn, a college point guard, in the tenth round of the 1981 NBA draft. He chose baseball, and 13 months later he was in the Padres' lineup.
Q 15Which Padres third baseman was the first player in franchise history to win the MVP award, in 1996?
Ken Caminiti
Ken Caminiti was the unanimous 1996 NL MVP with 40 homers and 130 RBIs; in 2002 he told Sports Illustrated he had used steroids that season.
Q 16Trevor Hoffman had been drafted as a shortstop and was converted to pitching by which organisation?
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds drafted Trevor Hoffman as a shortstop in 1989 and moved him to the mound in 1991; Florida took him in the expansion draft and traded him to San Diego in 1993.
Q 17Which AC/DC song announced Trevor Hoffman's entrance at Petco Park?
Hells Bells
Hells Bells was a Padres salesman's idea. Its tolling bells first rang for Hoffman on 25 July 1998, a night when he tied the record for consecutive saves, and the entrance became known as Trevor Time.
Q 18The Padres were swept in the 1998 World Series by which team?
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees trailed 5-2 in Game 1. They scored seven runs in the seventh inning, the last four on a Tino Martinez grand slam one pitch after a borderline call went his way.
Q 19Which manager led the Padres to the 1998 pennant and later won three Giants titles?
Bruce Bochy
Bruce Bochy had been the backup catcher on the Padres' 1984 pennant winners. He managed them for 12 seasons, then left for a division rival and won his three championships there.
Q 20Petco Park stands in which San Diego neighbourhood?
East Village
East Village was meant to have its ballpark by 2002. Lawsuits over the city's share of the funding halted construction, and the Padres moved in two years late.
Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers took offence at the first one, hit on a 3-0 count with San Diego already seven runs ahead, and called it a breach of baseball's unwritten rules. Three more followed in three days.
Q 24Which star signed a 10-year, $300 million free-agent contract with the Padres in February 2019?
Manny Machado
Manny Machado's deal was the biggest free-agent contract American sports had seen, a record Bryce Harper broke within two weeks. In 2023 the Padres replaced it with one worth $350 million over 11 years.
Q 25Which Padres shortstop signed a 14-year, $340 million extension in 2021, at the age of 22?
Fernando Tatís Jr.
Fernando Tatís Jr. had played fewer than 150 big-league games when he signed. The next year he did not play at all: first a broken wrist, then an 80-game suspension for a banned substance.
Q 26What were the Padres' original colours in their first big-league season?
Brown and gold
Brown and gold returned in 2020 after 29 seasons in navy blue. The club had worn brown in some form for its first 22 seasons before switching colours in 1991.
Q 27The Padres' mascot and long-time alternate logo is known as what?
The Swinging Friar
The Swinging Friar was the club's first logo in 1969 and was later dropped from it. He is still the mascot, and when the Padres redesigned their uniforms for 2020 they put him on the sleeve of all three new jerseys.
Q 28The San Diego Chicken originated in 1974 as a promotional mascot for what?
A radio station
A radio station, San Diego's KGB-FM, hired journalism student Ted Giannoulas in 1974 to wear its chicken suit and hand out Easter eggs at the zoo.
Q 29Who was named MVP of the 1998 National League Championship Series?
Sterling Hitchcock
Sterling Hitchcock won the 1998 NLCS MVP after beating Atlanta in both of his starts, Games 3 and 6, as the Padres took the series in six.
Q 30The Padres' interleague rivalry with Seattle is named after which musician?
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder spent his teenage years in San Diego County before fronting Pearl Jam in Seattle, so fans named the series after him. In 2025 it gained a real trophy, a Fender guitar he helped design.