SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A hometown kid has been covering the Padres for every playoff run they've made.
"This year is probably a year I never thought I'd see being around for 50 years in the press box because of the fact that the Padres have been down for so long," said Steve Dolan.
Steve Dolan is known as the 'Dean of the Press Box.'
"It means I've been around a long time. I actually started when I was at El Capitan High School —my senior year in 1973," said Dolan.
He remembers being seventeen years old in the press box for the first time intimidated by veteran sports writers.
"There was one game where a couple of writers from Montreal saw me sitting by myself and came over and started talking to me so that reminded me -even I've been doing this for 50 years now. If you see somebody young who may be a little young or intimidated go over and talk to them - make them feel welcome," recalled Dolan.
Dolan has gone on to spend decades painting pictures of the games for readers of local newspapers to ultimately progress to taking down live statistics.
"Padres line up - Alvin Wiggins second base. Tony Gwynn's in [the] right field. Steve Garvey of course is at first base," said Dolan.
Looking back on his stats- he thinks the first Padres team to make a world series run in 1984 team is likely the best in franchise history.
"The biggest memory was when Garvey hit the home run. Just the way the stadium was- people went nuts," said Dolan.
While he and others didn't expect this playoff run- he says it makes up for the lows fans have seen since 2010.
"These are the types of things that make up for it. When you're there when there are 45,000 people at Petco Park or 65,000 people at the old stadium screaming their lungs out," said Dolan.
A sold-out crowd will cheer on the padres at home for game one of the NLCS while Dolan is hard at work in the press box.
