Answer to Padres Mystery Ball was a head-scratcher
The Padres “Mystery Ball” turned out to be more of a puzzle than could ever have imagined.
The 25-year-old from Hidden Meadows in Escondido got hooked on the Padres just this year after never watching baseball her entire life. (Hops was a diehard Chargers fan until she swore them off after the move.) She saw all of the Padres games in 2021, “except for the no-hitter; I don’t know how I missed that one!” Hops says with a laugh. She attended a number of games at Petco Park and wore her Swagg Chain with pride. When she saw on a Padres broadcast that she could buy for charity a “Mystery Ball” for $75, she jumped on it, writes former U-T staffer Tod Leonard.
“I honestly would have been happy with anybody’s signature,” she says, “because I pretty much like everybody on the team. My frontrunners were (Jake) Cronenworth and Manny (Machado), because they’re my favorites.”
Hops bought the ball on Aug. 27 and on Sept. 22 received it in the mail. She excitedly opened a Padres logoed box and pulled back the logoed tissue paper. And then she was shocked by what she saw. The only part of the signature she could first make out was “Max.”
“I look at it and I’m thinking, ‘Who the hell is Max?’ ” she says. “I’m thinking that they sent me the signature of some minor-leaguer who had maybe been up for a couple of games and I don’t remember him. I’m mad.”
But there was one other thing she could make out on the ball. “31.” Hops quickly Googled “Max” and “31.” You know what came up, of course: Max Scherzer, the now-Dodgers ace whom the Padres tried unsuccessfully to get at the July trade deadline. In part, it was the Scherzer acquisition that helped push L.A. into a National League wild-card spot (and eventually into the NLCS) while the Padres collapsed.
“I was in disbelief! What in the world?!” Hops says. “Did he sign balls here while he was in town ready to come here? I just thought it was hilarious that the Padres sent me a Scherzer ball.”
She shared her story on Instagram and tagged the Padres, but hasn’t heard back with an explanation. Hops says the baseball — the first she has ever owned — would be in a new plastic case if it had a Padres signature; instead, she tosses the ball around the house and lets her dogs have a sniff, even if it’s signed by an eventual Hall of Famer who could be the NL’s Cy Young Award winner this season.
“I wanted a Padres signature and got Max Scherzer instead,” Hops says, laughing again. “My boyfriend told me it’s more valuable now than if a Padre signed it. Frickin’ hilarious.”
Trivia question
Scherzer is the active leader with 3,020 strikeouts. He’s No. 18 on the all-time list. Can you name the three ahead of him who are not in the Hall of Fame?