Sports at Lunch, Sandy Alderson and John Moores

Padres owner John Moores joked about the luck Sandy Alderson has enjoyed throughout his life as he introduced him to an audience of 190 guests on May 19 for Sports at Lunch at the San Diego Hall of Champions.

“He was lucky to get an Ivy League education, he was lucky not to get shot in Vietnam, he was lucky he got into Harvard Law School and he was lucky to be at the helm of three straight World Series teams with the Oakland A’s,” Moores said. “He was lucky to have the experience of working in the Major League Baseball office and now he’s lucky to be coming to San Diego because the luckiest people get to live in San Diego.”

Alderson, the Padres new CEO, has been in town long enough to see the team rebound from a 9-13 start to a winning streak that had reached seven the afternoon of the luncheon. More luck? No, Alderson said it was the result of the foundation that has been built in recent seasons by the Padres’ ownership and management.

Alderson built a consistent winner as the general manager of the Oakland A’s in the 1980s and has served as a top executive in Major League Baseball in recent seasons. But then Moores lured him to San Diego.

“When John introduced me a couple of weeks ago at a press conference, he said he wanted to build the best franchise in baseball,” Alderson said. “That’s a lofty goal to set the bar that high. But even if you don’t achieve that goal, you’ll achieve a lot of great things along the journey.”

Alderson talked about the Padres’ need to improve their scouting and development of foreign players in today’s international game.

“To have a good team, you’ve got to scout and develop,” Alderson said. “That’s our equivalent of research and development. We have to develop talent in the U.S. through the draft, but in baseball today 40 percent of the players in professional baseball are from outside the United States. The Padres have done a great job in Mexico, but we need to do a great job across the board. I’ve expressed this to John and I’m hopeful we can see some improvement in that area. We’ll only be as good as our ability to scout and develop.”

During a question-and-answer period, Alderson expressed praise for the jobs performed by general manager Kevin Towers and field manager Bruce Bochy.

“I can see from the looking at the way the team has played a tremendous amount of credit has to go to Kevin for what he has acquired here,” Alderson said. “He has done it through professional scouting and not with big bucks.”

As for Bochy, Aldeson commented on the respect the manager has throughout baseball from players who have played for him and against him.

“People ask me what is my attraction to San Diego,” Alderson said of leaving the MLB office in New York. “Why do you have to even ask that question?”