LOS ANGELES — Circumstances around the Padres evoked a 1996 vibe going into Wednesday night’s game at Dodger Stadium.
Near the visiting clubhouse, a worker stashed champagne and other carbonated beverages.
If the Padres won and the Diamondbacks lost, San Diego would celebrate its fourth wild-card berth in five years.
Though the Diamondbacks nixed that scenario, winning 5-3 against the Rockies in Denver, the bubbly cued up a useful reminder.
Playoff berths are precious — more so when San Diego teams earn one.
If earned in Los Angeles, well, that becomes memorable, too.
This year’s Padres are trying to accomplish the club’s first playoff clincher in Dodger Stadium since 1996.
Three decades ago this month, Bruce Bochy’s first full-season team grabbed a 2-0 victory in 11 innings, bringing the thirsty club its first National League West title in 12 years and second overall.
The Padres had clinched a wild-card berth earlier in the series. But mouths watered over the prospect of winning the 162nd game to claim the divisional title.
“It was very important to us,” Chris Gwynn recalled Wednesday by phone.
Gwynn lined a two-run double in the 11th inning, scoring Steve Finley and Ken Caminiti.
Trevor Hoffman then struck out L.A.’s Chad Curtis to touch off the celebration.
Padres manager Bruce Bochy is doused by teammates after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0 to win the National League West Division Sunday, Sept. 29, 1996 in Los Angeles. Bochy was awarded the National League Managers of the Year award Friday, Nov. 8, 1996(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) ORG XMIT: NY182
Finally, everyone could cut loose. The tiny clubhouse felt like it might float away.
Tony Gwynn, thrilled by his younger brother’s big hit, hopped around with more delight than I ever saw from him — and that includes his celebrations relating to two World Series trips and his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Everybody was so excited,” Chris Gwynn, 61, said Wednesday from his home in Rancho Cucamonga. “Bullpen guys. Greg Vaughn. Cammy. Wally Joyner. We had a great group. Everybody was hugging me. It was such a great moment.”
When Gwynn’s son Josh, 8, entered the crammed clubhouse, a Padres Hall of Famer welcomed him to the party.
“Rickey Henderson was pouring champagne on his head — it was great,” Gwynn said.
“JoAnn, my wife, made him ride home with me because he smelled like alcohol,” Gwynn added, laughing the Gwynn family laugh.
San Diego Padres team members, from left, Tony Gwynn, Brian Johnson, Greg Vaughn, and an unidentified player at right, point toward Chris Gwynn who had a two-run double by during the 11th inning of their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday, Sept. 29, 1996, in Los Angeles. Ken Caminiti also scored on the play. The Padres won the game 2-0. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
In San Diego, where the Chargers never won a Super Bowl and the Padres have only one game victory to show for two World Series appearances, a playoff berth carries a long shelf life.
Gwynn said Wednesday that while he still thinks back to 1996, it’s far more frequent that someone in San Diego recounts seeing the double he drove to right-center field off a Chan Ho Park changeup.
“It makes me feel old,” he said. “Someone will say, ‘I was like 7 years old, and I remember you got that hit.’ And now, they’re like 40.”
Gwynn ticked off memories from the season-ending sweep’s first two games: Caminiti’s big home run in the opener, one of his longest of the season; and brother Tony’s crucial single in the second game off lefty Mark Guthrie.
For his own part, Gwynn said the double felt extra sweet because he’d had a rough season.
“Not to mention, it was against the Dodgers,” he said, noting that L.A. drafted him out of San Diego State in the first round.
“That made me feel a little better, too. Because they were my parent team.”
No one remembers that, for the season, Gwynn batted .178 in 90 at-bats.
The double lives on.
“Tony told me later that, he just felt like I was going to be able do something (in the 162nd game), because it was a ballpark I’m used to,” he said.
“I saw the ball out of Chan Ho’s hand, really,” he said. “Usually that doesn’t happen at that ballpark. Because that time of day, you’ve got shadows. For some reason, I saw it, I stayed there, I put a pretty good swing on it and the ball jumped off my bat.”
Several Padres players would welcome a similar opportunity.
With four games to go, including Wednesday night’s series finale in L.A., they stand to get several chances.