![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-07-225325.png\")
A promo for the San Diego Padres\u2019 postgame Beach Boys concert in the 1980s. (Andy Strasberg)\nI can hear music<\/p>\n
Growing up, once I realized I didn\u2019t have the talent to become a professional baseball player, I often imagined what my role might be if I were fortunate enough to work for a Major League Baseball team.<\/p>\n
Four years after graduating from college, my persistence, patience, and a bit of luck paid off.<\/p>\n
I joined the Padres in 1975 and spent three years working in the ticket office before becoming the director of promotions in 1978. Regardless of where I worked, it didn\u2019t take long for me to understand a fundamental truth: baseball is a business.<\/p>\n
Then, as now, revenue came from ticket sales, broadcasting, merchandise, concessions, sponsorships, parking \u2014 and yes, ticket sales.\u00a0(I know, I said ticket sales twice. That\u2019s because it was\u00a0the\u00a0primary revenue stream.)<\/p>\n
My job was to generate incremental ticket sales.<\/p>\n
Which is how The Beach Boys ended up playing at Jack Murphy Stadium after a May 1982 game against the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n
Then, beginning on May 8, 1983, and continuing each Mother\u2019s Day when the Padres were home through 1987, the Wilson brothers \u2014 joined by Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and Mike Love \u2014 brought \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d to \u201cThe Murph\u201d and created a tradition that no one saw coming.<\/p>\n
A promo for the San Diego Padres\u2019 postgame Beach Boys concert in the 1980s. (Andy Strasberg)
\nI can hear music<\/p>\n
When I worked for the Padres, our market research revealed that only about 15% of the population were baseball fans.<\/p>\n
Those fans fell into three categories: \u201cDevout\u201d (they attend regardless of team performance); \u201cFence Sitters\u201d (they become ticket buyers and respond to event promotions such as fireworks, giveaways, and deep discounts); and \u201cCasual\u201d (they will only watch or listen to Padres games on TV and radio, but not attend games).<\/p>\n
Hoping to make my mark, I started thinking about how I could get the 85% who were not baseball fans to attend a Padres game.<\/p>\n
For a brief moment, I considered staging a Portuguese-style bloodless bullfight after a Sunday game. Fortunately, sanity prevailed, and I landed on something more practical: a postgame concert.<\/p>\n
The first act that came to mind was obvious \u2014 The Beach Boys.<\/p>\n
I put together a rough pitch and presented it to Padres president Ballard Smith. He gave me the green light to make the deal, and on May 2, 1982, The Beach Boys turned \u201cThe Murph\u201d into a day at the beach for 44,227 fans \u2014 more than double our average home crowd of\u00a019,846. We were shut out 3-0 by the Phillies, but you never would\u2019ve known it from the mood in the ballpark.<\/p>\n
The concert was a financial success, and just like that, a new part of my job description was born: booking postgame entertainment.<\/p>\n
Some acts were outside my comfort zone: Charlie Daniels, Juice Newton, Billy Ray Cyrus and Kenny Rogers.<\/p>\n
Some performed better at the box office than others \u2014 the Doobie Brothers, The Monkees, the Temptations, Herman\u2019s Hermits, the Grass Roots, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and the Village People.<\/p>\n
One idea I seriously considered \u2014 but ultimately abandoned \u2014 was booking a stand-up comedian. Friends in the\u00a0stand-up\u00a0comedy\u00a0business\u00a0quickly pointed out that a 50,000-seat stadium isn\u2019t exactly ideal for delivering punchlines.<\/p>\n
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SUT-L-strasberg-0510-01.jpg\")
Andy Strasberg, center, poses with Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys. Strasberg, a longtime San Diegan, helped arrange for The Beach Boys to play after Padres games at Jack Murphy Stadium in the 1980s and 90s. (Andy Strasberg)
\nDo it again<\/p>\n
Along the way, we developed what would later be called \u201cvariable pricing,\u201d modestly increasing ticket prices for games with postgame concerts. Reserve tickets for our first Beach Boys concert went for $6.50 and $7.50; they rose to $9 in 1984, and by 1990, they were $12.<\/p>\n
We received little to no resistance from fans. In fact, they often paid less than they would for a standalone concert elsewhere. Season-ticket holders especially appreciated that their prices didn\u2019t increase for those games.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the greatest validation came when other teams began adopting the postgame concert concept.<\/p>\n
At some point, I realized my daily responsibilities included negotiating with The Beach Boys, designing beach towel giveaways, reviewing fireworks inventory, and scheduling appearances for a man in a chicken costume.<\/p>\n
Not exactly what I had imagined as a passionate, baseball-loving kid.<\/p>\n
Looking back on my time with the Padres with a Friars Road address, I\u2019m reminded of a number of short-lived traditions \u2014 some by design, others by happy accident.<\/p>\n
There were ushers in tuxedos on opening day, team photos staged offsite, Ozzie Smith\u2019s Fan Appreciation Day backflips, a dancing \u201cplant\u201d on the grounds crew during infield drag, and, of course, the ever-popular postgame concerts.<\/p>\n
One of those traditions \u2014 The Beach Boys playing on Mother\u2019s Day \u2014 was never planned. It simply evolved from the overlap between their touring schedule and our\u00a0home games.<\/p>\n
With changing times and my departure in 1996, these traditions have become distant memories of \u201cFun, Fun, Fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball historian and former Padres employee Andy Strasberg is a longtime San Diego resident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Music to their ears<\/p>\n
The Padres began hosting postgame Beach Boys concerts in 1982, starting what would become a Mother\u2019s Day tradition. Here\u2019s a look back:<\/p>\n
Date\/Score\/Attendance\/Ticket price<\/p>\n
May 2, 1982\/Phillies 3, Padres 0\/44,227\/$6.50-$7.50<\/p>\n
May 8, 1983 (Mother\u2019s Day)\/ Padres 5, Cubs 3\/47,500\/$7.50-$8.50<\/p>\n
May 13, 1984 (Mother\u2019s Day)\/ Phillies 8, Padres 3\/42,576\/$9<\/p>\n
May 12, 1985 (Mother\u2019s Day)\/ Padres 5, Cubs 3\/54,556\/$9.50<\/p>\n
May 18, 1986\/Expos 8, Padres 3\/54,654\/$9.50<\/p>\n
May 10, 1987 (Mother\u2019s Day)\/ Padres 14, Cubs 2\/44,876\/$9.50<\/p>\n
May 22, 1988\/ Padres 9, Phillies 2\/48,558\/$10<\/p>\n
May 28, 1989\/ Expos 10, Padres 2\/54,520\/$11<\/p>\n
Sept. 9, 1990\/ Padres 5, Braves 4\/38,750\/$12<\/p>\n
Sept. 22, 1991\/ Padres 6, Giants 3\/31,129\/$13<\/p>\n
\u2014 Source: Andy Strasberg<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up, once I realized I didn\u2019t have the talent to become a professional baseball player, I often…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[35317,92048,129025,129022,129024,6791,74,76,75,2611,129023],"class_list":["post-306764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-al-jardine","tag-brian-wilson","tag-bruce-johnston","tag-jack-murphy-stadium","tag-mike-love","tag-mission-valley","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-the-beach-boys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}