SAN DIEGO -- When you traipse through a revitalized East Village en route to posh Petco Park, don't forget to tip your Padres cap toward the nearest McDonald's.

If McDonald's owner Ray Kroc hadn't purchased the club and rescued it from moving 30 years ago, there would be no San Diego Padres, no Petco Park, no makeover of the blighted neighborhood in downtown San Diego.

"It's very clear he saved the Padres from Washington, D.C., which frankly, is a fate worse than death," Padres owner John Moores said.

It was Moores who had the capital idea -- and the capital -- for the Padres' new palace, with an assist from the city. But while celebrating tonight's Petco Park christening, with San Diego State University playing the University of Houston in the first game of a four-day college baseball tournament, don't overlook Kroc's super-sized effort.

"We plan on a public plaque identifying the gratitude we have," Moores said.

When Moores was searching for a baseball-only stadium location, he looked to the past while considering the future. The first home of the minor-league Padres was west of the Santa Fe Depot downtown, where Lane Field stood at the foot of Broadway.

"That was the better part of downtown," Moores said. "San Diego needed a signature building on the water, and I thought that would have worked. But as it turned out, it would have been too cramped there and the environmental issues with the bay would have gone on for centuries."

Moores wasn't the only one with an idea that turned out to be all wet. Larry Lucchino, then the team president, preferred a Mission Valley site, near Qualcomm Stadium.

"It turns out we were both wrong, because it's perfect right where it is," Moores said. "We would not have had the development opportunity that we did in the East Village, and that was purely a political decision. I know it's not fashionable to say nice things about politicians, but it really was a good decision."

The result is a 42,500-seat ballpark adjacent to the lively Gaslamp Quarter.

"I like the fact that the fans are right there with you," said Padres manager Bruce Bochy, who oversaw team workouts at Petco before heading to spring training last month. "There are going to be great seats for the fans."

Added third baseman Jeff Cirillo: "The field is close to the fans, so you feel like you're in a little bowl. When you play in those football stadiums, it's kind of hard sometimes to focus in because of how center field is so far away."

By far, Petco Park's deepest reaches are in right-center. That limits left-handed slugger Ryan Klesko's praise.

"I'm not going to say anything about the field," he said, "because they made it 411 feet to right-center."

That the Padres produced a $458 million ballpark -- and in all places, the once-gritty East Village -- shocked many. But in the afterglow of the team's 1998 World Series appearance, San Diego voters gave the city the OK to enter into a partnership with Moores.

The Padres, though, faced more obstacles than their pitchers do against the Giants' Barry Bonds.

Many remember the exposed rebar and concrete columns left to the elements when construction was halted in October 2000. The site remained dormant for nearly 18 months. Seventeen lawsuits and a federal investigation involving Moores and then-San Diego Councilwoman Valerie Stallings regarding stock dealings in his software firm, Peregrine, put everything on hold.

Political activist Bruce Henderson wasn't soft on the Padres. He was behind several of the lawsuits that questioned the ballpark financing, and he remains a critic of the Padres' downtown scenario.

"Let's say 2 million tickets are sold this year," Henderson said. "It looks like the public subsidy at Petco per ticket is $12.50. Over at Qualcomm Stadium, the public subsidy was in the range of $2. That's quite a jump.

"And the parking is incredibly expensive. It's $17 to park anywhere within an easy walking distance."

Moores sighs when asked whether he would have broken ground knowing the upcoming difficulties.

"That's very tough to imagine," Moores said. "It was a little bit like riding on a bullet train. You think, 'Oh my God, this isn't going to happen.' But there is no easy way to get off. You are not the engineer; you are not the conductor; you are on for the ride.

"But more importantly, and I hate to sound so self-serving, but this has never been about anything other than doing the right thing. I didn't want to be the guy who was responsible for the failure of a franchise. I just wasn't going to let that happen."

So Moores, 59, kept the faith. The outcome was not only Petco Park, but a 26-block ballpark district that has transformed East Village. Petco Park is the engine driving more than $1 billion of redevelopment.

"Particularly for people living in North County who maybe come downtown once a year to pick up Aunt Blandy at the airport, they are going to be quite surprised at how cool it is," said Moores, a Rancho Santa Fe resident who now also has an East Village condo to call home.

"The impact of redeveloping the East Village has been two- and three-fold of what everyone expected. It validated the notion that downtown San Diego is a cool place to live. For decades, in many ways, it was a seedy place where sailors went to get tattoos or go to a bar and get into a fight."

San Diego rolls up its sleeve and displays a fresh venue that glistens. That's especially true of its most recognizable landmark, the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field.

The red-brick warehouse dating to 1909 was retrofitted to accommodate suites, the Padres Hall of Fame Bar and Grill, a team store and rooftop bleachers. The left-field foul pole hugs the structure's southeast corner.

Others rave about how the seats -- some angled -- embrace the diamond. Compared with Qualcomm Stadium, the field-level seats are 10 to 12 feet closer to the action, with some on top of the foul lines. The upper deck's front rows are three feet closer than Qualcomm Stadium's loge level was.

And with many concessions stands -- anyone for Chinese, Italian or Mexican food? -- constructed away from the seating bowl, there's an open feel to the concourse levels. The outside ring offers views of San Diego Bay, Point Loma, downtown and the Coronado Bay Bridge.

"I think it's spectacular," Escondido's Bob Krier said while touring the facility with his family last weekend. "We're looking forward to coming here."

Added his wife, Julie: "It's going to be fun to come down here. I can't believe how much downtown has changed."

Just like the Padres' persona, thanks in part, to Kroc. He acquired the Padres in 1974, then turned them over to his wife, Joan, who recently died. She sold the club to Tom Werner in 1990, and Moores bought it four years later.

"Joan told me the story of how Ray came home one day and said, 'Honey, I've bought the Padres,'" Moores recalled. "She said, 'You can do whatever you want with your money, but why would you buy a monastery?'"

Tonight, spiffy Petco Park, which often didn't have a prayer of being built, swings open its doors. For area baseball fans, that's more than enough reason to shout "hallelujah!"

Ballpark tour

A look at baseball's other stadiums, from oldest to newest, as we count down to Petco Park's April 8 opener. The second of 29:

WRIGLEY FIELD

Team: Chicago Cubs

Opened: 1914

Cost: $250,000

Capacity: 39,241

Dimensions: LF 355 feet, LC 368, CF 400, RC 363, RF 353

Fast facts: The Friendly Confines are as much a reason for the loyalty of Cubs fans as the team itself. Even as the Cubs bumbled through decades at a time, fans flocked to Addison Street to enjoy a unique atmosphere of ivy walls, sunshine and wind. The fact Wrigley was the last stadium to add lights -- they were installed in 1988 -- gave it unique standing among baseball purists. The outfield walls have been covered by ivy vines since 1937. With Old Style beer flowing and bleacher bums putting on their own show in the stands, Wrigley has the atmosphere of a giant tailgate party. Wrigley's signature moment came on Babe Ruth's "called shot" home run in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series.

Did you know?: The Cubs weren't Wrigley Field's first tenant. The Chicago Whales of the Federal League played there for two years before the Cubs moved in for the 1916 season.

Sources: Chicago Cubs media guide, ballparks.com

Contact staff writer Jay Paris at paris@nctimes.net.