Tom Krasovic: Kurt Bevacqua’s homer 41 years ago today remains a singular moment in Padres history

Where have you gone, Kurt Bevacqua? Padres fans turn their lonely eyes to you.

The Padres’ one — and only — World Series victory occurred 41 years ago Friday, when Bevacqua belted a three-run home run on the way to a 5-3 win over the Detroit Tigers.

The Padres trailed Game 2 by a run when Bevacqua launched a fat slider from Detroit Tigers starter Dan Petry with Graig Nettles and Terry Kennedy aboard and one out in the fifth inning.

What did a Padres World Series win look like?

Lefty Craig Lefferts induced a popup. Second baseman Alan Wiggins glided to his left and gloved it overhead, while Steve Garvey backed into him and Tony Gwynn approached from right field. The clock read 8:09 p.m at Jack Murphy Stadium.

What did it sound like?

“High pop fly,” Vin Scully, his rich voice pouring through NBC’s telecast, said as Tigers batter Larry Herndon lifted Lefferts’ final pitch. “A trio of Padres. It will be Wiggins.”

Scully said nothing more for 40 seconds, allowing a national audience to hear the San Diego crowd’s roar on this Wednesday night.

How did San Diegans react?

Fans in brown, gold and white waved white World Series pennants, peered through binoculars or just yelled and clapped. Others in the crowd of  57,911 shook homemade signs:

“Mow Down Motown.”

“Hold that Tiger!”

“Padre Power.”

Four-plus decades later, the Bevacqua game – which featured also a combined 81/3 innings of scoreless relief by Andy Hawkins and Lefferts and three hits apiece from Wiggins and Garry Templeton – remains the closest the Padres have come to winning the World Series.

The Tigers, marching toward all-time greatness, won the next three games in Detroit to win the trophy. The Padres returned to the Fall Classic in 1998, but a great Yankees team swept them. And, for all the baseball fun that’s been had in the East Village, the Padres haven’t won a National League pennant since their move downtown.

Bevacqua, who still lives in San Diego, doesn’t brag about the Game 2 victory. The three games that followed still sting too much.

“I really thought after we won Game 2, we were going to at least bring (the World Series) back to San Diego,” he said this week. “The Tigers just had a great ballclub. There’s no ifs, ands and buts about that. But, it was a bummer that it didn’t work out. Because I wanted to hit some more. I was seeing the ball well.”

Bevacqua batted .412 in the World Series with two home runs, two doubles, three singles and a walk.

Games 1 and 2 were a whirlwind for the 37-year-old infielder and outfielder.

Batting ninth in Game 1, Bevacqua doubled off a split-finger fastball from Hall of Fame ace Jack Morris only to stumble around second base and get thrown out at third. Coming when it did, with none out and the Padres down one run, the seventh-inning baserunning mistake loomed over the eventual 3-2 defeat.

A night later, Bevacqua atoned for that miscue and rewarded manager Dick Williams for moving him up to sixth in the lineup.

Cashing Nettles’ walk and Kennedy’s bad-hop drive that went off second baseman Lou Whitaker’s chest for a single, the 6-foot, 180-pounder walloped Petry’s 0-1 mistake.

The ball sailed beyond former Padres teammate Ruppert Jones, over the left-field fence and past the 17-foot stadium wall beyond it.

Bevaqua made a slow tour of the basepaths, doing a spin around first base, waving an index finger and blowing kisses to the crowd as he rounded third base.

“Going from first base to third base, I had no idea what I was thinking,” he said. “I was in a different zip code.”

Bevacqua’s home run was the first in 11 games against the Tigers.

Tigers manager Sparky Anderson professed not to be surprised by how difficult Games 1 and 2 were for his favored team, which had swept the Oakland A’s in the American League Championship Series and begun the season 35-5 en route to 104 victories.

The Padres, said the Hall of Fame manager, matched up tougher against his team than the Cubs would have. The 92-win Padres had beaten the 96-win Cubs in Games 3, 4 and 5 of the NLCS to advance.

Bevacqua’s two World Series home runs and five other hits belied a subpar regular season in which he batted .200 with one home run in 80 at-bats.  On the other hand, his impressive career as a pinch-hitter prepared him for the World Series.

Beyond the Padres steering the 5-3 lead to the Game 2 victory, Bevacqua reaped other lifetime rewards from his three-run swing.

Teammate Goose Gossage saw where Bevacqua’s home run ball landed and got the ball from a fan in return for autographs. Assistant equipment manager Whitey Wietelmann made sure Bevacqua kept the home run bat. He inscribed the bat and the ball with the pertinent details. Bevacqua had both framed.

In the Bevacqua home today are six stadium seats where the home run ball would’ve landed if a fan hadn’t grabbed it.

Bevacqua tried to get those seats, making several efforts, but never heard back from San Diego State officials as they began to demolish the old stadium.

But Bevacqua didn’t forge a big-league career by accepting defeat. A TV report on the stadium’s rapid deconstruction triggered a thought.

Telling his wife he would be away for a few hours, Bevacqua hustled out the door and drove to the stadium. He would find a way to get the seats.

Bevacqua found Padres fans among the construction crew and was taken to the on-site boss, a large man.

Bevacqua convinced him who he was.

“I dated your daughter in high school,” the man replied, a curveball the ex-hitter didn’t see coming.

“Really?” said Bevacqua, who then dialed his daughter, Natalie.

“I’m sitting here with an old friend of yours,” he told her, “and I need a favor from him, so be nice, and I’ll tell him what I want.”

The boss gave Bevacqua a white hard hat and a yellow safety vest and drove him to the left-field mezzanine in a golf cart. Had he arrived too late? The outfield seats beyond right field were gone, as were the seats beyond center field and part of left-center.

But the left-field seats were there.

A construction worker matched the seats to the video replay of the home run, unbolted them and loaded them up for the former Padre.

“Got it in the nick of time,” said Bevacqua, 78.

Spurred by what’s still a unique victory in Padres history, the one-of-a-kind rescue fit the occasion.