Two Members of 1969 Padres Next on My 100 List
Steve Arlin, Whitey Wietelmann in Padres first bullpen
By Bill Center
Midway through the Padres first season of 1969, the Padres promoted right-handed pitcher Steve Arlin from Triple-A to make his Major League debut. Arlin’s first Major League assignment was to report to the Padres’ bullpen, where the coach was the personable Whitey Wietelmann.
The pair are joined again as, respectively, Nos. 87 and 88 on my list of the 100 people who have contributed most to the Padres.
Wietelmann spent 45 years with the Padres as a minor league player and coach, a major league coach and a member of the Padres’ off-the-field staff after leaving the coaching staff in 1979.
Arlin, who later became a prominent dentist in the San Diego area after his playing career ended, pitched for the Padres from 1969 to 1974.
88. Coach Whitey Wietelmann
William “Whitey” Wietelmann was more than an original coach with the expansion Padres. He was truly an original. A Major League player from 1939 to 1947 with the National League Boston Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates– he was a right-handed pitcher as well as a switch-hitting infielder — Wietelmann played (1949–52) and coached (1960–65, 1968) with the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Padres before being the Major League Padres original bullpen coach. But Wietelmann, who wore No. 19 long before Tony Gwynn, was more than a coach. He was a fan favorite of San Diegans transitioning from the minors to the Major Leagues. The cherub-faced Wietelmann also filled many off-field roles for the ballclub. He could be found at various times assisting the grounds crew or cleaning baseballs in a machine he invented. Wietelmann was also one of the first to chart pitches and hitters. During the 1970s, Wietelmann was named “Mr. Indispensible” by the Padres and appeared regularly at off-season functions to promote the team. Wietelmann retired after 11 seasons as a Padres coach in 1979 at the age of 60 but remained active in various roles in the organization until he passed away in San Diego in 2002 at the age of 83. Wietelmann spent a total of 45 years with the Padres.
87. RHP Steve Arlin
Before Randy Jones became the Padres first true ace, Arlin and Clay Kirby excited Padres fans with their pitching performances. But it was not easy pitching on an expansion team. Both Kirby and Arlin worked more than 200 innings early in their careers and developed problems. Arlin led the National League in losses in back-to-back seasons — 19 in 1971 and 21 in 1972 — despite posting earned run averages of 3.48 and 3.60 while working a total of 477 2/3 innings. Arlin was 32–62 in six seasons as a Padre with a 4.19 ERA in 130 games (113 starts). Arlin was the 29th and penultimate player selected by the Padres in the 1968 draft to stock the expansion Padres and Expos. The highlight of his Arlin’s career came on July 18, 1972, when his bid for a no-hitter ended with two out in the ninth when Philadelphia’s Denny Doyle bounced a single over the head of drawn-in third baseman Dave Roberts. Arlin also threw a complete-game, one-hitter on June 23, 1972, against San Francisco. Dr. Arlin died in San Diego last Aug. 17 at the age of 70.
The list thus far:
89. RHP Huston Street
90. SS Tony Fernandez
91. RHP Luke Gregerson
92. Bullpen coach Darrel Akerfelds
93. INF-OF Bip Roberts
94. C-1B Gene Tenace
95. 3B Graig Nettles
96. RHP Chris Young
97. RHP Scott Linebrink
98. CF Mike Cameron
99. C Chris Cannizzaro
100. SS Chris Gomez
