A crowd of 15,909 rose to its feet in the second inning on this date — June 10 — in 1975 as Marine Lt. Jim Eakle and a battered green tuba led McNamara’s Band into San Diego Stadium for the first time since Eakle was transferred from Camp Pendleton to Okinawa. His blossoming between-innings musical act had become such a staple that the Padres’ footed the bill to bring Eakle back to San Diego for a two-week encore.
Eakle was floored.
“The warm reception I received the night of June 10 was the happiest feeling of my life,” Eakle wrote in a letter to the editor of the San Diego Union after his two-week stay.