San Diego father, son complete quest, see Padres play every MLB team in every stadium

With a table full of pictures laid out in front of him, San Diego resident Tom Welborn picked up one photo in particular and reflected on the start of a very special streak.

"This was the first Padres game with my son, so I guess that technically started the streak," Welborn said.

Welborn is showing a photo taken in 1998 that shows him with his then-4-month-old son, John, attending a Padres home game at Qualcomm Stadium.

Six years later, Tom and John started their road steak.

"In 2004, it started, watching the Padres play back-to-back Red Sox and Yankees," John said.

From Fenway Park in Boston, the father-son duo just kept hitting the road and hitting Major League ballparks: Wrigley Field, in Chicago; Yankee Stadium; Padres at Royals; games in Seattle; the old RFK Stadium to see Padres vs. Nationals. On and on they went. They even traveled around the world to see the Padres, going to see the Padres international games.

"Mexico City was really fun," Tom said. "The Seoul series was amazing — everyone got one of these," he added, holding up some swag given to everyone in attendance in Korea.

The Padres-Dodgers game in Korea was an experience Tom is still raving about.

"The food was amazing," Tom said. "The beer was $2 a can in the stadium, and they would sell you six-packs. I bought a couple of six-packs for ... I think it was $13, and I was throwing beers to Padre fans."

After 20 years of road trips the Welborns had seen the Padres play every MLB team in every MLB stadium except one: the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Then, on Aug. 30, it happened. John and Tom made it to Tampa and attended the game with a sign commemorating their achievement of seeing the Padres play every team in every stadium. After essentially completing the baseball fan cycle, father and son had varied emotions.

"I was on a high," said a smiling Tom as he remembered the series. "I was on absolute high."

John was more reflective: "All the trips, all the memories, all the players, all the wins and losses — it all hit at once. It wasn't just about the baseball, it was more about the father-son bonding which made a lot of these memories."

"We don't know if we're the first," Tom said. "That wasn't the goal of it. The goal was just father-son bonding, traveling to see the Padres play."

Traveling to all these parks is expensive and time-consuming, but the Welborns kind of have an inside job that helped make it possible. When asked what they do for work both John and Tom smiled and said, "We're pilots."

One might say these Padre Pilots are Frequent Friars.

"Being a pilot, that does help us get around the country," said a laughing Tom.

Thirty teams, more than 30 stadiums, 20 years of Padres pictures, and after all those times at all those ballparks, we gotta know: What is their favorite MLB stadium?

After pausing for a beat, John cracks a wry smile, starts laughing and says "Petco Park. A hundred percent. No biases."

The Welborns journey is only temporarily finished, though: Next season, the Oakland A's will play games in Sacramento, then the franchise is expected to move to Las Vegas, so the father and son will once again have to hit the road.