Steven Woods had thrown 15 innings in three days, so a heavy arm made it hard for the “Ben & Woods” co-host to find the strike zone the deeper he got into Padres Fantasy Camp.

Still, as far as Randy Jones was concerned, there were no safe spaces on a baseball field.

“He would drive by on his cart and yell … ‘Woodsy, think you will ever throw an effin’ strike?’” Woods recalled with a laugh. “He loved to heckle me. Then he’d put his arm around you. He made you feel so special.”

Jones, 75, died Tuesday after more than five decades of association with the Padres and San Diego . The team drafted him in 1972 in the fifth round out of Chapman College, brought him to the majors the following June and watched his 1976 NL Cy Young campaign morph him into the Padres’ first true superstar.

Jones

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