Saint Junípero Serra Ferrer O.F.M. (1713 – 1784), popularly known simply as Junipero Serra, was a Spanish Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda. He founded a mission in Baja California and established eight of the 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, in what was then Spanish-occupied Alta California in the Province of Las Californias of New Spain.
The Padres became a Major League franchise in 1969, but the San Diego Padres were in existence long before then. The Padres' first season came in 1936 in the Pacific Coast League after Hollywood Stars owner Bill Lane opted to move his team to San Diego.
The “Padres” moniker, it's a tribute to the city's history. It was the Franciscan Friars -- Father Junípero Serra and Don Caspar de Portolá -- who founded the first Spanish colony in southern California and the name stems directly from the priests who established the first Spanish Missions in California in 1769.
