Randy Jones was a left-handed sinkerball pitcher who became one of the most unlikely stars of 1970s baseball, spending the bulk of his career with the San Diego Padres after being drafted in 1972. Undersized and lacking overpowering stuff, he relied on pinpoint control and a heavy sinking fastball to induce ground balls, leading the NL in wins and ERA in 1975 before an even better 1976, when he went 22-14 with a 2.74 ERA and an NL-record-tying 25 complete games to win the Cy Young Award. That July, he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated under the headline "San Diego's Confounding Randy Jones — Threat to Win 30," a nod to his 16-3 record at the All-Star break, a mark no pitcher has matched since. Elbow trouble eventually diminished his effectiveness, and he finished his career with 100 wins after a trade to the Mets in 1981, but he remained a fixture in San Diego as a broadcaster and ballpark personality, remembered as one of the most beloved Padres in franchise history.

Ted Leitner, affectionately known as "Uncle Teddy," served as the radio play-by-play voice of the Padres for 41 seasons from 1980 to 2020, becoming one of the most recognizable figures in San Diego sports — as one local comedian joked, "there are only two kinds of people in San Diego: you either hate Ted Leitner, or you are Ted Leitner." A Bronx native, he paired his baseball duties with a long run as a KFMB-TV sports anchor and as the radio voice of San Diego State football and basketball, while also calling games for the Chargers and Clippers. He's best remembered for his decades-long partnership with fellow Hall of Fame broadcaster Jerry Coleman, together narrating the Padres' pennant runs in 1984 and 1998 and the careers of franchise icons like Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman — a bond Leitner never fully recovered from losing after Coleman's death in 2014. His relationship with Randy Jones ran nearly as deep, dating back almost 50 years to when he covered Jones as the Padres' first true star during his playing days; the two later reconnected as club ambassadors together, with Leitner calling Jones "Mr. Everyman." After stepping away from the booth in 2021, Leitner was inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame in July 2022, cementing his legacy as the connective thread across generations of Padres history.

Joining us on Past Our Prime, "Uncle Teddy" Leitner holds court — and folks, holding court is basically his day job. He tells us Randy Jones might've been the most likeable human to ever throw a baseball, a guy so charming he could talk Steve Carlton, Willie McCovey, and other future Hall of Famers into showing up on their pregame show for a soft-tossing lefty who, in his own words, "couldn't break a pane of glass." Case in point: Mike Schmidt once told Jones he should be embarrassed to pitch with stuff that slow — right before Jones went out and shut out the Phillies. Twice. Nothing quite like getting owned by a guy throwing batting practice. Leitner and Jones later became Padres ambassadors together, and Ted doesn't hide how hard it's hit him to lose his old pal — right on the heels of losing another lifelong friend, the legendary Jerry Coleman. And Coleman, it turns out, came with a Hall of Fame connection of his own: a friendship with Ted Williams so tight that Leitner practically got Splendid-Splintered by association with "the greatest hitter who ever lived." There are laughs, there are tears, and there's Ted being Ted for a full hour. It's a Ted Talk, literally, on Past Our Prime — and trust us, you don't want to miss this one.

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