Replacement parts

Archi Cianfrocco

After San Diego’s players protest the team’s pending promotion of would-be replacement player Ira Smith from minors 29 years ago today Padres’ management backs down and instead calls up first baseman Archi Cianfrocco from Class AAA Las Vegas.

At the time, the 27-year-old Smith is batting .400 with Las Vegas, while Cianfrocco – a year older at 28 – is hitting .311 there.

Prior to promoting Smith, Padres general manager Randy Smith – no relation – asks his players how they would feel about having a wannabe replacement player on their team, especially so close in time to an acrimonious spring training of 1995, when owners threaten to use replacement players from the minors to take over for their striking major leaguers.

The players’ answer comes back in a near-unanimous voice: Forget it.

“We discussed it and said if it’s going to create a problem in the clubhouse, then it shouldn’t happen,” Padres pitcher Andy Ashby tells reporters 29 years ago today. “And we all voted that, well, there is bad karma with it, so we’ll shut it down.”

And, just like that, goodbye Ira Smith, hello Archi Cianfrocco.

Cianfrocco, pictured here in 1991 batting for the Class AA Harrisburg Senators, spends six of his seven seasons in the majors with the Padres before finishing his pro career in 1999 with the Seibu Lions of the Japanese Pacific League.

As for Smith, he never reaches the majors and spends another eight years in the minors and independent leagues before retiring in anonymity.