By Scott Gulbransen, a.ka. Friary Gully

If you remember 2004, the Padres were ushering in the Petco Park era where fans had been promised a competitive team year-after-year and a new home the entire community could be proud of. By 2009, San Diego was as excited about the Padres as they were the recession.

The beginning of this Padres season is perhaps the most optimistic one since 2004. There is no doubt this Padres season just feels different. After the sale of the franchise to Jeff Moorad, there have been many changes on Park Boulevard. Moorad and his staff have pushed the reset button and are already turning heads with a more fan-friendly approach built on solid core business principles.

This was vital – even more than the product on the field – in order to regain public trust and convince fans to come back. After the disaster of the Sandy Alderson era, the public’s trust and support of the John Moores era had come to an end.

There is no denying that former Padres owner John Moores did much to save baseball in San Diego. And even though his tenure as owner ended bitterly, especially salaciously due to his divorce, Moores place in San Diego baseball history was solidified once the ballpark opened in 2004. Add in great years in 1996 and 1998, the Moores/Padres era was overall a positive one.

But the past is the past and 2010 begins a whole new era in Padres baseball. While the product on the field has a ways to go, the Padres have done almost everything right since the end of last year. They’ve followed through on their promise to do what they can to bring fans back and to make Petco Park more fan-friendly.

The Padres were hemorrhaging fans after a sub-par 2008 and the drama around front office mismanagement, the Moores divorce, and sub-par on-field performance led to a fall off in both season ticket sales and overall attendance. The Padres drew 500,000 less fans in 2009 than they did in 2008 and season tickets sales also slumped. Moorad knew this and set out to turn things around right away.

So Moorad did what every good business owner does – he surrounded himself with good talent and leaders he could trust. He also focused first on the fan. He knew the Padres were years away from being ultra-competitive even within the average National Leauge West. The Padres had to rebuild their farm system but first that had to rebuild the relationship with the men, women, families and community it had alienated over the past three seasons.

Yes, fans are fans. They might not be what you consider to be the average “customer,” but when teams fail to remember that it is fans that buy the tickets, buy souvenirs and pay for over-priced concessions, they soon find themselves in dire straits. Moorad and his ownership group recognized this and, by my count, have done an amazing job thus far.

Not only did the Padres slash ticket prices, they made a personal connection to disenfranchised fans and season ticket holders. They made it personal and listened. They listened to the gripes, they listened to the suggestions, and they listened to fans from every walk of life. This was vital for them to understand what needed to be done to earn back the fan’s trust. It’s hard to argue that it hasn’t been an overwhelming success thus far.

So the season is underway and the results thus far have been mixed. The Padres are a young team with a patch-work pitching staff. They have a new, talented and bright general manager in Jed Hoyer. They are forging ahead without the baggage or constraints of the past. They look to build on the encouraging end of the 2009 season.

This writer likes what he sees so far from the new Padres – both between the lines and in the front office. It’s still early in the Moorad era but he’s off to a fast start.

As we welcome Opening Day here in San Diego, for the first time in years, Padres fans have much to be excited about. Some will continue to complain and others will continue to stay away. Still, you can’t help but feel the ship is finally pointed in the right direction.

And that is a good thing.

Follow Scott on Twitter @sdgully