The San Diego Padres inducted Jake Peavy into the Major League Baseball team’s Hall of Fame on Friday night in a ceremony before a game against the Texas Rangers.

“I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart that the day I showed up as a small-town Alabama boy to San Diego, you loved me,” Peavy told the crowd at Petco Park. “My family, my support system, I couldn’t have a better one. … To you fans, it was an honor to put a uniform on and play for you as a San Diego Padre — the honor of a lifetime, like a dream.”

The Padres selected Peavy from St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Mobile a few days after his 18th birthday in the 15th round of the 1999 draft, and he picked the pros over Auburn. Peavy reached the big leagues in 2002 and pitched through the 2016 campaign, playing in eight seasons with San Diego, five with the Chicago White Sox, three with San Francisco and two with the Boston Red Sox.

While with San Diego, Peavy went to the MLB All-Star Game in 2005 and 2007 and was the National League’s starting pitcher for the latter contest. He led the National League in strikeouts twice and earned-run average twice and in wins once.

In 2007, Peavy achieved a pitching triple crown by leading the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA.

Peavy remains the Padres’ career strikeout leader and is tied for second in franchise history in wins.

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Bruce Bochy served as San Diego’s manager during the first four seasons of the pitcher’s career, and he was at Friday night’s game as the manager of the Rangers.

“I still remember this young kid coming up pitching his first game against the Yankees,” Bochy said. “What a terrific job he did. Just the way handled himself, I knew we had something special at the time.”

Peavy became the ninth former Padres player inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame, joining Ken Caminiti, Nate Colbert, Tony Gwynn, Trevor Hoffman, Randy Jones, Benito Santiago, Garry Templeton and Dave Winfield. He’s the second starting pitcher in the lineup after Jones.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.