However it started, Petco Park’s reputation reached legendary status on an August afternoon in its debut season. The hometown clean-up hitter believed he’d lost another home run to the park’s expansive dimensions, saw a teammate’s deep drive tracked down in deep left center, fired his helmet from second base toward the Padres’ dugout and uttered several obscenities as he glared at the general manager’s new suite. Kevin Towers later pulling Phil Nevin into the hall for a heated discussion heard through closed doors cemented a belief that persists today:

Petco Park was the place where home runs went to die.

Leave it to Wil Myers — the hometown entrant in Monday’s Home Run Derby – to set the record straight.

View the Video Wil Myers on Hitting at Petco Park

“I think of all the ballparks I’ve played in I think this is the fairest park I’ve played in,” said Myers, whose 13 home runs through 45 games here are already two shy of the Petco Park season record. “Obviously, you have to hit the ball to get it out. You don’t get any cheap home runs, but I’ve never hit a ball that I thought was going out that didn’t get out.”

He may be on to something.

A dozen years after opening in the Gaslamp District, Petco Park has morphed from the game’s toughest place to homer — 30th with 41.3 at-bats per homer in 2004, according to Elias Sports Bureau research — to a much friendlier hitting environment. So far this season, the Padres’ yard ranks 21st with 31.3 at-bats per home run a year after peaking at 13th (32.6), a perfect storm of factors resulting in the most powerful season since the end of the Steroid Era.

OUT-OF-THE-PARK COVERAGE 2016 All-Star Game at PetCo Park, July 12

The power alleys have shrunk by 11 to 12 feet, the warmest year on record in the Petco era (until this year) dried up the marine layer and a 7,564-square-foot videoboard and new 16-story building in left-center altered the way wind entered the park, all of it potentially adding up to a much more action-packed derby than anyone might have imagined a decade ago.

Of course, this bit of no-duh knowledge might matter more than anything.

“There’s not a live pitcher throwing 94 mph with sink,” said a chuckling Darren Balsley , who’s in his 14th year as the Padres’ pitching coach and has witnessed, first-hand, just about every home run hit here. “Those guys are throwing 60 mph down the middle of the plate. There will be some tape measure shots. There will be balls off the Western Metal Supply building. Maybe even off the scoreboard.

“It will be an entertaining home run derby.”

Tale of the Tape Hitter Bats HRs Long Avg. HR Distance Avg. exit velocity Odds Mark Trumbo R 28 456 ft 409.4 ft 105.9 mph 15/4 Todd Frazier R 25 429 ft 390.8 ft 102.7 mph 6/1 Adam Duvall R 23 450 ft 399.1 ft 103.7 mph 7/1 Robinson Cano L 21 432 ft 393.9 ft 104.3 mph 7/1 Giancarlo Stanton R 21 490 ft 421.8 ft 108.6 mph 13/4 Wil Myers R 19 454 ft 405.3 ft 104.9 mph 6/1 Carlos Gonzalez L 19 469 ft 420.9 ft 106.6 mph 15/2 Corey Seager L 17 435 ft 406.0 ft 103.1 mph 9/1

The entrants should see to that.

Joining Myers under the lights is the majors’ home run leader (Mark Trumbo), the owner of the longest homer of the year (Giancarlo Stanton), last year’s winner (Todd Frazier), a four-time veteran and former champ (Robinson Cano) and the owner of the fifth-longest homer this year (Carlos Gonzalez).

As daunting as that might sound to Myers and fellow first-timers Corey Seager and Adam Duvall, equalizers can level the playing field.

“It’s not about the hitter; it’s about the BP thrower,” said Padres bench coach Mark McGwire , the winner when the derby was held at Jack Murphy Stadium in 1992. “It’s about finding that groove with the BP thrower. It has nothing to do with your swing.

“It’s about getting your ball in your spot to where you can get on a roll.”

Of course, back in McGwire’s day, derby sluggers rolled with whomever the host team put on the mound. Today, throwers are hand-picked caddies that range from trusted coaches to buddies to blood relatives.

The latter is the choice for Myers, his 19-year-old brother Beau joining the Padres in Los Angeles this week to get a feel for feeding BP fastballs to Myers ahead of the big event.

“I just have to put it over the plate,” said Beau Myers, who threw to Wil in an indoor cage Thursday and then on the field five hours before Friday’s game at Dodger Stadium. “There’ll be some pressure but I’ve got some good confidence coming in. I’m looking forward to it.”

Myers has been too — for quite some time.

The 25-year-old first baseman hit 37 homers in the minors in 2012, won the AL Rookie of the Year award with 13 in half a season with the Rays the next year and then spent the last two years battling wrist injuries that sullied his reputation as a budding power hitter.

“When you’re dealing with an injury, you never know if it’s going to come back and feel completely healthy,” Myers said. “Luckily, enough it did and I’m here now.”

Here as an unquestioned power hitter, too. His home numbers back that up.

Myers’ .644 Petco slugging percentage is 250 points better than it is on the road, 13 of his 19 homers have come at Petco Park and nine of his home homers have left the yard right of center field — the biggest part of what was once baseball’s un-friendliest hitter’s haven.

Don’t look for Myers to change too much of his approach on Monday. He’ll roll with his strength over Petco’s reputation any day.

“I’m definitely not going to try to pull,” he said. “I’ll try to hit the ball to left center and center field and hopefully it works.”