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Legendary broadcaster Ted Leitner will be inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame this week, and all I can say is: Awesome.

There’s just something about baseball announcers -- far more than any other sport -- where the connection with fans is visceral. Maybe it’s the everyday nature of the sport. Maybe it’s the way the game lends itself to storytelling (and, man, could Leitner tell a story). But whatever the reason, Leitner, who spent 41 seasons as the team’s play-by-play radio voice, is as deserving as anyone.

“It’s the greatest honor of my professional life, by far, by light years,” Leitner said over the weekend, clearly humbled by his impending enshrinement.

• A complete list of Padres Hall of Fame members

Naturally, Leitner’s thoughts turned to his longtime broadcast partner, Jerry Coleman, who is as beloved in San Diego as any announcer in any city. Coleman, a Marine Corps pilot in World War II and the Korean War, has a statue at Petco Park and is enshrined in Cooperstown. He passed away in 2014.

“If the standard and the bar is set by Jerry Coleman, in terms of his popularity and his impact on the franchise, I don’t measure up to that,” Leitner said. “I really don’t. … This is just an incredible honor for me.”

Leitner, humble as ever, then went down the list of non-playing members of the Padres Hall of Fame -- from Coleman to Ray Kroc to Kevin Towers to Buzzie Bavasi. He then came to the man he’ll be inducted with on Thursday night, Larry Lucchino.

“I did not impact the franchise like those guys, and clearly did not impact the franchise like the man I’m going in with,” Leitner said. “We wouldn’t be standing at Petco Park for the ceremony without Larry Lucchino.”

Lucchino was the club’s president and CEO from 1995-2001, and he played an important role in constructing teams that would win division titles in ’96 and ’98, reaching the World Series in that ’98 season. But the crowning achievement of Lucchino’s time in San Diego will always be Petco Park.

As team president, Lucchino spearheaded the movement for the downtown ballpark, working to win the vote in 1998 that approved the stadium, then designing a crown jewel among ballparks.

In a way, it’s fitting that Lucchino and Leitner will be inducted together, because Leitner, as the voice of the Padres, was vocal about the need for the team to move from Mission Valley into the fabled Gaslamp and what it would mean for the city. Leitner recalled Lucchino saying, “It would impact San Diego as much as it would impact the Padres,” and those words proved prescient.

“I don’t know that I’ve met a smarter man in baseball,” Leitner said. “I don’t know that I’ve met a smarter executive. He was just always ahead of everybody.”

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place prior to Thursday’s series opener against the Giants. The Padres are asking fans to be in their seats at 6:20 p.m. for the festivities.