Blue man groupies?
So it seemed as thousands of Dodgers fans found their way back into Petco Park for this week’s series against the Padres.
No wonder chants of “Let’s go, Padres!” were often countered by “Let’s go, Dodgers!” at the downtown ballpark.
There were a significant number of fans wearing Dodger blue hats and jerseys in the seats on both Monday and Tuesday. This after being virtually shut out during the playoffs two of the past three years because of a policy that prevented fans with L.A. zip codes from purchasing postseason tickets.
Many were priced out of the secondary market last October, when prices for a chunk of grass at Gallagher Square were $200 and an actual seat within the ballpark started at $300.
The get-in price at Gallagher Square this week was $100. Someone snapped up Section 325 seats in the upper deck Tuesday for $102.
The same seats on June 24 against the Washington Nationals: $27.60.
“Dynamic pricing” is the professional term that explains the cost of seeing a good team or a bad one.
The Dodgers are in a category all their own, however.
Other signs the Dodgers were in town:
• $100 parking;
• “Beat L.A.!” chants in the streets surrounding Petco Park two hours before first pitch;
• A couple thousand empty seats when the game started. Traffic on the I-5 south?;
We’ll say this: L.A. fans didn’t leave early, as is their reputation at Dodger Stadium, for the series opener.
They remained in their seats Monday night until the final out of the Dodgers’ 10-inning, 8-7 win.
Of course, they weren’t worried about a four-hour postgame traffic jam down here.
Scouting the opposition
Amid all the hats with SD on them and the hats with LA on the them was one in the left-field bleachers with an Old English D on it.
David Maldonado of Escondido was wearing a Detroit Tigers hat as he observed Monday’s proceedings from The Landing, located in left field just below the giant video board.
Maldonado, binoculars around his neck, watched keenly before explaining.
“I’m scouting for the Detroit Tigers,” said Maldonado, who moved here from Detroit three years ago. “I think the Tigers are going to make it to the World Series. They’re the winningest team in baseball as we speak. I think they have the entire AL covered. It’s just the NL that we need to worry about.”
The 23-year-old Maldonado said he was working in an “official unofficial capacity” and would be forwarding his findings to an unspecified official in the Tigers organization.
“I work on a freelance basis for the Tigers,” Maldonado said when pressed on the matter. “They don’t send me on assignment. I just kind of do my own thing, and then I report as I see fit.”
As for what he was seeing, Maldonado reported that “I’ve really been impressed with Manny Machado. And Tyler Wade with that three-run triple (that gave the Padres a 6-5 lead in the third inning). Also Freddie Freeman. Also Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers lineup is so stacked with talent.”
He was more dismissive of the Padres.
“The Tigers own the Padres,” Maldonado said. “That’s just how it goes. History repeats itself.”
He pointed to both the Tigers’ 1984 World Series win over the Padres and April’s series win over the Padres in Detroit.
It seems Maldonado is a man of many hats.
“I also do gambling, sports betting, prediction markets,” he said. “You’ve got to be out there hustling, grinding. Also, I do marketing. I sell Cutco knives. Sometimes I do some middle-man real estate deals. I work with buyers and sellers.”
Wondered if he also was an importer/exporter, but by that point Maldonado was too focused on the mound to probe further.
“I’m really just trying to analyze pitcher delivery,” he said, “whether they’re using the sweeper or the slider or the change-up. And when they’re using the certain types of pitches. …”
Drama, what drama?
Most of the fans were literally at the edge of their seats — or standing in front of them — during the ninth inning of a 6-6 tie on Monday night.
Then there was Bakersfield’s Luis Diaz, who was shopping for a hat in the Padres Team Store with his family as the game hung in the balance.
“My wife said, ‘Let’s go to the store in the eighth inning before the game’s over, or it’s going to be too late to do it,’” Diaz said. “Everybody’s locked in on the game, so this was the time to come in and shop.”
There were TV monitors throughout the store to keep tabs on the game. Or get back out in the stands if/when the game went into extra innings.
“Either that, or whatever,” Diaz said.
Ralph Riley was in one corner of The Loft inside the Western Metal Supply Co. Building furiously shooting basketballs on the Pop-a-Shot game as Fernando Tatis Jr. stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
A walk-off win was one swing away, but Riley, at Petco for a corporate event, never turned around.
After the buzzer sounded on his game, Riley was asked about his indifference.
“I’m a Yankees fan,” he said.
Riley was in town from Connecticut to attend Cisco Live 2025, a tech event taking place this week at the San Diego Convention Center.
He did offer this: “Great ballpark.”
What he saw of it, anyway.
Heads up
There was almost a Bull Durham hit-the-mascot moment before Monday’s game when a pair of UFC fighters, Edgar Chairez and Raul Rosas Jr., were invited to throw out first pitches.
Rosas Jr. is certainly more accurate with his punches and kicks than with his throws — maybe his sombrero affected his delivery — sailing his offering six feet over the head of Brandon Lockridge as the outfielder squatted at the plate.
Among those gathered near the backstop was the Swingin’ Friar, who was directly in the line of fire. Fortunately, the Friar had his head on a swivel. The mascot gamely barehanded the ball.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio threw out the first pitch before Tuesday night’s game. It was high, but pitcher Joe Musgrove was able to get a glove on it.
Can’t make this up
Monday’s attendance was 45,678. Really? Really.
Good seats, real good, still available
Front row seats to Dodgers-Padres: priceless.
Well, almost. Someone had a pair of seats for Tuesday’s game in Section DUG4 in the first row behind the plate listed for $3,165 apiece. For what it’s worth, the seats included meals as well as unlimited wine, beer and liquor. It didn’t say if that was for the game or for life.
Our kid
When Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman stepped to the plate for his first at-bat of the series, the video board included this tidbit: The La Jolla Country Day High School graduate received his first college scholarship offer from Tony Gwynn and San Diego State. Edman ended up attending Stanford and was selected in the sixth round of the 2016 MLB Draft by St. Louis. Edman does share something with Gwynn — both were born on May 9.
Getting the axe?
On Seventh Avenue, a block north of the ballpark, Padres fans were lined up out the door at an establishment called Throw It! — Axe Throwing.
Had to do a double-take for a couple of reasons.
First, we thought axe throwing had gone out of favor years ago when ESPN shifted its focus from broadcasting the Lumberjack World Championships to more mainstream sports.
Second, were Padres fans really stopping by to get in a couple throws before getting to the game?
Nope.
It turns out that Throw It! has created a new revenue stream by renting storage lockers. Business was brisk. That begs another question: Why not just leave stuff in the car (or at home) that you don’t want to — or can’t — bring into the ballpark?
There are those who have an axe to grind with the Padres this year for slightly changing the size of clear bags allowed inside at Petco, which could be one explanation for storage locker demand.
Parting thought
Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease took the mound Tuesday to his warmup song, “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits. Those over, what, 45 years old, know it’s a great, great song (and video). It was released in 1985 — 10 years before Cease was born.
The opening lyrics: “Now look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it. You play the guitar on the MTV.”
Wonder how many people in the audience — including Cease — have any idea what MTV is or was?
