Peter, Mike & More
Remembering Peter Seidler, a lion of our community
Before anything else, of course, some words on Peter Seidler.
I don’t remember the exact first moment I met Peter, but I’m sure it was sometime early in 2014. And getting to know him over the next nine years would be one of the best things that ever happened to me. As a person, mind you, as much as an employee or broadcaster.
I don’t think there’s any question at all that the entire trajectory of the Padres (and frankly, the city of San Diego) was forcefully and wonderfully altered the day he took the reins of the club. That’s not a dig at anyone else, mind you…just an expression of Peter’s will to take things up not just a level or two, but all the way to the top.
Looking back at texts and e-mails and reminiscing about conversations, three things stood out: his kindness, his positivity and his love of baseball. Those have all been well-covered, but man, is there any better legacy to leave?
I shared a lot of my thoughts and memories a couple of weeks ago with Tony and Chris Ello on their radio show, and don’t want to get too repetitive here.
The one thing I do want to run back from that interview is this thought: if you got a group of fans of a random professional sports team together, locked them in a room, gave them a magic wand and said create the perfect owner for your team, they would very likely come up with someone like Peter. As fans, employees, friends, I don’t think there’s anything else we could have asked for. He will be missed deeply and his memory and legacy are wonderful blessings.
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It is also a legacy that will continue. Yesterday the Padres announced some of what they’ll be doing in the coming year(s) to honor Peter, and it really seems the club hit it out of the park.
For one, the team will wear a patch on their uniform this coming season, which of course was always going to happen. Nice to think about the 1984 Pads winning the pennant with the late Ray Kroc’s initials boldly plastered onto their sleeves. Details of the patch still TBA.
In addition, there will be a public celebration of life at Petco sometime during the weekend of March 22. Details still to come.
And most impactfully, the Padres Foundation, which already does incredible work in this community, will be launching the Peter Seidler Legacy Fund, which will “raise funds for impactful charitable projects that align with Peter’s passion and devotion to the betterment of the city.”
All donations, up to $1 million will be matched by the Foundation, players, ownership, and the Seidler family. So if my math is right (and for once I know it is because I’m getting this from a press release), for every dollar donated, $5 will go to into the pot. Pretty incredible stuff.
Some more details are available at padres.com/legacyfund, and you can donate beginning immediately.
New Manager!
The business of baseball continues, of course, and a guy who also got the opportunity to have his life touched by Peter, Mike Shildt, was officially hired to manage the club last week.
Personally, getting to know Mike a little bit the last couple of years has been really nice. A real-deal baseball LIFER, he’s definitely a guy who would go out of his way to say hi to everyone and get to know whoever he could as well as he could.
From a baseball perspective, it feels like something of a no-brainer. A guy who’s been around the Padres big league team and some of their top prospects quite a bit the last couple of years. I’m sure the hope is he can come in and hit the ground running. Certainly he understands the dynamics at play here, and that can only be seen as a positive.
Here’s to hoping he becomes the first Padre manager to lift the World Series trophy over his head.
Along those lines, quick trivia with answer via this footnote (so don’t click yet!)1:
With the Rangers having won their first title in 2023 and the Padres trying to do the same in 2024, when was the last time consecutive World Series were won by teams who had never won one before?
How Many Days Until Pitchers & Catchers?
Fans (and friends and family) often ask me when I start itching to get back to work during the off-season. The usual answer is Jan 1, but something about the way this last season ended combined with the fairly slow drip of transactions around baseball so far has moved up the time table. I’m feeling pretty ready. Let’s do this, OK?
Q&A
I feel like I keep saying we’re going to get back to Q&A stuff on here, and then I never ask for questions, so let’s fix that right now. Great off-season fodder/filler, that’s for sure.
As a reminder, I’m not going to really get into any free agency or trade rumors or speculation or anything, I’ll leave that to the reporters who cover the team for outside outlets, but there’s always plenty to discuss, either about last season, next season, broadcasting, Mud’s wardrobe, whatever. So fire away.
Thanks as always for reading and hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And hopefully we’ll be in Peoria before we know it.
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Trivia answer: 2001 D-backs and 2002 Angels. How many times has it happened in history? I’ll let you know…I asked our PR staff to check with the Elias Sports Bureau.