Tag: padres

San Diego prepares for Padres 2025 Opening Day!

Padres banners and flags are going up throughout downtown San Diego–in the Gaslamp, East Village, and around Petco Park! The city is almost ready for 2025 Opening Day, which is tomorrow!

This morning, Padres personnel were putting up fencing beside Petco Park for the anticipated long lines and crowds. Tom’s Watch Bar, which has taken over the old location of Social Tap, was hurriedly installing big television screens.

Tens of thousands of excited fans will converge downtown for the early afternoon start. The Pads are playing the Braves. Let’s go!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

2025 San Diego Padres appear on Embarcadero!

The 2025 Major League Baseball season is about to begin. And look who has appeared on San Diego’s Embarcadero along Harbor Drive. Players representing the San Diego Padres!

Before the start of every season, new Padres player banners appear on downtown lamp posts. You can find the banners around Petco Park and elsewhere. Some of the banners inevitably feature new faces.

I took these photographs today.

Last year the Padres were arguably the second best team in baseball. They were a game away from beating mighty Los Angeles and going to the National League Championship Series. How will the team do in 2025?

Jackson Merrill 3
Nick Pivetta 27
Xander Bogaerts 2
Manny Machado 13
Yu Darvish 11
Fernando Tatis Jr. 23

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

San Diego’s favorite player greets motorists!

San Diego’s all-time favorite player, Padres baseball legend Tony Gwynn, greets motorists driving into downtown from State Route 94!

This amazing mural of Tony Gwynn was painted last year in East Village, at F Street and 16th Avenue, by Ground Floor Murals. A Jamul Casino billboard next to it proclaims: Here’s to SD’s favorite player.

Signe Ditona and Paul Jimenez of Ground Floor Murals have painted many amazing Padres player murals all around San Diego. In the past I’ve documented two more of their Tony Gwynn murals. See those photos here and here!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share this!

San Diego Padres: LFGSD in North Park!

LFGSD!

The San Diego Padres almost won it all last Major League Baseball season. They nearly took down the Dodgers. The Padres should remain awesome for many seasons to come. A new mural in North Park roots on the team. Let’s F-ing Go San Diego!

The spray painted artwork, which appears like neon at the corner of University Avenue and 30th Street, takes its inspiration from an exclamation made by Padres player Jorge Alfaro back in 2022. The impassioned expression has taken on a life of its own. LFGSD!

This cool art was created a couple months ago by muralists Carly Ealey (@carlyealey) and Christopher Konecki (@konecki_art).

Check it out!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

San Diego Padres fans: Beat LA!

Beat LA! Beat LA!

That’s the phrase for the day if you’re a San Diego Padres fan!

A home game . . . National League Division Series tied 1-1 . . . The greatly disliked (I almost used another stronger word) Dodgers in town . . . Petco Park is going to go completely bonkers once the game begins!

Around the time the gates opened, the Beat Los Angeles sentiment was visible on streets and sidewalks in the Gaslamp Quarter and near the ballpark. As were other optimistic messages!

Go Pads!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Fun, creativity before Padres Postseason game!

San Diego Padres fans are very creative!

On the streets outside Petco Park, before today’s Postseason game, not only did I see dozens of different shirts that root for the Padres, but some of the designs were created by the fans themselves! For example, the Crone Zone shirt (and sign) above!

I also spotted fans with homemade signs to hold up in the ballpark during the game. Lots of creative swag chains, too!

Do you have a favorite Padres player: past or present? A favorite season? A favorite baseball memory or meme?

What you wear makes a statement!

That includes the smile you wear on your face!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Playing baseball at the Gaslamp Fire Station!

The Padres and Braves aren’t the only ones playing baseball today in San Diego. Firefighters from the Gaslamp Quarter’s Fire Station No. 4 took to the street just north of Petco Park to take a few swings of the bat!

Visiting firefighters from downtown’s big San Diego Fire Station No. 1 joined the action. I asked if batting in front of the Gaslamp fire station is a tradition. It is during big games, I learned. Well, there’s certainly a big game now underway: Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series! (And as I type this, the Padres have taken the lead!)

Now here came families down the sidewalk, and before you know it kids were trying their hand at hitting the wiffle balls. What fun!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Photos outside Petco Park during Padres 2024 Postseason!

The excitement outside Petco Park just before Game 1 of the Major League Baseball Wild Card Series in San Diego was off the charts!

Smiles everywhere. As fans streamed toward the ballpark, I noted every sort of Padres jersey, hat, shirt. There were lots of excited kids about to make lifelong memories. (And the excitement is only growing! As I type this, the Padres lead Atlanta 3-0, and Tatis has hit a towering home run!)

Before the game began, I walked around Petco Park searching for fun photographs.

This is what I captured… (The next photo is actually from early this morning.)

Steven Woods and Ben Higgins smile for a photo during a break in their 97.3 FM morning show.

Fans stream from a packed Green Line trolley at the Gaslamp station, an hour before the game.

Many Friar Faithful have gathered at Bub’s.

Keep Calm and Hate the Dodgers. (My supervisor at work might not like this!)

Hand in hand, Padres fans walk down the sidewalk.

Two cool Padres serapes!

A big smile, ready to help fans as they arrive at Petco Park!

Padres fans lean up against Padres players.

Somebody had some extra tickets.

Friendly reporters from FOX 5 and KUSI give me thumbs up!

Check out this Dead Head Padres shirt!

This guitarist had a very big audience!

That is a super cool bike!

And check out these shoes!

San Diego Padres shoes!

Heading toward Petco Park, anticipating a Padres victory against Atlanta!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Padres 2024 Postseason: For the Faithful and Peter Seidler.

2024 has been an amazing season for the San Diego Padres. 93 wins. 3,314,593 fans at Petco Park. 56 home sellouts.

This afternoon fans learned the Padres will be playing a home Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves, beginning tomorrow evening. Downtown San Diego and the Gaslamp will be going crazy.

Two themes are helping to motivate our team to victory in 2024. Fighting for the ever-patient, ever-hopeful, loudly cheering Friar Faithful. Winning for Peter Seidler.

You can see and feel it everywhere.

I walked around Petco Park late this afternoon with my camera. I noticed that anticipation is growing for the Padres Postseason at the ballpark and on the streets around it.

Do it for Seidler.

Let me share this downtown mural of Peter Seidler one more time. Fans can find it north of Santa Fe Depot…

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Restoring the Tony Gwynn sculpture at Waterfront Park!

Did you know there’s a sculpture of Tony Gwynn in Waterfront Park, just south of San Diego’s County Administration Building?

The sculpture, created by world-famous artist Niki de Saint Phalle, is titled #19 Baseball Player. The mosaic sculpture debuted nine years ago, and I was there for the ceremony. You can see those photographs by clicking here.

When I walked through Waterfront Park early this morning, I noticed the fun sculpture depicting Mr. Padre holding a baseball bat was being restored.

According to a sign, the work is being done by Lech Juretko. He operates Art Mosaic Inc. in Santee. For eight years he was an assistant to Niki de Saint Phalle, helping to produce 100 of her works!

Lech now works with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, and has done restoration work on Niki’s fun Nikigator (in front of the Mingei International Museum) and her epic, mind-blowing Queen Califia’s Magical Circle (at Kit Carson Park in Escondido).

To read a great article about Lech meeting Niki and his subsequent experiences, click here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.