Tag: sports

Enormous soccer ball in San Diego’s Gaslamp!

Am I hallucinating? There’s an enormous soccer ball in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Square!

I spoke to a security guard in Gaslamp Square who indicated the gargantuan soccer ball appeared Thursday and will vanish tomorrow. The gigantic inflatable promotes the MLS 2025 soccer season kicking off yesterday on Apple TV.

Gaslamp Square, located conveniently between popular Petco Park, the bustling San Diego Convention Center, and the iconic Gaslamp Quarter archway sign, seems to have become our city’s small version of Times Square. It’s overlooked by the nearby Hard Rock Hotel. There’s the big MTS video board installed last year. There’s the history of Gaslamp Square being a center of exciting outdoor activities during Comic-Con.

Come to think of it, I remember how, in 2017, a small aircraft was mounted here on a pedestal to promote a Red Bull Air Race over San Diego Bay.

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Cool boardsports murals in North County!

Check out these two cool boardsports murals in San Diego’s North County!

(What are boardsports? Outdoor activities–such as surfing and skateboarding–that use a board as the primary equipment.)

My first few photos show the large mural painted on the front of Status Skateshop in Carlsbad. The artwork was created by Nicholas Danger (@nicholasdanger) in 2022. Yes, skateboarding culture can be a bit wild and crazy!

If you’d like to see a little more of Nicholas Danger, you might enjoy this blog post from almost five years ago.

Next, in Oceanside there’s a collage-like mural that includes both surfing and skateboarding imagery. View it on the side of a building at South Coast Highway and Washington Avenue.

Businesses that make this building home include The James Brand and Insight Tattoo.

I don’t know who created this very colorful mural. If you have any info, please leave a comment…

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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!

Statue of basketball legend Bill Walton at YMCA!

A bronze statue of basketball legend Bill Walton with his beloved bicycle stands just outside the entrance of the Mission Valley YMCA in San Diego!

I heard the San Diego Blood Bank was having a blood drive in honor of Bill Walton at this YMCA today, so I figured I’d come on down. Of course, I had to take photographs of Bill Walton’s joyful sculpture!

Here’s a 2016 article about the sculpture’s creation. It explains: Bill Walton led the UCLA Bruins to national championships in the early 1970s before playing for San Diego Clippers, the Portland Trail Blazers, and Boston Celtics and joining the NBA. Walton won two NBA championships and was named the NBA valuable player. He was also a very dedicated Grateful Dead Deadhead!

The artist who created the life-size, carefully detailed sculpture is Alison Brown. She really captured his energy and love of life. Bill frequently visited the Mission Valley YMCA, and he would greet everyone with his big smile.

Bill Walton grew up in La Mesa near Lake Murray and played high school basketball at Helix High School. He spent his later years living in San Diego, where he was an active public figure and loved by many. Check out his Wikipedia page to learn of his many accomplishments.

The statue’s plaque recalls how Bill Walton spent many hours at the Mission Valley YMCA. Because the indoor pool soothed his chronic pain, he said the Y saved his life.

Finally, here’s the web page concerning today’s inaugural Bill Walton Memorial Blood Drive. There’s a button you can click if you’d like to donate blood in the future. You can schedule a visit to the San Diego Blood Bank or learn of upcoming blood drives!

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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.

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.

So many colorful events today in Balboa Park!

What is a photographer to do? There were so many colorful events going on today in Balboa Park, I drained my camera’s battery trying to capture it all!

I’ve already blogged about the San Diego Heart & Stroke Walk, the Master Gardeners Plant Sale, art activities at the Exchange Pavilion, and a performance by San Diego Yosakoi!

I have yet to share my photos of today’s CleanUp Kitsune event, and classes provided by the San Diego Museum of Art. Stay tuned for that!

But what should I do with various photographs of other events? I’ll share them now!

These first few photos were taken at the International Cottages. Balboa Park’s four Latin Houses (House of Colombia, House of Mexico, House of Panama and House of Spain) would celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a colorful lawn program.

I walked through before the event began in earnest…

When I walked past the Old Globe theatre complex, I noticed people were setting up for this evening’s Globe Gala 2024…

Over at the Municipal Gymnasium, the San Diego Senior Games were underway! Food awaited the athletes outside. Inside, the basketballs were flying!

The weekly Saturday greyhound walk passed by…

Some friendly guys dressed as superheroes were participating in the CleanUp Kitsune parkwide litter pick up activity. I’m hoping to receive additional photographs. I’ll blog about it tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, Balboa Park’s usual cultural wonderfulness was to be seen everywhere!

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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.