Tag: sports

Little Italy mural honors Joe Musgrove’s grandmother!

Did you know that San Diego Padres star pitcher Joe Musgrove has a family connection to Little Italy?

His grandmother, Lucy Papitto, resided in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood for 30 years!

I didn’t know this until I saw a relatively new mural and plaque today. The beautiful mural can be found on India Street a little south of Grape Street. I’ve read that it was unveiled several months ago during Mother’s Day weekend.

When I walked by this morning, the San Diego sunshine was shining through nearby tree branches, perfectly framing Lucy Papitto’s smile.

IN HONOR OF PADRES PITCHER JOE MUSGROVE’S GRANDMOTHER LUCY PAPITTO, 1ST GENERATION SAN DIEGO NATIVE OF ITALIAN DESCENT WHO CALLED LITTLE ITALY HOME FROM 1928 TO 1958 RESIDING AT 1936 STATE STREET.

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San Diego’s new recreation area at Waterfront Park!

If you live in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood, or anywhere near the County Administration Center, you’re in luck! The new outdoor recreation area in Waterfront Park opened last week!

This community resource had been a work in progress for a very long time, and now it can welcome those who like to play sports, exercise, or walk their dog in the San Diego sunshine. You can see photographs of the area under construction here and here.

The recreation area occupies the northeast corner of Waterfront Park. It includes one basketball and two pickleball courts, five exercise stations, a ping pong table, plus a fenced off-leash dog area with agility equipment. Pickleball paddles and balls, table tennis paddles and balls, basketballs, and TRX suspension equipment can be freely checked out from a nearby information booth, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the summer, and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. from fall to spring. A sign on the booth’s window indicates there’s also a bocce ball set and chess set available for loan.

I’m happy to see that the 1.25 acre area spared some of the old garden where it was built. And there are benches to sit in the shade of newly planted trees, and even a Little Free Library box near the information booth with books that young or old might enjoy reading.

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Summer of Sports at San Diego History Center.

Are you a lover of sports or history? Planning a visit to Balboa Park? If you’ve answered Yes and Yes, make sure you head over to the free San Diego History Center in Balboa Park!

Their current Inside/Out exhibit is titled Summer of Sports. A large display case contains fascinating sports artifacts and ephemera from the San Diego History Center Collections.

The Olympic Games return this summer, and the display takes this into account. But it mostly focuses on local sports and San Diego history.

There’s also a great video that you can watch concerning San Diego’s own skateboarding legend Tony Hawk!

The Inside/Out display case contains all sorts of San Diego sports pins and patches. Do you recognize some of these?

Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer was a Hall of Fame player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In her later life she resided in San Diego.

The next photo is from an old ZLAC program. ZLAC was founded in San Diego in 1892 and is the oldest continuously operating women’s rowing club in the world.

One part of this historical sports exhibit concerns Palisade Gardens, a skating rink that opened in 1946 on University Avenue in North Park. It was the first post-World War II commercial structure completed in San Diego. It closed in July 1985.

The steel and leather roller skates are circa 1930s.

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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.

Chula Vista celebrates San Diego FC!

It’s obvious that many in Chula Vista are looking forward to the debut season of San Diego FC next year. Huge crowds have come out today for the San Diego FC Chrome Ball Tour stop in downtown Chula Vista!

As the free street festival opened, soccer games were already underway up and down Third Avenue. Kids, adults, even the Chula Vista Fire Department and Police Department would participate in hard fought competition!

I walked about shortly after noon, as people were arriving from every direction for the event. I took some photographs while checking out games, lowriders, vendors and enthusiastic San Diego FC supporters. Entertainment including live music and a fashion show on the big stage hadn’t begun yet, nor the Lucha Libre wrestling exhibition, which would start in the evening.

Thumbs up! La Masia SD is a very successful local soccer team. Many of its past players have gone on to play professionally at different levels!

Paul Jimenez of Ground Floor Murals prepares a big canvas for some live spray paint art. I didn’t hang around the event long enough to see its progress.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

“May the Fourth” be with Chula Vista!

Star Wars fans rejoice! It’s May the Fourth! And today the Force is extremely powerful in Chula Vista!

As I walked through the big San Diego FC Chrome Ball Tour event in downtown Chula Vista early this afternoon, I noticed the 18th Battalion was attracting a lot of attention. They are a big supporter of San Diego FC.

Not only did the 18th Battalion SDFC Outpost have a table laden with a prize wheel, mini R2-D2, Star Wars helmets and other cool stuff, but I noticed they have a presence at the Vogue Tavern a few blocks up Third Avenue, where I spotted Darth Vader, Star Destroyers and the menacing Death Star looming above the sidewalk! Hopefully Luke Skywalker is nearby!

May the Force be with you!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Crazy ski competition in Balboa Park!

Balboa Park was the peculiar venue for a big ski competition today!

Who needs snow when the House of Finland holds its annual lawn program at the International Cottages and provides skis? Grass works fine!

The afternoon Hiihtokilpailu (which is Finnish for ski competition) saw several teams (four athletes each, sharing two long skis) racing cross-country style (without ski poles). I watched the crazy spectacle.

One team couldn’t get out of the starting gate, two had calamitous, spontaneous collapses, and the fourth had major trouble turning around. One machine-like team named the Engineers would go on to win the big Final. (Fortunately, all contestants were awarded cookies.)

These photos of the silly “skiing” contest might make you chuckle.

I probably would’ve fallen over, too!

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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!

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Cool new Padres mural at Gallagher Square!

Have you seen the cool new mural next to the Gallagher Square playground? It features half a dozen prominent, fan favorite San Diego Padres baseball players!

From left to right, there are images of Joe Musgrove, Manny Machado, Ha-Seong Kim, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatís Jr., and Yu Darvish!

The mural covers both sides of the wall immediately east of the tall “baseball bat” play tower!

In case you can’t make it out to Petco Park, here are photos that I took today.

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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Cool photo memories from April 2019.

San Diego never disappoints. So many cool events were held in April five years ago that I had a difficult time selecting which ones to revisit as this new month begins!

Back in April 2019, my camera recorded knights in shining armor battling in Balboa Park, the inside workings of a Peruvian Navy tall ship, a wheelchair OTL tournament, a couple of Earth Day events, a tour of a United States Coast Guard cutter, Witches’ Night at the Comic-Con Museum, a local skatepark’s 20th anniversary, the Encinitas Street Fair, a big Shakespeare festival, a super fun Pet Day on the Bay…and much more!

I have 15 links coming up to blog posts that contain oodles of photographs!

Click the following links for hundreds of cool photos!

Little Italy’s history, culture at Amici House.

Great ideas at South Bay Earth Day!

Faces of INSIDE OUT still smile in Chula Vista!

Washington Street Skatepark’s 20th Anniversary!

Fun times at the Wheelchair OTL Tournament!

Earth Day at Old Town’s Native Plant Garden.

English knights, cute Corgis, Harry Potter and more!

Photos of Shakespeare celebration in Balboa Park!

Photos aboard Peruvian Navy tall ship BAP Unión!

Cool sights along Adams Avenue west of 30th.

Local history remembered at Trolley Barn Park.

Dogs enjoy a harbor cruise on San Diego Bay!

Take a tour aboard a new Coast Guard cutter!

Cool discoveries at the Encinitas Street Fair!

Images from Witches’ Night in San Diego!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Baseball bat playground coming to Petco Park!

A gigantic baseball bat tower has been installed inside Gallagher Square at Petco Park!

Check it out! That huge bat is actually part of a new, super cool playground, which, as I understand it, will feature a slide and bridge that connect to those other elevated structures!

Whoaa! To be a kid again! Families living in downtown San Diego and those attending Padres games are in for a treat!

While walking through East Village around Petco Park late this afternoon, I also noticed some Padres players street lamp banners are up for the new 2024 season!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Excitement before Women’s Gold Cup Final!

The Fan Zone outside Snapdragon Stadium was alive with excitement before the start of today’s Women’s Gold Cup Final. The winner of the game would be historic first champion of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup!

Which team would prevail? USA or Brazil?

Soccer fans from around the United States and the world were arriving in droves, streaming in from parking lots and the Stadium trolley station. I saw flag capes, crazy hats, colorful scarfs, enthusiastic fans holding handmade signs, and many smiles. A lot of red, white and blue was visible. Some yellow and green, too!

Inside the Gold Cup Fan Zone, families took part in many activities. Kids dribbled soccer balls, tried to score a goal. Fans posed for pictures with the Gold Cup. San Diego’s own soccer teams–San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC–had booths and greeted everyone.

Fans were pumped!

Who would win?

Who would win? USA!

Guess who scored the winning goal?

Lindsey Horan!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!