My First Game At Petco Park: Churros, Children, And More

Photo byredlegsfan21

By Elizabeth Muratore

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending my first game at Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres. Petco Park has been open since 2004, when it replaced the Friars’ first home of Qualcomm Stadium. While it has never hosted a World Series championship team, it has played host to many fans soaking up the sun in Southern California and enjoying a game in the heart of San Diego’s downtown district, known as the Gaslamp Quarter.

Petco was my first ballpark visited on the west coast, and my seventh Major League ballpark visited overall. I’d previously attended games at Shea Stadium, Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, Nationals Park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and Rogers Centre, so including Petco I’ve now visited the stadiums of six active Major League teams. Like many baseball fans, I’d love to visit the parks of all 30 teams one day, so I’m now one-fifth of the way there!

The occasion that brought me to Petco was a friend’s bachelorette weekend (she, too, is on the quest to visit all 30 MLB stadiums throughout her lifetime), so I had the company of seven other girls as I took in the Padres’ home turf for the first time. Despite our best efforts, we were apparently not fun enough to get on the big screen in our “Team Bride” shirts, but I can’t blame the scoreboard operators for deciding that the baby in a Padres onesie was a cuter option.

I was curious about what to expect having only attended games on the east coast. On the day of my trip, the Padres were playing the Blue Jays – not exactly their arch rivals. This may have contributed to the laid-back atmosphere that I noticed throughout the game. The kids near us were chanting and clapping, and seemed to be more into the action than the adults.

Speaking of kids, I’m not sure if it was some sort of field trip, school outing, or initiation ceremony, or if kids just massively outnumber adults in San Diego, but our group in section 310 was surrounded on all sides by screaming children who showed no mercy for our eardrums. If I had a dime for every time they howled at the top of their lungs at a non-critical point in the game, I’d have about 37 dimes, which unfortunately isn’t enough to repair hearing damage.

Nonetheless, despite the din, we had a fantastic time. There was much less angst in the crowd than I’m used to at Mets (and also Yankees) games. I know it’s only April, but the fans really seemed to be there to have a good time and not to agonize over every hit and strikeout. The only booing I heard throughout the game came (gasp!) not directed at a Padres player doing poorly, but at home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus, who tossed both Jurickson Profar and Mike Shildt in the first inning for arguing balls and strikes. Congratulations to Shildt for notching his first ejection in a Padres uniform.

I can’t give a full food review of Petco Park since the only item I purchased from concessions was a churro, but let me tell you, that churro absolutely hit the spot at 7:45 pm on a slightly-chillier-than-I-was-hoping evening. My friends all got various incarnations of classic ballpark food – hot dogs, burgers, pretzels, beers, etc. – and everyone seemed to enjoy their purchases. I thought about getting fancy at the ballpark seafood stand, but then I remembered that we were planning to go out after the game, and I decided not to risk it. My “seafood at the ballpark” debut could wait another day.

The game itself was a bit of a dud for the Padres. They lost 5-2 to Toronto, with their only runs coming courtesy of an RBI groundout by Xander Bogaerts and an RBI single from Ha-Seong Kim. Jose Azocar, who replaced Profar in left field after the ejections were handed out, fell down at one point attempting to track a fly ball off the bat of Kevin Kiermaier. It was, by and large, that kind of day for the Friars.

Despite the loss, which handed the series to the Blue Jays, the mood in the crowd was generally very positive. I know Padres fans love their team, but it was nice to see that the people there weren’t taking everything so seriously. They wanted their team to win, sure, but there were also a lot of people there who clearly went to the game to hang out with their friends, chat a bit, and have a good time.

There’s room for all kinds of baseball fans at a game, diehards and otherwise. If everyone at an MLB game was as intense as many Mets fans are on Twitter, it wouldn’t be a hugely enjoyable experience. I highly recommend a trip to Petco Park for anyone traveling to San Diego who’s looking for a fun outing or a baseball fan on the hunt to cross another ballpark off their list. With pitchers no longer hitting, you may not see the next “Bartolo Colon’s home run” if you attend a game at Petco Park, but hopefully you witness an event just as miraculous.

Elizabeth Muratore is one of the editors of the Here’s the Pitch newsletter. She also works as a homepage editor for MLB and co-hosts a Mets podcast called Cohen’s Corner. Elizabeth is a lifelong Mets fan who thinks that Keith Hernandez should be in the Hall of Fame. You can follow her on Twitter @elizmuratore.