There's Never Been a Series Better
Story Time! Edition #175
GOOD MORNING! IT’S DIVISIONAL SERIES TIME!
Fair warning: I’m really not sure what this type of article is. It’s a mix of a narrative and a series preview. Inspiration from: grace
BEAT LA. BEAT LA. BEAT LA chants fill the stadium. The roar of the crowd and the level of intensity at these games. It’s like no other.
When the San Diego Padres play the Los Angeles Dodgers, let it be in the middle of the regular season or in the middle of the playoffs, the series is always firecrackers.
As a Dodgers fan, it means so much to me when the Dodgers play the Padres and actually get a win because however bad the Padres are, coming out of there with a win is an accomplishment. In fact, just like how they count how many wins the Dodgers have in the Freeway Series or against the Yankees, they should be counting how many wins the Dodgers or Padres have against each other, even if it’s 10 games a season or 3. It’s just that competitive.
The atmosphere is that you can find it in a Super Bowl x2. I’ve never seen anything like it unless of course I watch one of these games.
At Petco Park, you can’t go anywhere in the concourse without hearing BEAT LA. At this point, the Dodgers aren’t the only well-traveled thing in the MLB. The chant is way too popular in any stadium, even the worst matchup (I heard BEAT LA when I went to the Oakland Coliseum.)
It doesn't matter at what time of day the Dodgers play at Petco. That park is home to some of the most controversial calls to exist and I’m dead serious about it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Padres game without a challenge in it. Petco is just like that.
All Peter Seidler wanted before his death was a World Series championship. He had owned the team since 2012. At that time, it was their 44th season. They still had yet to come to the World Series thrice (and are still gawking at that today). It’s a challenge. Let me tell you where they finished in the NL West from 2012→
4th, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 2nd (2020), 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, and then this year, they finished 2nd. (By the way, Peter Seidler officially became owner of the Padres in 2021, but was part of the ownership group.)
All Peter wanted was a World Series ring or the Dodgers to finally fall to his team in an important game and boy was he right. The Dodgers lost against the Padres in the NLDS in 2022.
At that point, it wasn't even about beating the Dodgers. It was about going to the NLCS and beating the crap out of Philadelphia. They had the advantage by getting home-court advantage, and while Seidler finally got an NLCS for his team, it didn't result in anything.
Just a month after the Padres didn’t make the playoffs, he passed away. We could say that heartbreak was the reason. For people like A.J. Preller, who was there through all of it, it’s a challenge.
When Preller was asked about it before the Wild Card, he was crying. Big time.
“Just personally, there’s not a day that goes by I don’t think about Peter,” Preller said when he regained his composure. “His vision and what we’re accomplishing. I think about it a lot.”
-A.J. Preller
Fernando Tatis also had something to say about Peter. In 2022, Tatis was suspended for using Performance-Enhancing Drugs. Even then, he said that Peter never gave up on him.
“What he asked from the city and the love he had for all of us, it was just unconditional,” Tatis said. “We’re definitely doing this for him, and we’re definitely pushing harder for him, especially myself.
“And every step that I go in my career here in San Diego, he’s definitely going to be on my right shoulder popping in every single special moment.”
“Me and Peter definitely had a relationship, stuff that probably nobody knew about,” Tatis recalled. “When I had my surgeries and I got my suspension, Peter sat in my house with me in the afternoon a couple times. And we had beautiful conversations about how the team was going to look the next three years, the next five years, the next 10 years.”
If the Padres manage to beat the Dodgers, they know that Peter will be very happy. It’s a challenge for him too, to not watch the game in person, but from a different place.
Speaking of challenges, Dodgers fans can’t even buy tickets to the Padres games. In 2022, when the Dodgers played the Padres in the NLDS, they did the same thing. It proved to be good for them because they not only didn’t lose their home games but also limited the Dodgers to 4 runs.
Something I saw earlier on X about this was the fact that the Padres have sold out every single game for the postseason, while the Dodgers are still yet to sell out game 1 of the NLDS. The SD population is around 3 million while the LAD area would be 10 million.
For both teams, things feel different this year. The Dodgers are putting a lot more prep into things and have Shohei Ohtani, while the Padres have Tatis and a great team to go along with it. As a Dodgers fan, I want my team to sweep the hell out of the Padres, but that’s not how things work in the sports world.
So, give me the Dodgers in a 5-game thriller against the Padres. If you’re a Padres fan, good luck and may no luck be with you. For Dodgers fans like me, LET’S GO!
I began this newsletter the day before the Dodgers lost against the Diamondbacks in the NLDS in 2023 (It was the Who I Am post). Will I end another year with an identical post?
I hope not.
I’m trying out these types of articles because of a reader request. I hope you liked it. Feel free to give me an honest rating down below.
I have to give all inspiration to grace and Robbie Marriage (who I didn’t mention above). Thank you guys so much for this idea Robbie and grace for your Jets article that you wrote a while back. It was super inspiring.
the Mets beat Philly in Game 1