Today is my Christmas.
Today is Padres FanFest.
I almost didn't go today. It was raining and Southern California drivers can't drive in the rain. The road gets wet and accidents happen. I was rear ended once on the 405 after it had rained. But I wanted merchandise and experience and I got both.
My trips to Petco Park usually involves me taking the Coaster and train service was suspended due to track maintenance. After doing a cost benefit analysis about how much money I could save/spend, I went for it even though I didn't know what the weather would be like when I got there.
Traffic was really light heading towards San Diego. Usually near Encinitas traffic slows to a craw but I was able to maintain a consistent speed while heading down there. As I made my way down it rained lightly till I hit Old Town San Diego when it rained more. I started questioning if this was good idea even though I was past the point of no return.
I made it to Petco Park and there wasn't a line to get in. I figured the rain scared people from coming.
It didn't.
There was announcement outside saying the Garage Sale was in the players parking lot. Every year I've gone they've had it in the plaza but the rain necessitated the move.
As soon as I made into Petco Park, there were Padres employees handing out this:
It is a replica Trevor Hoffman jersey. A lot of fans were walking around wearing these.
I headed to the parking lot.
There were a lot of people.
I been going to these events for a few years and this was the lowest they've sold these jerseys. $50 to $75 for game used, authentic, or game issued jerseys is a great price. I usually budget/spend around $400 and it gave me the option buy more jerseys. There were several rows of these. Many fans were searching for their favorite players and I only had one in mind: Kazuhisa Makita. And now that I looked him up, he's still on the team, so that's why I couldn't find his jersey.
Day ruined...
I have trouble keeping up who's still playing. I don't have any Japanese player's jerseys.
I was looking for the usual throwback and special event jerseys. They had those and so much more.
Before I get to what I bought, I'll share what else they had on sale.
I was able to checkout quick. I talked to the man at the register and asked him why the prices dropped. He said they were trying to get rid of stuff. If I was in charge, I would make this a twice a year event, one at the beginning and one at the end. Or just put some of this stuff at the team store. I bought a Dodgers jersey that way.
When I left, I didn't realize they put my jerseys in two bags. The nice clerk chased me down and gave my missing bag.
I've never taken a tour of Petco, so being inside was a treat for me. I met a special friend:
Nice fella.
After going through the corridors, I made it on the soggy field. There were fans on the field, in the stands, in the dugouts, and no one cared it was raining harder now.
I just walked around, just taking everything it, and I saw this sign:
This is the first time during FanFest they've done this. Usually there are few items on sale but merchandise stands around the park and the team store had a 50% off sale. I bought more stuff, which I'll cover in the next post.
I left after visiting the team store. The park was still crowded as fans lined up for autographs and many of the vendors were giving away swag. I also saw the food stands give away free samples.
I'm going to stop now because I'm running out of space. The next post will cover what I bought and how much I spent. When I was driving home, I was musing to myself with the amount of jerseys I have, I could create a baseball team. On Thursday, I'm going to see what kind of team I can put together.
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