Padres Fanfest 2019 Or How I Waited In Line Most Of The Day

Crowded...

I arrived at Petco Park a little bit after 10AM. Doors opened to the general public at 10AM. As I got closer, I saw the hundreds of people waiting in line to get in and I saw the players' parking lot where the garage sale was taking place. The jersey section was crowded.

It was a bit shocking as I've not had to wait to get in previous years. After waiting about five minutes, I couldn't get my ticket up on MLB Ballpark app. The security guard let me in. As soon as I got in, I waited in the garage sale line. They were letting people in about ten at a time. I might have waited another five minutes to get in.

After I got in, I waited in line to get to the game issued jerseys. This is what I saw while I waited.

A small section on the garage was dedicated to it and I was surprised so many people were into old jerseys. As the Padres changed from navy blue to brown and gold, I figured fans would be interested in the new jerseys. I got in and they had the racks separated by home, away, alternate, blank jerseys, signed jerseys, and more.

 Each rack had these on them and I should have taken pictures of all them because it would have come in useful later. In the back of my mind, I had a list of people I wanted and I only ended up with two jerseys I wanted and third one that was kind of interesting to me.

I must have spent about thirty minutes looking through the jerseys as people were doing the same thing. There were shoppers on the phone calling friends asking them what size they were. I need to hire a personal shopper to do this for me.

I found this jersey and almost bought it.

 They had a replica Brian Giles on the rack. I can tell because it doesn't have authentic tag on it and says merchandise.

I grabbed my three jerseys and went around to the different tables with merchandise.

 They had yearbooks, caps, pants, batting helmets, socks, catcher's gear, and All Star decorations on sale. One fan walked away with an All Star Game sign for $100. It was nice but I couldn't think of a place to put it.

I grabbed an All Star Game yearbook and a banner (where I don't know where to put it) and waited in line.

This line moved fast and saw fans leaving with boxes full of stuff. One customer left with a dozen blue hats.

Checking out was a problem because the cashier had trouble discerning what to charge me.  She had a sheet in front of her with about ten different jersey styles on them but mine were hard to find on them. If I took pictures of where I got them, I would have known how much they were. She was like I'll charge you this for the jersey for it and I was like at least it's less than a $100. I really know how to haggle. I paid $166 for three jerseys, a banner, and a yearbook. I have no idea if it was the right amount. They could have had color coded tags on all jerseys to make it easier to check out.

I left and made it on to the field, where it was packed. Fans were in the home dugout taking pictures, people were playing in the outfield, and I was trying to figure out what to do next. By the time I left garage sale, about an hour and a half passed. 

I walked around the park and it was crowded. I decided to go to the team store to see if they were having a half off sale or having all the navy-blue items on sale. They weren't (more on that later).

Walked around more and saw that Mark Grant and Don Orsillo, the TV announcers for the Padres, were signing autographs and got their autographs. This was awesome because I really wanted it and it was free and the line was short for it.

 Right over where they were, was the team store sale where everything was half off. I decided to go because I didn't spend enough during the event. I had to wait online to get in but they had plenty of shirts and hats available. I bought a hat and left shortly after because of I was tired of all the walking and waiting.


What did I buy?

Kazuhisa Makita played one season for the Padres in 2018. He's still in the farm system with them, so he could be on the team this upcoming season. I wanted this jersey.

Erick Aybar was known for being an Angel but spent his last season in the majors with the Padres. Someone asked me if was a Padre and I told him yes. I wanted this jersey too. It was from the 2017 Memorial Day game against the Cubs.

Jorge Cantú also played his last season in majors with the Padres. I know him more as a Marlin because I used to play against them a lot in MLB 2K8. Someone also asked me if he played as Padre I said yes as I started Googling. Turns out I was right.

Lastly, I wanted this last year and couldn't find it when it left my sight. Luckily, they had plenty of them this year.

I have a Jered Weaver jersey and wanted to add the banner to my collection. They had plenty of banners of different players and I really like former Angels.

I bought my first brown hat.

Paid $18 on sale for it. Funny story, it had a shoplifting sensor on it. They couldn't remove it. I had to go to the permanent team store and after a couple of attempts they got the sensor off.

So I had fun. I didn't buy as much as I used to because other people beat me to it. I was thinking about going to Angels Moving Day but they aren't having it this year.