Petco Park, San Diego (Branding)

 

There’s nothing that builds a brand better than getting people to wear your logo. Sports teams are very good at this, and in baseball, both jerseys and caps sell very well. Jerseys and caps are also a source of revenue, or, when given away, an enticement to attend games.

Some are classics – you can see Yankee and Dodger caps all over the world, and worn not just by Americans. Similarly, the Cardinals’ birds-on-the-bat jersey is a classic, although there have been many subtle variations over the years.

City Connect

All this is to say that when the NBA came up with the idea of jerseys to celebrate their cities’ culture and community, it was inevitable that other leagues would follow, and MLB has done so with its city connect series, which has been rolled out over the past three years. By now, all but two teams have unveiled the city connect uniforms, so it’s possible to compare them. Rating them is highly subjective, although ESPN has tried.

Tonight we’re at a game between teams with two of my favorite city connect jerseys.

I didn’t like the Diamondbacks’ “Serpientes” jerseys at first, but they really grew on me. I like the nod to the Hispanic influence in Arizona (serpiente is Spanish for snake), and the sand yellow makes sense, although I wish the uniform pants were a different color. And having a snake that makes the “S” and underlines the rest of the word is a nice touch.

Similarly, the Padres’ multi-pastel-colored jerseys startled me at first, but the more I saw them, the more I like them. Somehow that range of pastels seems perfect for San Diego. And the bright colors are a stark contrast to the team’s long-running colors of brown and yellow. Of course, I liked the Houston Astros’ multi-colored uniforms of the 1970s and 1980s, too, so maybe I’m just weird. I was hoping to get a picture of us in our Serpientes jerseys next to some of the San Diego city connect jerseys in a team shop, but for reasons I don’t understand, they seem to only have them behind the counter.

For completeness, the other three I really like are those of the Colorado Rockies, with a mountain range silhouette, those of the Pittsburgh Pirates, which pay homage to the famous Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, and the Houston Astros’ “Space City” uniforms.

At the other end, I find those of Texas and Boston very busy with more symbolism than I suspect even a local can wrap their head around.

And I think it’s only appropriate that the Yankees don’t have one. Much as I dislike the Yanks, it’s hard to beat the pinstripes.

A digression about the “Space City” jerseys the Astros have. I have to admit that one of the reasons I like them is because most of the many times I’ve been to Houston, it has been because of space science activities at or around Johnson Space Center. I find it ironic that one of the things that identifies the Astros’ jerseys with space is the fact that they use a font that was used in the NASA “worm” logo of the 1990s, and was always somewhat controversial at NASA. My favorite insult of that logo was “How do you expect NASA to be able to launch spacecraft if they can’t even figure out how to put the bar across the ‘A’?” But on the subject of brands, I am fascinated by the fact that NASA is a federal agency with a recognizable brand. You never see a teenager with a T-shirt that says “IRS” or “TSA” or “OSHA,” but NASA T-shirts and caps are ubiquitous.

Giveaways

Every MLB team’s website has a list of the team’s giveaways. And one of the perks of being a season ticket holders, at least for the Diamondbacks, is that you can get a package with one of each of the giveaways at the end of the season, in case you didn’t get to one of the games.

Traveling to different parks, it’s interesting to see what is given out, and when. For the Diamondbacks, most of the giveaways are on weekends, and bobblehead giveaways are always on Saturdays. But that’s not the case everywhere. We’ve gotten (in order of likelihood that we’ll use them):

 

Angels blanket, on a Tuesday night. It isn’t heavy or big enough for a bed, but is great for a nap or to put over your legs on a chilly evening.

Athletics pride (rainbow) jersey and rainbow fanny pack, on a Saturday afternoon. Of the pride jerseys we’ve seen, it’s one of the better ones, which is surprising, given that the A’s haven’t been putting money into anything this year. Once we got into the stadium in San Diego wearing ours yesterday, we found that we didn’t see anyone else with anything Oakland except for the guy with the “SELL” shirt. That didn’t come from a giveaway.

Giants aloha shirt. I wore one to the Giants game the next day, and may wear it again, but probably only if the Giants are playing the Yankees or Dodgers. We gave the other away.

Padres Joe Musgrove basketball jersey, on a Tuesday. Kerry says she’ll wear that as a swimsuit coverup.

Giants Lamont Wade Jr. (Sunday) and Dodgers Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Thursday) bobbleheads. They’ll go on a shelf of “other” bobbleheads, separate from the various categories of Diamondback players.  We gave away one of the Wade ones, and will only take one of the Yamamoto ones.

But they’re all more useful than the bizarre light sweater-vest we got at a Rangers game last year.

The game:

The Padres beat the A’s again, but this time it was 4-3, and was a thrilling game ending with a walk-off home run. Both teams got a lot of runners on base, but the scoring came down to just a few moments:

Oakland’s Abraham Toro hit a home run on the first pitch of the game. The next hitter hit the ball hard as well, and I told Kerry that San Diego’s pitcher, Randy Vásquez, was either going to start pitching better, or was going to be out of the game quickly. Neither was completely true. The A’s kept getting one or two baserunners an inning, but he lasted five innings without giving up another run, because the A’s could never bunch hits together at the right time.

It was still 1-0 with two out in the 5^th when Oakland’s starting pitcher, J.P. Sears, made a costly mental mistake (or maybe two) that I thought was going to cost them the game. In contrast to Vásquez, Sears seemed to be in control of the game. At that point, there was a runner on second, Ha-Seong Kim, and a very good hitter, Luis Arraez, batting. Arraez hit one hard down the first-base line, but Oakland’s first baseman, Tyler Soderstrom, made a great stop. Here’s where Sears blew it. Soderstrom came up with it cleanly, and headed toward the base, but could see he couldn’t beat Arraez, who was running hard. Sears should have broken for first as soon as he saw the ball hit toward the first baseman, but I think he thought it was not going to be caught. In any case, he was late covering first, and when Soderstrom tossed it to Sears, Arraez had already won the race to the bag.

Then came what might have been another mistake, or might just have been great baserunning. As the play developed, Kim, who had started on second, never stopped running. Sears lunged for Arraez, but couldn’t get him, and by the time he got his balance and threw toward home, Arraez had beaten the throw. At first, I thought Sears had just messed that up, too, but when I saw a replay, I don’t think he had a chance, because Kim was hustling all the way. Incidentally, Kim's name has become a signature chant of Padres' fans. Whenever he is announced, they begin chanting "HA SEONG KIM", pause, "HA SEONG KIM", etc. It fits so nicely in 4:4 time.

So now the game is tied, 1-1, but there are two out. However, I think Sears must have lost his focus, the next three batters all got hits, two of them ringing doubles, and even though a runner was thrown out at the plate to end the inning, Sears’ night was done, and the A’s were behind 3-1.

I thought that was going to be the final score and that the game account would end here, but in the top of the 8^th, Soderstrom came up with a runner on base and hit a homer to tie it, 3-3.

In the bottom of the 8^th, the Padres loaded the bases with two out, the entire crowd of 41,945 was on its feet, but the batter flied out and it felt like the air had gone out of the stadium.

In the bottom of the 9^th, Kyle Higashioka, a career backup catcher (in seven previous major league seasons, he’s never played more than 92 games), batting last in the order mainly because he doesn’t hit very well (career average .208), led off the inning. I think the crowd was waiting for Arraez and Fernando Tatis Jr. and the other good hitters at the top of the order, but with two strikes on him, Higashioka hit a ball that snuck just inside the foul pole in left field and bounced off the railing of the first Western Metal Supply Co. box, making it a walk-off home run. I don’t know if he’s ever had a walk-off hit before, and I seriously doubt that he’s had a walk-off home run, but I’m pretty sure he’ll remember tonight fondly.