It’s well known that the Los Angeles Dodgers have some of the most loyal fans in baseball.
But it appears that even players of the San Diego Padres are acknowledging the loyalty of the Dodgers “die-hards” after this weekend’s series loss.
According to Jeff Sanders of The San Diego Tribune, multiple Padres players were aware of the color blue bleeding through the stands at Petco Park, as the atmosphere felt more like a home game for the Dodgers instead of the Padres.
According to Sanders’ report, Padres pitcher and El Cajon native, Joe Musgrove, said Saturday night’s game “Was out of control,” and he felt like it was 90% Dodgers fans in attendance.
While Musgrove plays for the team, he’s also a season ticket holder and believes the reason why so many Dodgers fans show up when the team comes to town is that other season ticket holders are selling tickets to the fans.
“I’m not going to tell somebody that can make a lot of money or get some of their money back by selling tickets, not to, but I think that’s the main reason,” Musgrove told Sanders. “It seems like all of our fans that show up for every other series of the year and fill it out seem to sell their tickets when these series come around.”
Since the 2020’s arrived, the Dodgers and Padres have turned into one of the best rivalries in baseball, as both teams have been World Series contenders every year, have met each other three times over the last six seasons in the playoffs, all while being 124 miles apart from Petco Park to Dodger Stadium.
California is nicknamed “The Sunshine State,” meaning it’s sunny all year round. The state currently holds five different professional baseball teams, in the Dodgers, Padres, Giants, Angels, and the Athletics, who are in the middle of moving to Las Vegas.]
Excluding the Athletics, who play in a Minor League Baseball stadium at Sutter Health Park, four of those five teams rank within the top 15 for average fan attendance this season. Three of them are within the top 10. The Padres rank second in [41,423] while the Dodgers rank first [50,872].
With last weekend’s series taking place during the peak of summer break, a week before Fourth of July, and in a place where it’s sunny most of the year, and only a two-hour drive between Los Angeles and San Diego, it makes sense why fans spent most of their summer watching baseball.
Padres relief pitcher Jason Adam told Sanders that if he lived in Los Angeles, he too would make the trip out from Los Angeles to San Diego.
Former Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, who threw the final pitch of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, told Saunders he’s seen the Los Angeles fan base take over opposing teams’ stadiums before, like Petco Park, Angel Stadium, and Chase Field, but said, “This weekend was freaking crazy.”
Before the series began this week, Padres outfielder Samad Taylor said he viewed the rivalry as “Just another day of baseball,” and followed up by saying that whether it’s the Padres fans or Dodgers fans attending the game, it’s another 40,000 fans in the stadium.
Both Musgrove and 2024 All-Star and Silver Slugger winner Jackson Merrill told Sanders that when the Padres and Dodgers play each other, they just hear “Noise” from the fan base.
“I mean, the atmosphere is the same still. I don’t think there’s a lot of players that really feel the boos or hear the cheers,” Musgrove told Sanders. “It’s more just noise, you know. So, whether it’s our fans or their fans, if it’s noisy, it’s all the same.”
