(Baseball Should Be) All About The Kids

One of the things that makes me smile, when I am at Petco Park, are the looks of wonder and pure joy of kids at the ballpark.

Many of the MLB mascots, Sunday, posted about their "kids" activities. Sunday's rainout left a host of littlle league kids saddened. I think they were going to march around the ballyard. Remembering back to my childhood, growing up with the New York Mets, getting to do that must be a thrill of a lifetime to these kids.

Just like with the other MLB mascots, kids are always thrilled to meet our Swinging Friar, Red Ruff and Blue Mew. I know I was thrilled, as a boy, when I met Mr. Met.

As far as kids are concerned, from what I have seen and what I remember of my own youth, the winning or losing of the game is secondary to the overall ballpark experience. Better than Disney, in my opinion, youngsters of all ages start to glow the moment they start to approach the ticket line to enter Petco Park.

On the whole, the management and workers at Petco Park, do an oustanding job making the big league ballpark experience great for families and kids. One of the things I loved, with the original design of the ballpark, was the "beach" area.

I thought this was a brilliant idea. Families could bring their younger kids along with the older kids and would have a safe play area for the little ones, who are not old enough to pay attention to a baseball game. Parents could watch the game and their kids at the same time while they played in the sand with their peers.

Before games the kids could watch batting practice and try their luck at catching an over the fence ball hit to the beach (I did not like the adults competing with children for the balls...that pissed me off).

It doesn't matter now because the "beach" is gone.

The newest space at Petco Park this season is the The Craft Pier presented by Ballast Point and The Sun Diego Beach.

And that pisses me off to no end.

Yes, there is yet another prime spot for Padres fans with cash to burn. I love baseball the game but I do not care for the multi-million salaries (I think Randy Jones said he made $200,000 a year during his heyday) and paying $4 for a $1.19 bottle of water you can get at 7-11.

As I have aged, along with MLB, it seems that it is becoming a sport for the well-to-do. I can only imagine the heartache, parents with limited income, experience when they have to deny their kids a trip to the ballpark or have to nickle and dime it at the park.

A few years ago "the beach" was only $9 a ticket and the Park in the Park was $5. That was one of the things that made our ballpark special. Areas where people on limited income could come enjoy a game just like their more well-to-do peers.

They raised the prices for Park in the Park a couple ofseasons ago and obviously demolished the once fan appreciated beach area. By getting rid of this area so presumably the organization could make more money to cover the rediculous salaries (that craziness transcends almost all professional sports) they gave a big fuck you to families, especially lower income families, and the kids.

Instead yet another island oasis, for people with money to burn, sits in it's place.

Yes, the Padres organization and it's employees, still do a great job when itcomes to kids activities and supporting many kid-driven events in the community.

But, as someone who is disabled and on a limited budget, I find it very off-putting how the Padres management continues to cater to the wealthy, at the park, by eliminating things like the "beach" in lieu of another corporate sponsored playground for adults with plenty of cash to fork over.

Baseball has always been about the game itself, the competition of the game and the like. But since the earliest days of baseball in America and then the creation of the National and American Leagues baseball has been about the joy it brings to the kids, and by extension their parents, no matter their socio-economic status.

Baseball used to be about bringing communities together. Petco Park in it's original 2004 form did just that.

(Side Note - Please don't write me berating me for being envious or jealous of people better off than me. That is not the point I am making.)

The point is that I do not like they way professional sports has been steadily moving towards being venues for people that can afford it. It creates exclusion of many in a community and I think anyone who wants to see a game should be given the chance to despite their economic status.

That is why Park in the Park and "The Beach" was such a brilliant idea when Petco opened in 2004. Rich and poor alike could get in to see a Padres game.

Shame on the Padres management who decided more profit, from premium seats and corpoarate sponsership, outweighed the need from what the beach used to do for families and their children.

Would it have killed you all to leave the beach as it was?

A nice family area with a resonable seating price.