San Diego Padres Organization Embarrasses Itself Again With New Stadium Giveaway

The San Diego Padres are having a great 2025 season; riding a wave of good fortune, using exceptional pitching, and adding on with aggressive trades to a surprising first place, entering Thursday.

But for an organization that furiously defends itself against claims of being a "little brother" to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West, it can't seem to stop from acting like one.

This dynamic has been obvious for years, as the Padres have finally attempted to compete with their much richer and more successful competitors up north. After decades of irrelevance, several trades and major free agent signings, combined with the departure of the Chargers for Los Angeles, the Padres and their fans finally had something to cheer about. And they've handled it very, very poorly.

Like, for example, when they made one of the most embarrassing "rap" videos in sports history after winning a playoff series. Or when they created a photoshop of Clayton Kershaw "crying" and plastered it on the Petco Park Jumbotron. Or when they, for the second time in a few seasons, restricted playoff ticket sales to San Diego County residents to avoid having their home stadium taken over by Dodgers fans during a postseason series. Or when Manny Machado bet his contract that the Padres would win the World Series before the Dodgers. Then ignored it when the Dodgers won the World Series twice in five seasons. Or when several of their players acted like immature children on the field during the 2024 NLDS. Though at least Jurickson Profar's behavior was made more understandable after he was popped for PEDs. Steroids can often lead to angry, irrational action. 

And now they're at it again.

SAN DIEGO - Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres looks on during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at Petco Park on March 29, 2025. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

San Diego Padres Giving Away Rally Towels For Regular Season Game

The Padres have been one of baseball's best teams in the second half of the season, improving their already dominant bullpen and filling holes in their lineup with players like Ramon Laureano, Freddy Fermin and Ryan O'Hearn. Xander Bogaerts seems to have saved his career. Manny Machado is having a resurgent season. And while the Padres have improved, the Dodgers have collapsed.

The combination of typical Dodger injuries, underperformance, and bad relief pitching erased what once was a nine-game division lead in just six weeks. Suddenly, the Padres, out of nowhere, have found themselves with a one-game lead. That's great. It's an example to other small market teams to be aggressive, spend money, and go for it instead of giving up on competing with bigger markets before the season starts. 

What isn't great is treating a regular season series like a postseason one because it's been so long since you've been involved in a legitimate division race.

The Padres announced this week that they would be giving away "rally towels" for their game on Saturday, August 23rd against the Dodgers.

Rally towels. For a regular season game. In August. With over a full month to go in the regular season. It doesn't get much more embarrassing than this.

Rally towels are for postseason games. Even then, they've mostly run their course. But it's a symbol of the added importance of playoff baseball. Giving them away for a regular-season game in a one-sided rivalry that only one organization and fanbase cares about is as "little brother" as it gets. And again, this is August. It's not the last series of the season, with the division on the line. There's over a month remaining. It's just…sad.

If you want to stop being treated like a little brother, stop acting like one. And maybe tell Fernando Tatis Jr. to stop waving his genitals at opposing fans or dancing to chants about his cheating. If you want the rest of baseball to stop viewing him like a spoiled toddler whose never faced consequences for any of his bad behavior, maybe get him to stop acting like one too.