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If it isn’t one thing, it seems to be another with this year’s Padres team. After a huge debacle involving the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus during Pride Night, the Padres find themselves being called out by another community. The Filipino community have called out the Padres regarding the recently held Filipino Heritage Night on June 4th, saying the Padres “devalued” the celebration.
The complaint stems first from a perceived scheduling snafu as described by Lauren Garces of Silk Road Productions: Philippine Independence Day is June 12th and the Heritage Night was scheduled on June 4th. The fact that the night was not scheduled on Philippine Independence Day (which was an away game in Colorado) showed “lack of care and respect” according to Garces.
The Heritage Night celebration was first scheduled to be held at the Park Blvd. corner and was changed to Park At The Park. The change must have been sudden enough to alter and disrupt the planned activities by Filipino performers, many of which had their performances truncated or cut completely. In a familiar sounding move, these volunteer performers also had to purchase Filipino Heritage Night tickets in order to perform. Headlining act Katriz Trinidad of The Voice fame was only allowed 30 seconds to perform. Some attendees who purchased Heritage Night tickets did not receive a shirt as promised to them.
Via Garces:
“The Filipino Community wants to ensure that the Padres organization hosts all community events in a more efficient and respectful manner with sincere and authentic intentions.”
“The Padres needs to resolve these issues (especially with cultural significance) in a more professional manner so avoidable mistakes do not create a devaluement and consequence to a community culture.”
The Padres seemingly can’t find their way out of the headlines these days when it comes to negative community involvement. Whether it be the previously mentioned Gay Men’s Chorus snafu or the recently reported homeless interdiction via rocks being installed in areas downtown, bad baseball seems to be the least of our team’s worries. Without the sounds of fanfare or winning to drown out all the extraneous noise, we’re left with wondering how the organization could flub something else up.