Padres fans deserved better in 2023

3,271,554

That’s the final attendance number for San Diego Padres home games this season, which broke the franchise record and Petco Park record.

You fans showed up this season and as manager Bob Melvin said earlier this year, you were “the most consistent part of this season.”

I can’t even imagine how much money the fan base spent on tickets, parking, food, jerseys, etc. this season. And what did we get back for it? The same reward we got when we were watching Greg Garcia and Travis Jankowski in September of 2019. Sitting on our couches—not at Petco Park—watching a bunch of other teams compete for that World Series trophy.

At the beginning of the season a postseason appearance felt like a slam dunk. There was no way this much talent wasn’t going to be able to win more games than they lost. But that’s where they’re at right now heading into San Francisco.

The Padres are currently two games under .500 (77-79) and that’s after going on an eight-game winning streak and winning nine of their last ten.

“I will say it is good for us,” Juan Soto told the media Sunday about their recent great offensive performances. “Even if we don’t make it to the playoffs, it’s gonna feel great because we (found) our path and it’s gonna be good for next year. We’re gonna try to start in the same spot, start hot next year. So I think it’s really good for us.”

Well it’s not going to feel great for us, Juan, because at the end of the day we’re not going to experience that joy we had last October. We’re going to be sitting here for months waiting until Spring Training to get our hopes back up. And that’s not what this fan base deserved based on the amount of fans that kept showing up for this team.