OPENING DAY BLOCK PARTY EXCLUDED MANY UNDER 21

What a day it was yesterday!

A great home opener with a win against the defending world champion San Francisco Giants in a venue like Petco Park made for a great day indeed!

We beat the Giants 3-1 yesterday and I am not going to rewrite the game highlights that you can find elsewhere.

Instead I have a bone to pick about the block party before the game.

What I didn't care for was the East Village Opening Day Block Party this year.

Last year the whole 4-5 blocks was open to everyone but this year, as it is with most events in San Diego, it became nothing more than a giant merchandising fair.

Aside from the live broadcast from XX1090 am there wasn't much to do with baseball or the Padres at the event- and wasn't that the whole point of it?

Worse was the fact that half of the "block party" was fenced off as a "beer garden" so anyone under 21 missed the great food samples and entertainment stage within the fenced in area.

I don't want to sound like an anti-alcohol person because I have a beer or two myself on occasion but why the hell did we need a beer garden, for people to get sloppy drunk like some I saw did, at 11am in the morning on a Tuesday?

Furthermore baseball, for me has always been a family event. There were loads of moms and dads out with the kids and a lot of young Padres fans around the festival as well.

There was no reason to exclude young fans from enjoying the block party- and really most of the entertainment and free food samples were in the fenced off area.

In the area where all could wander there was a huge row of catering trucks selling food, other booths that were selling stuff that had nothing to do with the San Diego Padres or baseball at all.

So I have to wonder what the planners of this were thinking.

Fine and dandy if you want to have an East Village block party on any other day, but I expected it to be like last year where everything at the block party was accessible to fans of all ages.

Instead, as I walked around, I had everything from cellular companies to people registering me to vote trying to either sell me something or sign something.

Again if this was at a regular block party I wouldn't have cared but this was supposed to be a big pre-opening day game celebration for Padres fans.

Aside from the great day of broadcasting provided by XX1090 am you wouldn't know that it was a baseball related event.

Instead of having a beer garden and all the merchandisers selling their crap, a real Opening Day block party should have focused on the family.

There should have been a lot more to do with baseball and the Padres rather than trying to sell a great new kind of mineral water or the other non-baseball related crap they had on display.

Trevor was back home to join in with others as the Padres celebrated it's 75th year. The Padres could have had a display out there with a bit of Padres history, some of the ball players- past and present on the main stage instead of the crappy band.

They surely could have come up with baseball related things for the kids to do- but instead the people who organized this event went for what they usually do in this city- making a buck however they can.

Again I have no problem with street vendors or small catering businesses trying to make a buck but really, folks, was this "block party" really a pre-game fanfest in anticipation of the first pitch since last October at Petco Park or just a way to make some revenue for the various businesses out there selling their goods?

I think the whole thing was a disgrace.

There should not have been a damn beer garden- period.

This was a family event...because baseball at Petco Park is a family event and kids and those under 21 shouldn't have been excluded from half the block party.

So shame on whoever organized this event. I am going to write to the Padres ownership about that and hopefully next year, when the city does a "Opening Day Block Party" it will be a block party open for all and family friendly with vendors and things related to baseball and the Padres.

In the meantime we take on the Giants again for the last game of this two-game series...hopefully the boys will come through with another win today so we have a lot of momentum when the Dodgers come to town Friday!

PLAY BALL!