San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler, who spent big in pursuit of a World Series title, dies at 63
San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler has died
SAN DIEGO — Peter Seidler loved to dream out loud about a World Series parade for his San Diego Padres and their long-suffering fans. He spent that way, too, fearlessly committing hundreds of millions of dollars toward trying to bring his adopted hometown its first major title.
The owner and chairman of the club, Seidler dismissed the notion that San Diego was a small market and constantly redirected questions about how the Padres could sustain their big-spending ways on players like Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr.
He was sure the baseball gods would one day smile on San Diego and there would be a championship parade for a franchise that lost its only two World Series appearances, the latter one coming in 1998.
“Do I believe our parade is going to be on land or on water or on both?” Seidler said earlier this year. “Putting a great and winning team on the field in San Diego year after year is sustainable.”
Seidler, who grew up around the game as a third-generation member of the O'Malley family that used to own the Dodgers, died on Tuesday, the Padres announced. He was 63.
A cause of death wasn't disclosed. Seidler was a two-time cancer survivor. The team announced in mid-September that Seidler had an unspecified medical procedure in August and wouldn't be back at the ballpark the rest of the year.
“Peter was an extraordinary leader and had the confidence and support of everyone in the Padre organization and the San Diego community," Seidler's uncle, Peter O'Malley, said in an email to The Associated Press. «When he moved to San Diego to lead the Padres he was one hundred percent committed to bring to San Diego its first World Championship. He was all in
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