Rest in Peace Peter Seidler, MLB's Best Owner

Sad news out of San Diego yesterday has me thinking about what the entire sport has lost.

A tribute to Padres owner Peter Seidler, who died yesterday. It can be found at 1202 Kettner Blvd. in San Diego. (Ground Floor Murals)

As we sit here waiting for exciting free-agent hot stove baseball news, the industry was hit with a gut punch, as the Padres announced that principal owner and chairman Peter Seidler died yesterday at age 63. A cause of death was not given, but Seidler was a two-time cancer survivor who took a leave of absence from the team in September after undergoing a medical procedure in August.

It was an open secret that Seidler had been battling health issues for the past few years, but his family has requested privacy about what took him in the end.

Given that whatever illness Seidler was battling was pulling him away from his beloved Padres during the final month of the season, it was perhaps not surprising that we awoke to the devastating news of his passing. But it remains a shock. Not just for the people of San Diego—for whom he offered a beacon of light and hope that a billionaire actually gave a damn about bringing the city its first-ever world championship in any sport—but also for baseball fans everywhere who are sick and tired of filthy-rich owners of “small market” teams crying poverty when it comes time to sign exciting free agents, or, worse, pay beloved homegrown players what they’re worth so they don’t leave the fans who have grown so attached to them.

I’ve written about Seidler many times this year, as I’ve called out petulant nepo baby owners who seem motivated to get out of bed in the morning just to see what they can do to slash payroll and demoralize fans and dare them to find another team to root for.

Seidler exposed them all as liars and frauds, as he committed the small-market Padres to a $220 million payroll in 2022, then traded for Juan Soto and signed Xander Bogaerts and lifted that number to $256 million this season—higher than every team but the Yankees and the Mets.

Having grown up a Dodger fan as the grandson of L.A.’s legendary owner, Walter O’Malley, it was clear that Seidler wasn’t just another rich dude who viewed a baseball team as a business the way you and I view McDonald’s or our local dry cleaners as a business. He loved the sport. His family screwed up when his uncle Peter sold the Dodgers to News Corp. back in 1998, back when Seidler was just 28. So when the Padres went up for sale in 2012, Seidler had a chance to right this wrong, in his own way, and bring a fan’s passion (and a fat wallet) to a city that desperately needed someone to give a s—- about bringing a great city its first championship.

He did not accomplish that goal in his time here on earth, but, man, did he die trying.

When he took over the Padres,