In a surprise move today, the San Diego Padres honored Peter Seidler with the use of a commemorative baseball featuring the “PS Heart” Peter Seidler memorial logo.
This past November, San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler passed away after a long medical battle. On Opening Day, March 28th, (technically their home opener) the San Diego Padres opened their Petco Park season with a game against the San Francisco Giants and used this beautiful commemorative baseball in honor of Seidler. This past week on March 23rd, a ceremony was held in his memory open to all fans wishing to pay tribute, and the Padres are also wearing this logo as a patch on their uniforms throughout the 2024 season. Alongside that, they’ve mowed the PS heart logo into the center field grass as well. Per Bob Scanlan of the Padres, this logo was created by his kids, how sweet.
Overall this is a touching tribute to the late Seidler, and I am so glad a commemorative baseball could get used in memoriam for someone for what is I believe the first time ever. I hope in the future this method will be used for more of those people who made an impact in baseball, as it’s such a fitting way to honor those who’ve passed and spent their lives involved in the game.
I do want to note Seidler has another strong connection to commemorative baseballs as well, as in 2018 his Seidler Equity Partners (SEP), a private equity fund, in combination with MLB, purchased Rawlings from its prior owners. I honestly do not know how much Peter was involved with Rawlings, but did have a large ownership stake, and I’m assuming this is one of the major reasons for this ball’s creation and use.
Currently, this ball is unavailable to purchase on the open market. I will keep tabs on this and update if it becomes available.
In other news, MLB/Rawlings pulled out another big surprise and a rabbit out of the hat recently, deciding to use what is a historical first for commemorative baseballs: a side panel logo!
On an even stranger level, the ball is a normal Rawlings Official Major League Baseball, with a HUGE side panel logo on the right side of the cowhide horseshoe. This ball was used for the two game exhibition series at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, home of the “Yankees of the Mexican League”, the Diablos Rojos del México. This is also the site of the Mexico City Series that MLB has played multiple times now and is continuing this season as well.
The logo itself, is quite strange. A weird looking wordmark that was used for the official promotion of the series, and then it’s got the stadium name and just the month and day, not the year. Plus.. it’s on a side panel! How strange is that, and how odd looking and unappealing is it.
What happened? Personally, I believe this was a last minute request by someone, and instead of deciding to say no, someone at Rawlings said “look, we can use already produced balls and just throw another stamp on it” and here we are today. I am highly convinced this is what happened. I really hope it does not set a precedent, because these are flat out ugly. BUT, that being said, I would absolutely take this over no last minute logo with a reasoning of “just not enough time” so it’s a bit of a catch 22. This would likely NEVER be approved for use in an official MLB game regardless, as MLB takes what goes on the balls in play very seriously.
Currently, this ball as well is unavailable to purchase on the open market. I will keep tabs on this and update if it becomes available, but don’t hold your breath.
It’s just day 1 of the full MLB season, and we already have some major surprises. What a whirlwind, can’t wait to see what else this season brings!
Here’s a link to my EHA Collectibles eBay store, where I currently have in stock lots of rare commemoratives and where I am listing more all the time (as well as autographs and other fun items)! And Here’s my full commemorative inventory right now, email or message me to purchase.
Here is a link to Rawlings’ Amazon page where you can always find commemoratives (or standard ROMLBs) from 2024 and other years! Here’s a link to SportsProStop on eBay where you can find loads of newer commemorative baseballs from an official Rawlings Dealer.
As always, thank you for reading, and you can always contact me: via email at [email protected], Instagram @EricAbneri, Twitter @thefrownyface, or even in the Just Baseballs Facebook group which I administrate. if you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat!