Padres Chairman Peter Seidler, who exuded joy in virtually every encounter he had and became a hero to Padres fans for his financial commitment and enthusiasm for the team and for baseball, died Tuesday morning.
Seidler, who turned 63 last week, had been battling an illness for months. His wife and children were with him as he passed away. The family requested his cause of death remain private.
“The Padres organization mourns the passing of our beloved Chairman and owner, Peter Seidler,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a statement. “Today, our love and prayers encircle Peter’s family as they grieve the loss of an extraordinary husband, father, son, brother, uncle, and friend. Peter was a kind and generous man who was devoted to his wife, children, and extended family. He also consistently exhibited heartfelt compassion for others, especially those less fortunate. His impact on the city of San Diego and the baseball world will be felt for generations. His generous spirit is now firmly embedded in the fabric of the Padres. Although he was our Chairman and owner, Peter was at his core a Padres fan. He will be dearly missed.”
People began leaving flowers and messages on the stairs inside the Home Plate Gate at Petco Park on Tuesday afternoon. The gate was scheduled to remain open until midnight, re-open at 6 a.m. Wednesday and remain open again until midnight. Parking is free in the Tailgate Lot located on Imperial Avenue.
No public memorial has been announced, though the Padres plan to honor Seidler during the 2024 season.
The Padres will take the week to grieve as an organization, setting aside all non-essential business. Their managerial search will be halted temporarily, with a source saying the new manager will be named next week before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Seidler is survived by his wife, Sheel, and three young children; his mother, Terry Seidler; and nine siblings. His brother, Tom Seidler, is the organization’s Senior Vice President for Community and Military Affairs.
Seidler’s grandfather, Walter O’Malley, moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958, and his mother and uncle, Peter O’Malley, owned the team until 1998. Many of Seidler’s most joyous moments as an owner came when the Padres beat the Dodgers, who he once referred to as the “dragon up the freeway that we’re trying to slay.”
In a statement, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “I am deeply saddened by the news of Peter’s passing. Peter grew up in a baseball family, and his love of the game was evident throughout his life. He was passionate about owning the Padres and bringing the fans of San Diego a team in which they could always take pride. Peter made sure the Padres were part of community solutions in San Diego, particularly with the homeless community. He was an enthusiastic supporter of using the Padres and Major League Baseball to bring people together and help others. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I send my deepest condolences to Peter’s wife Sheel and their family, his Padres colleagues and the fans of San Diego.”
Seidler, who founded Seidler Equity Partners in 1992, was part of the group that bought the Padres in August 2012. He moved to San Diego and quickly became active in philanthropic causes such as working to alleviate homelessness. In large part due to Seidler’s leadership, the Padres Foundation increased its annual giving by 1,000 percent.
Seidler became Padres Chairman — the team’s principal owner — in November 2020 with the retirement of Ron Fowler.
“This is sad on so many levels,” Fowler said Tuesday. “… He was probably the most positive individual I’ve ever met. He always saw the upside. He always felt something better was going to happen. It was a unique experience to know and work with him. His positivity was incredible.”
Seidler became almost instantly beloved after taking over daily operation of the team, as fans felt he was essentially one of them due to his increased spending and exuberance. He once declared the 2020s would be “The Padres’ decade.” In 2022, Seidler, usually accompanied by his wife and/or oldest daughter, met up with the Padres in one city on virtually every road trip, which is unheard by for a team owner.
Two days after the Padres lost to the Phillies in the 2022 National League Championship Series, the franchise’s first time advancing that far in 24 seasons, Seidler was asked about the Padres’ payroll for ’23.
“I kind of like spending money,” Seidler said with a grin. “You can’t take it with you.”
The team’s $256 million commitment to players in 2023 was third-highest in the major leagues.
Seidler was highly regarded by many for his work to find solutions to solve homelessness in San Diego.
“Peter was a true visionary leader who had a deep love for the game of baseball and the San Diego Padres, and also an unwavering commitment to our city,” Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement Tuesday. Gloria said Seidler made the Padres organization “an incredible community partner” that was about more than just baseball.
“Peter was perhaps best known for his great compassion for people experiencing homelessness, and everyone who worked with him will remember him for his kind and humble spirit,” Gloria said. “San Diego lost a truly special person today, but our city is a better place because of him. Our entire city mourns his passing, and we extend our hearts to his family and the entire Padres organization.”
Seidler served on the board of directors for the Lucky Duck Foundation, a San Diego non-profit organization that raised millions of dollars for various charitable causes before turning all of its attention to homelessness in 2017.
That year, Seidler and Dan Shea, a local businessman and restaurant owner who is also on the foundation’s board, led an effort to install two large tents on city property — at a cost of $800,000 each — meant to temporarily house homeless people while attempting to find them permanent housing.
The Lucky Duck Foundation followed through and funded the purchase and construction of the two tents later that year, at a time when a hepatitis A outbreak among the homeless community left 20 people dead and hundreds of others sick. The city funded a third tent.
In 2016, Seidler and Shea launched a weekly meeting, held each Tuesday in Seidler’s second-floor office at Petco Park, where prominent San Diegans would gather to discuss ways to tackle the growing homelessness issue. The “Tuesday Group,” as it came to be known, never went a week without meeting, according to Drew Moser, executive director of the Lucky Duck Foundation.
“The Tuesday Group will meet today,” Moser told the Union-Tribune. “It’s going to be pretty emotional.”
Moser said Seidler was “laser focused on getting credible people together to figure out what can be done right now. Not what can be done in weeks or months or years, but what can be done today.”
Moser said the foundation was fortunate to benefit from Seidler’s leadership, compassion and resolve. “I wish there was something I could say to bring him back,” Moser said.
A statement from the foundation called Seidler its “heart and soul” and said he led a “lifelong fight to prevent and alleviate the suffering of homelessness in San Diego County. Peter was inspirational and effective in everything he did, be that as a father, husband, business leader, owner of the Padres, philanthropist, and more. While Peter always stressed the importance of addressing homelessness through strategies that are ‘best in class,’ Peter himself was truly the best in every class.”
Seidler was not a distant observer of the issue — he was known to walk through homeless encampments in the East Village near Petco Park and interact with the people living there, as well as homeless people he would come across on his regular nightly walks through the beach communities near his home.
In a wide-ranging interview held in a suite at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati in July, Seidler was asked how his team’s struggles to that point in the season affected him.
“This stuff does not make me angry,” he said in what turned out to be his final public interview. “When people abuse a homeless person who has a problem that is not his or her fault, that makes me angry. This is a joy. It really is. And I lean into the losing, because I want to reverse it so bad. I want to learn what I can and ask the right questions. But these guys are giving their all.”
Seidler, who was diabetic, supported numerous charities focused on cancer, diabetes and homelessness. According to the team, those charities included the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; the American Cancer Society; Home Start, a San Diego charity working to prevent child abuse; and various initiatives at the Mayo Clinic.
Seidler and his wife were also founding members of the Stand Up To Cancer Legacy Endowment Circle. They were part of a group of founders and initial donors — along with former MLB commissioner Bud Selig, Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf — who contributed a combined $10 million to help kick off the fundraising campaign.
At Seidler’s core was positivity. Invariably, when he fielded questions that had negative connotations, he acted as if he did not notice and spun an answer that exuded hope and faith and a general sense that anything was possible.
On the first day of spring training in February, Seidler was asked if, based on the team’s finish in 2022 and investment in payroll, anything short of a World Series would be considered a failure. His response was simple and delivered with his typical gaiety.
“One day soon,” he said, “the baseball gods will smile on the San Diego Padres, and we will have a parade.”
Seidler, a two-time survivor of non-Hodgkins lymphoma who has battled health issues for years, said in a subsequent July conversation with The Union-Tribune that he intended for the Padres to remain in his family for generations after he died. A source confirmed Tuesday that is the plan.
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