Playing Hooky? Meet Me At The Ballpark!
San Diego Padres Latest Team To Encourage "Remote Work" during Day Games
Dear readers, I type this week’s edition of the Sandwich at the airport in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, between sessions of answering work email and wondering what action items I can procrastinate from completing from those emails. On my phone, I got the latest New York Mets highlights going on, making sure I stay in the loop. It hits me: I haven’t been to a day game in forever, and I should probably fix that. Then I go back to thinking about my emails, and the idea fizzles.
Well, if you’re a remote worker like me, you should rejoice! The San Diego Padres (a team that I personally have grown to thoroughly dislike over the years), has become the latest franchise to incentivize working stiffs like you and me to “work” at the ballpark. And while the idea of looking down at a laptop in the stands while the thought of baseballs whizzing by in the stands at 101 mph can be concerning for some, know that distractions and being assaulted by baseballs are part of the history of the sport.
I still love the idea, though.
Day games in baseball are becoming increasingly rare these days. Seventy years ago, games were played almost exclusively under sunlight, but that’s changed with the rise of prime time television and making sure more working people can attend games. Day games are usually in two categories: The lazy weekend games that allow families to bring the kids and grandparents to the park early enough to have the rest of their day to themselves, or “getaway games” that usually relied upon church groups, students, and diehard fans to fill seats.
And for those wondering, they are called getaway games because the early start times allow teams more time to travel out of town to the next series of games. Or as I like to think of them, “This town sucks… I’m out of here!” Games
But if you want to fill a couple of extra seats during the week, you’d be hard-pressed to do worse than the in-over-their-head salaryman who takes comfort in the small escapes in life. These schlubs aren’t going to make it to a week-long trip to Tahiti, but 2.5 hours tasting artisan popcorn and handcrafted hot dogs? Well, that’s a slice of vakay most people would be okay with.
The bigger thing for me is that attending sports has always been about the shared experience, right? In soccer, you cheer on in supporter groups. In football (Americano), it’s all about bringing the boys out to the gridiron. The rise of the kiss cam shows that there’s at least an acknowledgment of couples, right?
But days dedicated to remote working while a game is happening in the background is peak solo-sports, enjoyer. And while I enjoy a dope “Table for one, please” when I go out to eat, I wonder if that sort of single-person experience should be looked into more during sporting events. Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles sometimes open up their suites and allow individuals and small groups to occupy these rooms that were designed for up to 20. Some ticket sites are now allowing individual ticket sales to games. And yes, I know that sounds weird, but sometimes you’re not allowed to buy single tickets because of…reasons…
But good on the San Diego Padres, though. While remote work can be a rather dreary existence, giving people an option for a third space ever so often is cool. I felt like ten years ago, you could just go to a coffee shop. And now? Coffee shops go out of their way to make sure you don’t hang around.
But sports? Sports never let you down.
Lemme circle back and ping you later or something.