San Diego Padres owner Jose E. Feliciano set off a social-media frenzy Wednesday when he said the Los Angeles Dodgers owner “owns a lot of dinosaurs.”
Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, his wife and co-owner of the club, were speaking with reporters on the field before Game 2 of the wild-card series against the Chicago Cubs when the Dodgers came up. Feliciano jokingly asked whether the comment would be off the record, even though cameras were clearly rolling. Then he dropped the line about Mark Walter, his former co-owner at Chelsea Football Club.
“The owner of the Dodgers owns a lot of dinosaurs,” Feliciano said with a laugh as he walked away.
When a reporter followed up with, “On the field?” Jones turned back, laughed, and kept moving.
The clip raced around the internet, and plenty of people jumped to the wrong conclusion. But Feliciano was not taking a shot at Walter or the Dodgers’ roster. He was referring to Walter’s hobby of collecting dinosaur fossils.
That detail has been out there for years. A 2012 report from Pensions&Investments said Walter bought fossils for his Chicago office building, “including a 4-foot-high Tyrannosaurus rex head for about $70,000 that sits near his office on the 49th floor of a Chicago skyscraper.”
A Chicago Tribune story two years later added that his office was decorated with pieces from his fossil collection and “a few of his daughter’s drawings.” Melissa Harris wrote then, “Upon entering Guggenheim’s 49th-floor reception area,” one first notices the giant Tyrannosaurus skull.
Still, because the Dodgers and Padres are the Dodgers and Padres, the quote spread fast and got plenty of extra mileage online.
The two National League West rivals are both headed for their division series now, and if they keep winning, a rematch in the NL Championship Series is on the table. That would set up another meeting with the Dodgers, who rallied from down 2-1 to beat San Diego in five games in the 2024 NLDS.
After the Padres completed their wild-card sweep Wednesday, manager Craig Stammen was asked whether the team was already looking ahead to that possible matchup.
“Still a long road to go, but I think a lot of people are looking for that National League Championship Series against your rivals upstate,” a reporter asked Stammen.
Stammen didn’t bite.
“You're right, it is a long ways away,” Stammen said with a laugh. “Milwaukee has been the best team all year.
It's going to be a very tough series, five-game series against them. We're going to have to play our best, just like we did against the Cubs, to knock them out, and then we'll see where we're at after that.”
For now, the Padres are locked in on the 103-win, top-seeded Brewers. If they get past Milwaukee, then the Dodgers conversation can start for real.
In Other News...
Brewers Have The Edge But One Padres Threat Feels Very Real
The Padres carried their postseason momentum out of the wild-card round and into a tougher assignment, beating the Cubs to set up an NL Division Series with the Brewers. Milwaukee brings one of the cleaner pitching looks in the bracket, and the Game 1 plan points to Jacob Misiorowski with Logan Henderson expected to follow, a reminder that the Brewers can keep stacking arms and pressure on an opponent for as long as the series demands.
Still, San Diego enters with a confidence boost of its own after the way it handled Chicago, and that recent hot stretch is what keeps this matchup from feeling one-sided. The Brewers may have the edge on the mound, but the Padres have a lineup that has been coming alive at the right time, and that makes them the kind of October threat Milwaukee cannot afford to let linger. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Owners Already Face A Harsh Test In San Diego
Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones took over as the Padres new owners with a familiar promise in a baseball market that expects boldness: win a World Series championship. The timing is hard to ignore. San Diego just rode a wild-card sweep past the Cubs, and the buzz around the franchise is as loud as it has been in years, with a fan base that pushed past 3 million total fans in the 2023 regular season.
The first real test for the new leadership may come less on the field than on the balance sheet. An anonymous general manager has pointed to the financial strain created by the clubs major payroll commitments to key players, the kind of burden that can complicate even an ambitious contender. Feliciano, though, has framed those obligations as opportunities, a sign that the Padres are trying to think bigger, even as the challenge of sustaining that vision in San Diego begins immediately. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Outfield Prospect Just Forced His Way Into The Conversation
Orey Lott made a loud case for more attention in the postseason with Low-A Lake Elsinore, and it came in a setting that tends to separate real momentum from a hot week. During the California League Championship series, the Padres outfield prospect led all minor league players in total bases, doing most of his damage over three games while piling up extra-base hits and forcing his name into a wider conversation about San Diegos farm system.
Lotts .444/.524/.944 line is the kind of short-series burst that can change how a player is viewed inside an organization, especially for someone not currently ranked among the Padres top 30 prospects. He was already the sort of under-the-radar name talent evaluators file away for later, and now he has given himself a better chance to stay on that list if the development keeps moving in the right direction. [Read more 🡒]