At ‘Petco South,' Padres fans make new friends in a faraway place

MEXICO CITY - The Padres had played just one season of big-league baseball when, in March 1970, they traveled south during spring training to take on the Mexico City Diablos Rojos.

Nate Colbert, Ollie Brown, Clay Kirby and Co. would have been amazed by the scene 56 years later.

Same Padres. Same colores. Más pasión.

Padres fans packed Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú for the Mexico City Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, cheering and chanting while making new friends far from home.

David Silva brought his son, Aaron, south from San Diego for the two-game set. Padres season-ticket holders in the 300 level at Petco Park for four years, both were amazed by their baseball weekend.

"Dude," said Aaron Silva, an eighth-grader, "it's amazing."

"What has absolutely blown me away is the amount of Padres fans that are here," David Silva said. "It's insane. It's like a home game. And in that sense, it feels a lot like Petco."

Father-son bonding

Padres games are what the Silva boys do.

"It's our father-son thing," David said.

David and Aaron trekked to Seoul in 2024 to watch the Padres open the season against the Dodgers. They ate quail eggs and bulgogi, saw the sights and watched baseball. The two dream of someday following the club to Tokyo.

Just the fact that the Padres are here was enough to wow David Silva, a lifelong Padres fan who remembers years of losing and, worse, apathy.

This marks the Padres' third international series in four years. The club traveled to Mexico City in 2023 to face the Giants, then hit Seoul a year later.

"When I was growing up, you never would have seen that," he said. "It feels like nationally, we're respected. I feel like that's why we're getting games like this. And of course, the Padres are going to be popular in Mexico, so it's going to be a big draw."

New friends in faraway places

For Charlene Maciejko and her son Jake, Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú was Petco Really South. The Maciejkos live in Alberta, Canada. The family became Padres fans because of Jake, who adopted the club during a few family vacations to Legoland.

Jake, a high school junior, watches Padres games on TV from the family home outside Edmonton. They start at 7:40 p.m. MDT, and end right at bedtime.

"The late-night games are the best ones," he said. "The atmosphere (at Petco) is different than anywhere else."

While Charlene Maciejko admitted to a little culture shock after flying eight hours to Mexico City, traveling all this way has definite pluses.

Back home, the Maciejkos are the only Padres fans they know. They had plenty of company in Mexico City.

"It's like Petco," Jake said, "but in Mexico, I guess."

‘I'm in heaven'

Point Loma's Greg Ermisch and his wife had planned to attend both games of the Mexico City Series together.

But when she balked at skipping work - a schoolteacher, “she feels guilty about taking a day off," he said - Ermisch decided to travel alone.

"I said, ‘I don't care; I'm going,’ " he said.

Ermisch, who goes to about 10 games a year at Petco Park, was clearly loving his Mexico City experience. He plans to visit the Teotihuacán pyramids on Monday before flying home on Tuesday.

A transplanted New Yorker, Ermisch has leaned into his adopted hometown's team. He attended Saturday's game wearing a .394 Pale Ale T-shirt, a lifeguard hat - and a massive smile.

"I texted all my buddies Friday," he said, "and I said, ‘I'm in heaven.’ "

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This story was originally published April 26, 2026 at 5:16 PM.