The Padres botched the national anthem situation involving the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus on Saturday night. They could have (should have) done more in the moment. They could have (should have) said more at the start.

Ham-handed? Probably. Poor initial reaction? Absolutely.

But intentional in any organizational way? Not a chance. Anyone who thinks it was something other than an employee or two making a mistake is filtering all of this through emotion instead of tapping into common sense.

I can just hear the front-office planning meeting now: Hey, let’s put 100 people in front of a Dodgers-sized crowd and embarrass them publicly. That sounds like a good move, right?


Of course not.

Stop to think. The Padres were one of baseball’s first to schedule a Gay Pride Night, back in early September 2001. Last year, the team hosted a game-day event involving local high schools for Athlete Ally, self-described as an “organization focused on ending homophobia and transphobia in sports.”

The men’s chorus in attendance Saturday has appeared at Padres events eight other times. DJ ArtForm, the name used by the terminated contractor involved, told NBC7 it was an unfortunate mistake, said he has friends in the LGBT community and feels he “let down my city … (and) I’m truly sorry for this entire ordeal.”

Even chorus executive director Bob Lehman said Monday that he now feels it wasn’t intentional.


So, enough with the conspiracy theories.

Frankly, though, that’s not the sole issue. The problem is with how the Padres handled it after the anthem mix-up. They let the story fester. They let it build steam. They let it be fueled by speculation.

The Padres, who lean on news releases in delicate situations too much, allowed the fuse to smolder as it became news for the New York Times and USAToday.com — rather than offer a face and voice quickly.

The first statement arrived nearly two and a half hours after the mix-up had left the chorus and fans who witnessed it confused and hunting for answers. It amounted to two sentences, which did little in the way of offering information or inspiring confidence in its sincerity.


Team President Mike Dee said Monday there was a reason for the delay. The team immediately tried to locate Lehman, but were told he had left the park. The Padres emailed Lehman, Dee said, before calling him directly.

“We didn’t want to offer a public apology until we personally had apologized to the chorus director,” Dee said. “We were sensitive to the fact that a public apology prior to that might seem disingenuous. As soon as I was able to reach him by phone, we issued the statement.”

When the chorus expressed concerns and “questions about homophobia within the San Diego Padres organization” on its Facebook page Sunday, it took the Padres more than 12 hours to respond with another statement.

On the response Sunday, Dee said: “We wanted to make sure we left no stone unturned in our internal investigation, especially since it resulted in one (contractor) being terminated and severe discipline for another employee who was directly involved in the control booth.”


Lehman, the chorus director, told the Union-Tribune’s Kirk Kenney that more discussion with Dee “makes me feel that I can believe now, down in my heart, that this was an accident and not something intentional.” The director added: “He walked me through the entire process of their investigation step-by-step, and I feel it was very thorough.”

The group is uncertain about when or if it would appear at Petco Park again, Lehman said — waiting to weigh team actions after a face-to-face meeting with Dee.

Fair request. It will happen, no doubt.

The way the Padres managed the situation, however, stained the franchise in the short term. That might be all it ever amounts to in the tempest-and-forget, rush-to-the-next-thing world we live in. In our short attention span world, though, impressions are formed as snippets scroll across the bottom of a CNN ticker.


You know they’re stewing at the league offices in New York when headlines like this drift across time zones from the host of the next All-Star Game. MLB announced it had bolstered its sexual orientation policy in 2013 during All-Star festivities, no less. At one point Monday, the story was trending on Facebook.

MLB spokesman Pat Courtney told me late Monday morning, too, that baseball has started to investigate the matter.

Timely information and quick access to leaders matter, though. A San Diego Union-Tribune/10News poll conducted by SurveyUSA showed that as of Monday afternoon, more than a third of respondents (36%) still believed the Padres did something intentional.

(Beto Alvarez)


The public-relations stumble reminded me of the uproar in December when the Padres hosted the San Diego State-USD basketball game. A logjam of fans struggled to enter through limited entrances, forcing waits of an hour in some cases. Dialed-down concession staffing caused delays that exceeded 30 minutes for many.

Instead of getting in front of it with unscripted comments that immediately addressed the situation (read: unscripted equals believability to customers), it took hours for a news release to arrive.

Sound familiar?

That approach leaves many to think the Padres’ priority in tough situations is running comments through the PR filter, rather than tackling concerns in heartfelt and timely ways.


It’s surprising in this case, honestly, because the Padres have stories of inclusiveness to share. Susan Guinn, an Athlete Ally committee member during last year’s spring event, said the team embraced their message.

“Coming from LGBT community, when you read the comments and listen to people who feel the Padres use events like ‘gay washing’ (in a token way) — nothing could be farther from the truth,” Guinn said. “Last year, they had everyone take the Athlete Ally pledge at a regular-season game, showed it on the Jumbotron and made an amazing video promoting inclusion.

“They invited high school athletes from the area that day to take the pledge. As a result of that day and that moment, Torrey Pines High School now has a Rainbow Week.’ ”

You want to judge the Padres? Fine, go right ahead. Judge them on how they initially responded. Judge them on how they make this right with the chorus.


Enough with the conspiracy theories, though. They’re simply not true.

On Twitter: Bryce_A_Miller