The conclusion of All-Star Week allowed Padres President Mike Dee an opportunity to catch his breath before the start of the second half. He sat down with the Union-Tribune to reflect on the brown and gold’s popularity at FanFest, his favorite moments from All-Star Week and what’s next on his to-do list.

Question: One of the headlines that came out of All-Star Week was the Padres’ brown and gold fueling record sales at FanFest. We know the “Bring back the brown” fans will be excited about that. What’s your takeaway from that?

Answer: Well, we’ve brought it back. We’re wearing it tonight (on Friday night). Obviously, those were very popular and they were selected by Major League Baseball. So we had very little to do with the design of those and the decision to wear those, but it worked out extremely well. … Baseball makes that call based on the theme of the game and there were a number of different themes they were considering that included the All-Star logo. We got to see them, but they felt strongly that they wanted to do it and we said, “Sure, it’s a great part of Padres history. Go for it.” … I realize people want to bring it back in a broader way. We love our new Friday night jerseys and we’ll see what the future holds.

Q: What were some of your favorite moments from the week?


A: All of them. I’m not being sarcastic when I say that. From our point of view, it hit the right note on so many fronts. Our goal all along was to encourage our community – whether you had tickets to the game or the derby or not – to take part in the week’s events. Whether it was the concert, the record crowds at FanFest, the great crowd on the red carpet parade, the events that took place inside the park, I think San Diegans who love baseball were able to partake in some part of the week. … For those visiting from out of town, I think the prevailing thought was, “I had to get a cab when I flew in and didn’t need to get in another vehicle until I flew out.” Everything was accessible on foot. That’s the first time our city – despite the fact that we’ve had Super Bowls and All-Star Games and World Series – this is the first time post-Petco that we’ve had that kind of event with downtown sort of grown up. We were hard-pressed to find another city that can offer what we can offer from that vantage point and everybody took full advantage of it.

Q: How about from the game specifically?

A: The Tony Gwynn announcement was one of those special moments you’re glad you’re here for. Kudos to baseball for choosing Tony’s name for that award. It’s fitting. Rod Carew is fitting on the American League side. You remember that as the high watermark of all the things that took place at the game from a Padres’ fan perspective. I don’t think there were many dry eyes.

Q: How about Trevor Hoffman’s walk in from the ‘pen? Could he have milked that any better?


A: Yeah, we were kidding with him – whether he was out of breath or if he was pacing his walk. That was a great moment. Whenever Trevor’s wearing a Padres uniform in front of a full stadium of all Padres fans and “Hell’s Bells” is playing over the sound system, it’s a pretty cool moment.

Q: Any comparison to the atmosphere during Hoffman’s hey day?

A: For me, no. Because I was here a large portion of his career – at least the Qualcomm Stadium portion. He still looked like he could probably throw the change-up. Trevor never lived on his heat, so if he could go out there and throw and 80, 84 mph change-up, he’d probably still get people out.

Q: Your staff has worked so hard to get to this All-Star Game. You put a lot of work into the Padres Hall of Fame. What’s next?


A: I think a lot of our investment right now and for the foreseeable future is going to be put into the baseball side of the operation. Not that it hasn’t been over the last two years. We’ve dramatically increased payroll, but what we’re doing now with the investment in the international market, the large pool number – some $13 million – that we spent on the draft, the lion’s share of our investment is going to go into baseball and making sure we continue to populate our system with a lot of talent that can be developed. I’m not going to say we’re going to take the next couple years off entirely from projects in the ballpark, but it’s definitely going to take a secondary priority to making sure we do everything we can to improve the product on the field.

Q: Staying in baseball operations and the Drew Pomeranz trade. You get a top prospect back, but you also give up someone that can help you next year. Walk us through that trade.

A: When you give up someone of Drew’s caliber, it’s always tough. The ceiling on Anderson Espinoza through the lens of the people who make that call for us – not through my lens – was so high that we felt it was a deal we had to do. I know from my friends inside the Red Sox organization, it was an agonizing decision to give him up. We had knocked on the door before with interest in him before – last year at the trade deadline and then in the winter with the Kimbrel discussions – and he was unattainable. … Good trades are when both sides benefit and I think this is going to be one of those trades where five or 10 years down the line, it was one where you say it was good for the Red Sox and good for the Padres.

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