San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler, who spent big in pursuit of a World Series title, dies at 63

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Padres owner Peter Seidler, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to bring a long-elusive World Series championship to San Diego, died on Tuesday, the team announced. He was 63.

A cause of death wasn't disclosed. Seidler, a third-generation member of the O'Malley family that used to own the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, was a two-time cancer survivor. The team announced in mid-September that Seidler had an unspecified medical procedure in August and wouldn't be back at the ballpark the rest of the year.

Seidler was part of a group that purchased the Padres in 2012 and bought out Ron Fowler’s majority stake in November 2020. Seidler also bought Rawlings in conjunction with MLB in 2018.

It was with Seidler’s blessing that the Padres boosted their payroll to about $258 million on opening day, the third-highest in the majors, after making a stirring run to the NL Championship Series the previous fall.

Seidler often shrugged off questions about whether the Padres' big spending on players like Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts was sustainable and mentioned how badly he wanted a championship parade for a city that has never had one.

“Do I believe our parade is going to be on land or on water or on both?” he said.

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By BERNIE WILSON AP Sports Writer