It's blood before baseball Tuesday at Petco Park as the Padres hold their first annual blood drive from 8:00a.m.- 3:00p.m. Hours before the Padres take the field against the Atlanta Braves, current and former players will be at Park At The Park where they're signing autographs as the San Diego Blood Bank collects donations.
With the summer months being a critical time for blood, Padres Senior Vice President of Community and Military Affairs Tom Seidler tells KOGO News that this blood drive is part of the effort to not let the Chargers' move to LA hurt the community.
"San Diego is America's finest city, we all know that," said Seidler. "To the extent that some of these non-profits and charities had a realtionship with the Chargers and that helped them raised money and awareness, a lot of us are stepping in to try and fill that void, so noone misses a step."
Seidler says the Padres also will be taking part in the blood bank's holiday blood drive in November which will feature a variety of teams and sports stars. Everyone who donates blood Tuesday at the Padres blood drive at Petco Park gets a pair of tickets to the July 24th or 25th games against the Mets.