On Thursday night, the San Diego Padres welcomed superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. back for his first MLB game since 2021, following an unfortunate injury and mid-recovery PED suspension. They played Tatis' return game in the desert, facing off against the Diamondbacks in Arizona.
And somehow, all one Padres fan could focus on was the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In a misguided attempt to bring both the Pads and D-Backs fanbases together, this fan was spotted holding a sign that said, "We All Hate the Dodgers," featuring -- duh -- a fist emoji, a handshake emoji, and a cry-laughing emoji.
The sign didn't pose a question. It wasn't a thinker. It wasn't a clever twist. It was just a cut-and-dried sentence. "We Hate the Dodgers."
Well, you do, sir, but that doesn't seem entirely relevant at this particular moment, does it? Twitter seemed to agree; why was this necessary? You have great seats! Sit down and watch your team. Your team is not playing the Dodgers.
Padres fan tries to get Diamondbacks fans to rally against Dodgers (?) in moment of togetherness
Some Twitter roasters pointed out that this game featured "two teams" with inferiority complexes, but we beg to differ.
Only a Padres fan is shown here! Who knows how D-Backs fans reacted/whether they brought their inferiority complexes to play Thursday night. They didn't bring the sign, and they didn't seem to react to it. This might be a "one fan base" problem.
What happened to rooting, rooting, rooting for the home team? Now, Padres and D-Backs fans are supposed to ignore the game on the field and root against the Dodgers thousands of miles away (Dodgers won, by the way)?
This sign-wielding fan is lucky he didn't bring the cringiest controversy of Thursday night to the ballpark.
That award goes to the man who bought a scoreboard message to try to patch things over with a girlfriend named Alexandria W. Yuuuuuuck.
Will this Padres fan keep fighting for his team?
Or, rather, will he even start fighting for them, instead of fighting against the Dodgers? Only time will tell. In the meantime, don't show him a replay of James Outman's game-winning grand slam. He might just turn into a steam-eared emoji.