Photos by Chris Stone
It took an Orange County sportswriter to speak truth to San Diego.
Jeff Miller’s coverage of Wednesday’s Opening Day at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club noted the absence of the Chargers and the collapse of the Padres.
“‘Cool as Ever’ is the local slogan, and … I couldn’t come up with anything more appropriate,” Miller wrote in The Orange County Register. “As far as nearby San Diego is concerned, though, another possibility this year could be ‘Needed as Ever.’”
He noted that Del Mar’s opener comes 10 days before the Chargers start training camp in Costa Mesa, “just the team’s latest bitter farewell to a place it had called home since 1961.”
“As bad as the Chargers’ leaving has been around here, the Padres’ staying hasn’t been much better. San Diego’s baseball team began Wednesday buried 25 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.”
“So,” Miller declared, “this area was due a sports holiday, official or otherwise, the locals given the chance to play Wednesday while the animals did all the work.”
Not all the work. Hat makers did a fair job as well on the 23rd annual Opening Hats Day.
“They may come in here in yoga pants and a baseball cap backwards, but everyone loves to glam up and look beautiful,” Paula Del Pericio of The Hat Box in Laguna Beach told Alina Bringsjord of The Register. “Hat Day is the day to do that.”
Some of our favorites — in alpha order:
Chris Banner of Valley Center
Belinda Berry of Walnut Creek
Amparo Brean of Encinitas
Amy Brooker of Vista
Debra Fisher of Orange
Sandra Comer of Rancho Penasquitos
Virginia DeMoss of South San Diego
Debra Gernes of San Jacinto
Nami Haynes of San Diego
India Hope of Chula Vista
Jackie Josey of San Diego
Carrie Martinez of Lakeside
Gabriella Muñoz of Hillcrest
Patti Newman of National City (left) and Joan Cook of San Elijo Hills
Betsy O’Neill of Cardiff
Richard Polacek of Carlsbad
Liliana Prieto of Chula Vista
Janita Salazar of Escondido
Shevon San Vicente of Escondido
Michelle Underwood of Rancho Penasquitos
Deena Von Yokes of Rancho Santa Fe and her Arturo Rios hat
