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This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Last year, it was the Swag Chain. This year, it’s… Joe Musgrove’s Polaroid camera?
You better believe it. The Padres’ new celebration of choice features Musgrove waiting at the end of the dugout, his gold Polaroid Now+ in hand, ready to capture the celebration.
Musgrove hatched the idea when he watched Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna’s home run celebration, in which Ozuna mimics taking a selfie while he rounds the bases.
“I was watching his celebration, and I was like, ‘That’d be sick, if we actually had a camera,’” Musgrove said. “I just thought it would be kind of cool. I didn’t know how it would go over, but the guys seemed stoked about it. So we busted it out.”
Musgrove ordered the camera and a couple boxes of Color 600 film on the Padres’ most recent road trip. They were waiting for him when he arrived back in San Diego, and he broke it out for the first game of the team’s homestand against the Marlins on Thursday night.
Sure enough, Manny Machado went deep twice in that game. When Machado reached the end of the dugout high-five line, Musgrove was there, ready to capture a pair of images of Machado, arms crossed, basking in the moment.
“That was pretty cool,” Machado said. “I got surprised by it. But it was pretty cool.”
Musgrove’s initial plan was to line the walls in the Padres’ clubhouse with pictures from all the team’s biggest moments this season. But the reaction to those images on social media was so emphatic, he now has a new plan.
“I’ve seen a lot of people wanting to buy them, so I figure we might as well put them up for auction,” Musgrove said. “I’ve got to get with the guys, because I want it to benefit a charity or something that everyone is behind and that the Padres would support. The idea is to get all these photos, and throw them up for auction, maybe have the guys sign them. … We haven’t really ironed anything out yet. But that’s the idea, to hopefully have some money to put back in the community or back toward some local charities.”
