US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently announced a plan to screen all service members for low testosterone levels. His office recently clarified that the order extends to the Military Sunday Padres Home games.
The Pentagon announced they would be implementing Hegseth’s plan to screen service members for testosterone and explicated that all extensions of military representation would be subject to the same screening.
As such, several mobile laboratories were pulled up to Petco Park on August 2nd in order to test the blood of military families for their serum levels of testosterone.
A post on the San Diego Padres website apologizes, “Previously, we were able to offer our 25% Sunday ticket discount to military and veterans solely through online verification. Unfortunately in order to comply with new regulations, we must perform bloodwork to complete verification of your discount.”
The website noted that it only needed to be completed once annually, and that the blood test could be completed offsite – the mobile laboratories at Petco Park were simply a matter of convenience. “Once a test is completed at a qualifying location, that information will remain in your GOVX account for one year.” explained the article.
The response was overwhelmingly negative. One comment on the blog post read “It shouldn’t matter how much testosterone is in my blood, only that the Friar Faithful spirit is coursing through my veins.” A low ranking member of the Padres organization disclosed there are talks to discontinue Military Sunday and the discount program entirely.
After the team lost that day’s game and therefore the series to the Giants, Padres manager Craig Stammen quipped “Hey, are those trucks still out there? I got nine guys that need to be screened right now.”
