Mariners and Padres to officially play for “Vedder Cup” beginning in 2025
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Our Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres announced today, along with rock and roll hall of famer, multi-Grammy award winner, rock legend, and one-time resident of both San Diego and Seattle, Eddie Vedder, that the two clubs will now officially play annually for the “Vedder Cup” in their season rivalry series beginning this upcoming season.
The Mariners-Padres series has been playfully referred to as the Vedder Cup for several years. With six matchups between the two clubs in 2025, Seattle and San Diego will formalize the moniker with the winner of the season series taking home the Vedder Cup trophy, featuring a guitar provided personally by Vedder that remains in the design process at this time.
As part of the annual series, the Mariners and Padres will also partner to support EB Research Partnership, a charity co-founded by Eddie and Jill Vedder as a trailblazing nonprofit organization dedicated to funding research to discover treatments and cures for Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), so there is a fun tie to all of this that will actual go towards helping the real world.
“We are thrilled that we were able to bring the Vedder Cup concept to life in such a fun and impactful way. Creating and sharing memorable events like this with Mariners fans is extremely gratifying, and I am very thankful for Eddie, his team, EB Research Partnership and the Padres in sharing the Mariners vision and commitment to celebrating and serving the Seattle community.”
This “rivalry” of sorts became official this past offseason when the Mariners approached Eddie Vedder about making it a reality, with MLB starting these official “rivalry series” that will take place throughout the course of the season and receive extra promotion, this past offseason. Given the already strong relationship between the band and the Seattle ballclub since the “Home Shows” that sold out T-Mobile Park for two nights back in the year 2018, it’s not much of a surprise that it wasn’t going to take a whole lot to get something like this going. Guitarist Mike McCready has regularly performed the national anthem before Mariners games, including before Game three of the ALDS in 2022, Seattle’s first home playoff game in 21 years. There also have been nights at the ballpark in recent seasons with specific promotions for members of Pearl Jam’s fan group, the “Ten Club.” so you can see how the connections continue to run deep in many different ways.
“It’s been a really great relationship. As a fan of the band and a fan of the people, they are some of the most down-to-earth people around and I just really appreciate everything that they do for us. And Ed is a huge baseball fan and this is just a really cool way to partner again.”
There will be a good chunk of fans that will ask why this rivalry is being picked, and why this name in particular is being picked, largely given that Vedder doesn’t hold much connection at all to baseball in the Seattle or San Diego areas. He’s occasionally shown up at T-Mobile Park, whether it’s to throw out a ceremonial first pitch or as a fan, and there’s obviously the concerts he’s performed at in the ballpark back in 2018, but he does have one link between the two cities that are part of history. He recorded some song lyrics which became the trilogy of Alive, Once and Footsteps, moved to Seattle and the rest is musical history.
“We’re proud to partner with the Mariners and Eddie Vedder to announce the creation of the Vedder Cup, a special interleague rivalry series that celebrates the unique connection between our cities through the rock legend and Pearl Jam frontman. This West Coast showdown will create some cool, fun, and memorable moments for our fans while bringing meaningful awareness to EB research. We can’t wait to see this rivalry series grow and look forward to battling the Mariners for the Vedder Cup.”
When interleague play first became a thing in Major League Baseball, the Padres and Mariners were designated as “natural rivals,” which seemed to be more out of convenience than any actual/legitimate reason. Every year when looking at the interleague schedule, it seemed like the Mariners and Padres played at some point in the season, and it’s not too surprising given that they’re both on the West coast and Seattle is the most geographically isolated team in the sport. The 2017 season is the only one since when the teams haven’t played, and so naturally when you play that often there’s going to be some sort of “rivalry,” whether that actually lies with the teams or the fanbases.
Some fun history is that the name of the “Vedder Cup” was actually initially mentioned by Padres fan and blogger Geoffrey Hancock when writers covering San Diego’s team, particularly Dan Hayes of the North County Times at the time, and former MLB.Com writer Corey Brock were seeking some suggestions for the “rivalry” one year during spring training more than a decade ago.
Vedder Cup Highlights:
Vedder Cup Trophy – The Vedder Cup trophy will be created with Vedder’s input to include a guitar provided by the rock legend himself. The trophy will be unveiled later during the 2025 season, prior to the first matchup between the two clubs.
Joint EB Donations – The Mariners and the Padres will each make an annual donation to EB Research Partnership.
Vedder Cup Series Theme Game at Petco Park – The Padres will host a Vedder Cup Series Theme Game on May 17 in Game 2 of their 3-game series against the Mariners. Tickets to this exclusive theme game event will be available for purchase at Padres.com/Vedder.
Mariners Vedder Cup Ticket Special – The Mariners will hold a Vedder Cup ticket special for the August 27 finale of the season series between the two clubs. Fans can learn more at Mariners.com/VedderCup.
Vedder Cup Merchandise – The Mariners and Padres will both offer fans the opportunity to buy Vedder Cup merchandise at Team Stores in Seattle and San Diego during the series.
The Mariners will travel to San Diego for a 3-game series at Petco Park from May 16-18. Seattle will host the Padres for 3 games at T-Mobile Park from August 25-27.
In the result of a tie in the season series between the clubs, the following tiebreakers will be used:
Run Differential – The team with a greater run differential in the season series.
EV (short for Exit Velocity and Eddie Vedder) – If the clubs share an even run differential in the season series, the team with the highest exit velocity recorded on a hit will win the Vedder Cup.
For more information on the inaugural Vedder Cup series, Mariners fans can visit Mariners.com/VedderCup.
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Cover photo of this article presented by the Seattle Mariners.
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