San Diego, CA
Padres All-Star Jurickson Profar has proved himself relevant
ARLINGTON, Texas — Padres players from time to time wear T-shirts with a cartoon Jurickson Profar on the front doing his base hit celebration.
The cartoon Profar is smiling, and his arms are raised with his elbows bent and down to form the top of a heart over his head. On the front of his jersey is the word, “RELEVANT.”
The shirts were made in response to the poetically ill-timed response in a postgame interview by Dodgers catcher Will Smith in April.
In the fifth inning of the middle game of a three-game series at Dodger Stadium, Profar took exception to an inside pitch from Gavin Stone and let Smith know he was not pleased. The benches cleared, though nothing more than a little shouting and a lot of standing around happened.
After the Dodgers’ victory that night, as Profar was acknowledging he had been wrong to think Stone was throwing at him because he had squared to bunt, in that the pitcher had a perfect game at the time, Smith was saying this to the Dodgers’ flagship radio station:
“I don’t know why we would have thrown at him. He’s kind of irrelevant.”
The next night, Profar’s bases-loaded double in the seventh inning drove in the deciding runs in a 6-3 Padres victory.
Profar has always downplayed the incident, and there was no apparent ill will when the Padres and Dodgers played in May in San Diego.
Now, the two players are on the same team in the All-Star game.
They had not talked as of early Monday.
“It doesn’t matter,” Profar said. “It’s going to be OK. He’s another baseball player. He’s not the enemy. I have seen enemies in front of me before. Really, really enemies in Curacao. Will Smith is a baseball player.”
Profar felt Smith did not mean what he said to be as disrespectful as it sounded. He also agreed that perhaps at the time, he could be viewed as irrelevant, in that he hit .236 for the Rockies in 2023.
Smith said Monday he didn’t really even mean to include Profar.
“That had nothing to do with it,” Smith said of Profar’s accomplishments as a player. “It was the situation only. My bad. It was nothing personal. … He’s fiery, plays hard. He’s a competitor. In competition, the best and worst comes out of us. He’s a competitor and a good player.”
Profar seemed most perturbed that some seem to think it was Smith who got him going on his way to what is so far the best of his 11 seasons in the major leagues.
“People say it was him that lit a fire,” Profar said. “It wasn’t him.”
Profar has talked many times over the past few months about his love for the game and for the Padres and his desire to keep playing and prove he could be the player he has always felt he could be.
Profar arrived at spring training having signed a $1 million contract and knowing he was replaceable.
“With my contract,” he said Monday of his thoughts at the time, “obviously they are going to get someone (else) to play the outfield.”
Profar pretty much had it nailed. Signing Tommy Pham or making a trade for an outfielder was very much in play at the time. But the Padres decided during Profar’s strong spring that they could hold off on a move and focus their resources on acquiring pitcher Dylan Cease.
The reality, however, is the Padres signed the 31-year-old because they thought he believed in him as a leader and thought he would be useful enough in the outfield and at the plate. In no way did anyone believe he would be hitting .305 with an .870 OPS, be tied for the team lead with 14 home runs and starting in left field for the NL in Tuesday’s All-Star game.
“No,” Profar said with a hearty laugh. “Because they didn’t pay to believe.”
Profar has earned earned $300,000 in playing time incentives and is seven plate appearances from adding another $200,000. That would leave another $1 million that could be earned if he were to reach 600 plate appearances.
“I worked hard,” he said. “The hard work is paying off.”
Originally Published:
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A 33-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to 325 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two 6-year-old girls, in addition to a slew of other felony sex abuse charges, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.
Christopher T. Gardner was convicted of 15 felony sex abuse charges, which included molesting the two girls, who were relatives of his, over a five-year period.
The abuse reportedly first came to light when one of the victims told a friend in confidence during a sleepover that she had been touched inappropriately. The friend then told her mother, who contacted law enforcement.
After Gardner was arrested, a third victim came forward, who was also a relative. Now a young adult, the victim said that when she was 7-8 years old, Gardner sexually assaulted her.
During the nine-day trial, the first two victims reportedly testified to multiple vulgar acts of sexual abuse by Gardner.
“Predators who rob children of their innocence and inflict lifelong trauma do not belong in our communities,” DA Summer Stephan said. “This sentence sends an unmistakable message to abusers: you will be held accountable. I am deeply grateful to our specialized sexual abuse prosecution team for their dedication in bringing a measure of justice to the survivors.”
Thursday, July 9
• La Jolla Town Council: 6 p.m., La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollatowncouncil.org
Friday, July 10
• La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club: 6:45 a.m., UC San Diego Faculty Club, 270 Muir Lane. lajollagtrotary.org
• Kiwanis Club of La Jolla: noon, La Jolla Community Center, 6811 La Jolla Blvd. kiwanisclublajolla.org
Sunday, July 12
• La Jolla Open Aire Market: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Girard Avenue at Genter Street. (858) 454-1699. lajollamarket.com
Monday, July 13
• La Jolla Library Book Club: 1:30 p.m., Community Room, La Jolla/Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave. The July book is “Fresh Water for Flowers” by Valérie Perrin. sandiego.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=316631
• La Jolla Planned District Ordinance Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., La Jolla Recreation Center, 615 Prospect St. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
• Laughmasters Toastmasters: 6:30 p.m., online. Email jrmmt@cox.net.
Tuesday, July 14
• San Diego Blood Bank blood drive: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Hensel Phelps Construction Co., 9404 Genesee Ave. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. Photo identification is required. (619) 400-8251. sandiegobloodbank.org
• Rotary Club of La Jolla: noon, La Valencia Hotel, 1132 Prospect St. rotarycluboflajolla.org
• Co-op Toastmasters Club: noon, online at bit.ly/46W13bx (meeting ID: 849 4320 0407, passcode: cccu2020). (669) 900-6833. toastmasters.org/find-a-club/00001125-coop-club
• La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., online. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
Wednesday, July 15
• Torrey Pines (La Jolla) Rotary Club: noon, online. torreypinesrotary.org
• La Jolla Shores Association: 6 p.m., Martin Johnson House, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 8840 Biological Grade. lajollashoresassociation.org
Thursday, July 16
• La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club: 6:58 a.m., La Jolla Shores Hotel, 8110 Camino del Oro. Call Cheryl Collins at (760) 936-3272 or Steve Cross at (619) 992-9449.
• San Diego Blood Bank blood drive: 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Sanford Burnham Prebys (patio outside Buildings 6 and 7), 10901 N. Torrey Pines Road. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. Photo identification is required. (619) 400-8251. sandiegobloodbank.org
• La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee: (pending items to review), 4 p.m., online. Email info@lajollacpa.org.
Friday, July 17
• La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club: 6:45 a.m., UC San Diego Faculty Club, 270 Muir Lane. lajollagtrotary.org
Did we miss listing your community event? Email calendar information to Noah Lyons at noah.lyons@lajollalight.com by noon Thursday for publication in the following week’s edition. ♦
San Diego, CA
Elite California city set for mass illegal street vendor expansion as judge issues stunning verdict
San Diego seems to have no solution to its illegal street vendor problem and it’s only getting worse in many areas including the popular Balboa Park and Gaslamp Quarter.
Local business leaders are frustrated following the January 2026 California appeals court ruling, which forced the city officials to entirely halt the crackdown on street vendors.
“It’s a disaster,” Denny Knox, executive director of the Ocean Beach Main Street Association, told the San Diego Union Tribune last week.
An increasing number of street vendors are exploiting the court’s ruling and many don’t even bother to get a permit.
Executive Director of Gaslamp Quarter Association, Michael Trimble, said that street vendors block the sidewalks, making it difficult for the businesses in the area to function.
“The lack of action has also led to an escalation of activity, including new vendors setting up tents and selling goods without permits, health approvals or accountability,” said Trimble, the Union-Tribune reports.
Organized groups of hot dog vendors have returned to the Gaslamp Quarter—bringing associated hazards like open fires, blocked walkways, and the dumping of grease into storm drains.
“It’s so much of a slap in the face to merchants that have done things the legal way, the right way,” said Ruth-Ann Thorn, owner of Native Star boutique and Exclusive Collections Gallery in the Gaslamp Quarter, reports inewsource.
Officers can no longer impound vending carts and law enforcement in Ballpark District is restricted, SDPD’s Ashley Nicholes said in a statement, according to the Union-Tribune.
“Recent court rulings involving the city’s street vending ordinance have limited what police officers can do to enforce street vending laws,” Nicholes said.
San Diego’s tug-of-war with street vendors started in 2018 when the state law decriminalized aspects of street vending. The task to draft a vendor law fell into the laps of then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer in 2019, then passed on to Mayor Todd Gloria in 2021 and then Councilmember Jennifer Campbell.
The law, approved by the City Council in May 2022, banned vendors in Balboa Park, Little Italy, Ocean Beach and some beach areas during summer months. But, the merchants kept complaining about the lack of law enforcement and that led to the revision of the law in 2024.
The revised law made it easier for officials to impound vendors’ carts, limited free-speech protections, which didn’t include yoga classes on the beach and selling food.
After an immediate backlash, a federal appeals court ruling in June 2025 said the city’s ban on beach yoga classes is unconstitutional as they are protected under the First Amendment.
A California appeals court in the case of Imhotep Mustaqeem earlier this year ruled that San Diego’s revised 2024 street vendor law violated state law by establishing “overly restrictive” geographic no-vendor zones and restricted operating hours.
Imhotep Mustaqeem, a licensed vendor who had sold snacks outside Petco Park since 2009, sued the city after police impounded his cart under San Diego’s revised 2024 ordinance. While a lower court initially ruled against him, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ultimately vindicated Mustaqeem and quashed the 2024 street vendor law.
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