IT’S A LONGSHOT, and not common knowledge, but a home run at a San Diego Padres home game during the 2022 season could trigger a one-million-dollar prize giveaway.

First qualification: A Padres player has to blast a homer into Petco Park’s Templeton Rye Barrell Deck in right field.

Second, the round-tripper has to happen in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Most challengingly, the dinger has to enter the open whiskey barrel that decorates the Templeton Rye Barrel Deck group seating/hospitality space.

If all this happens on the day you’re randomly chosen to be the fan of the game, you’ll win $500,000. Another half million dollars goes to the charity of choice of the Padres player who launches the four-bagger.

“The ball doesn’t have to stay in the barrel,” says Ernie Hahn, co-founder of experiential marketing company Dream Hahn. “And it can rebound in off the outfield wall–it doesn’t have to go in on the fly.”

Hahn says the open whiskey barrel is 340 feet away from home plate.

A Long Shot

A million-dollar payout ensues if a Padre belts a home run at Petco Park into this open whiskey barrel in the sixth inning. (Courtesy photo)

The contest giveaway was in place (but largely under the radar) in 2021. Knowledge of it’s existence is slowly growing among fans this year.

The Templeton Rye Home Run Challenge is a Bally Sports San Diego campaign and is not highly promoted by the Padres.

Legal residents of California who are over 21 can enter to be the fan of the game at templetonhomerunchallenge.com.

The fan of the game is announced during the Bally Sports pre-game show, Hahn says.

There are multiple ways to win.

Just by getting picked, the fan of the game wins a gift bag that includes a t-shirt and a hat.

If a Padre player hits a home run during any inning into the Barrel Deck seating area–but not into the whiskey barrel–the selected fan wins four tickets to a future home game.

What if a Padre knocks a long ball into the whiskey barrel in any other inning than the sixth? There’s still a hefty prize pool: $125,000 for the fan and the same amount to the player’s charity.

Local Cheers

On May 29, 2022, Jurickson Profar smacked a sixth-inning homer into the Barrel Deck that landed 15-20 feet to the left of the whiskey-barrel bullseye.

(Check out Profar’s blast in the above video. Pause at the 5-second mark you can see the whiskey barrel setup on the lower right of the screen.)

Templeton Rye is the official whiskey of the San Diego Padres. The liquor brand is also part of the Infinium Spirits portfolio.

Infinium Spirits moved its corporate headquarters to downtown San Diego in 2021. It’s office is at Fifth Avenue and Market Street, in the space above the former Searsucker restaurant.

Fun fact: Another spirit under the Infinium banner includes locally-spawned Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey (the official whiskey of the San Diego Gulls hockey team).

Infinium Spirits is repped for all things related to Padres promotions by Dream Hahn.

Co-founder Ernie Hahn, former general manager of Pechanga Arena, is also a co-founder of the Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival, which is coming back to downtown San Diego November 18-20, 2022.

If you’ve seen local bands playing music while being driven around town atop Dream Hahn’s Wonderbus you’ve likely noticed Infinium Spirits branded on the side of the bus.

HOME RUN CHALLENGE FUN FACTS

Templeton Rye is the official whiskey of the San Diego Padres.

Here a few highlights pulled from the official rules of the Templeton Rye Home Run Challenge:

• One entry per person. A single entry qualifies entrants for all drawings throughout the season.
• The cash prizes will be awarded only if the baseball completely enters the promotional whiskey barrel.
• Partial entry does not count.
• A ball deflected off an opposing outfielder, or the outfield wall, that goes all the way into the whiskey barrel is considered valid.
• Any intentional deflection by a fan will disqualify the hit.
• If a top cash prize ($125,000 or $500,000) is awarded to a contestant the promotion will end. SDSun