Tom DeLonge has spent decades in front of screaming crowds, but Tuesday night the screaming was coming from the seats around him — and it got to him.
As the San Diego Padres headed into the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 3 of their playoff series against the Milwaukee Brewers, Fox cameras found the Blink-182 frontman in the stands while the Petco Park faithful sang along to “All the Small Things” over the stadium speakers. According to Breitbart, DeLonge visibly got emotional as the sing-along washed over him.
It wasn’t a random moment. The Padres have played the Blink-182 track before the eighth inning at every home game, a tradition that has outlasted whatever the standings looked like. This time, though, the stakes were higher — a playoff game, a home crowd facing elimination — and the cameras happened to land on the guy who wrote the song.
A hometown crowd and a familiar face
DeLonge isn’t a celebrity guest dropping in for a night. He grew up in suburban San Diego, and he’s a regular at Petco Park, frequently spotted in the seats behind home plate. He’s even thrown out a first pitch during a playoff series, so the ballpark and the ballplayer-adjacent rituals aren’t new territory for him.
Still, watching tens of thousands of people sing your words back at you — in your hometown, during a postseason game your team needs to win — is a different experience than taking the mound for a ceremonial toss.
The moment clearly landed. Video of DeLonge reacting as the crowd carried the chorus circulated quickly after the broadcast cut to him.
The song may have helped
The sing-along seemed to give the home team a lift. San Diego went on to beat Milwaukee 4-3, staving off elimination and keeping the series alive for at least another day. Whether the eighth-inning tradition deserves any credit for the result is a question for superstition, but the Padres will take the win either way.
The two teams will meet again Wednesday night. San Diego will send Walker Buehler to the mound, while Milwaukee has not yet announced its starter.
The bigger picture
For the Padres, the win was about survival. For DeLonge, it was an accidental spotlight — one of those broadcast moments that has nothing to do with X’s and O’s and everything to do with why people keep showing up to ballgames.
The Blink-182 co-founder has been in the news for other reasons in recent years, but Tuesday he was just another Padres fan in a playoff crowd, briefly overwhelmed by the sound of his own song coming back at him.
The moment also underlined how thoroughly “All the Small Things” has become part of the Padres’ home-game fabric. What started as a between-innings music choice has turned into a ritual that players and fans anticipate, and one that now has a signature postseason image attached to it.
San Diego’s season continues Wednesday. If the Padres force a Game 5, there will presumably be another eighth inning, another chorus, and another chance for the ballpark to remind DeLonge exactly where he’s from.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2026/10/07/watch-blink-182-star-tom-delonge-gets-emotional-as-padres-fans-sing-all-the-small-things/