As promised, I have put together a Fantasy League for Gaslamp Ball on Yahoo! Sports. Currently, we're set for up to 16 teams, with the draft scheduled for Sunday March 25 at 3 pm pst/6 pm est. At this point, I am allowing entry on a first come, first served basis.

As of right now, we are using standard Yahoo rules with a Head-to-Head competition format. I encourage discussion in the comments if you feel there is something we can do better than the defaults. More, including League Name and Password, after the jump.

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I know it's still a full NINE DAYS until Fan Fest, but it's always good to plan ahead. Are we planning any sort of meetup there like we did last year and the year before? It's always fun to meet up with the GLBers (because my "real" friends don't like to go to these sorts of things) and commune with the best group of baseball fans there is.

If we do meetup, I'll be the one in either the striped jersey (though I may look for ANOTHER ONE) or probably one of the elite few who would have the LOST retired numbers shirt on. I may or may not have people with me, and may or may not have a camera which would result in people getting there pictures taken to show my parents at home that i do indeed have friends, even if they are from a Padres blog.

Anyway, Cheers people!

greekpadre

I know many of you here at GLB, including some frequent contributors to this blog, have had plenty to say about what music they would like to hear played at the stadium. I must admit, I never weighed in to much, as music was not really my specialty

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Last Fall, along with the unveiling of the Padres' new major league uniforms, Tom Garfinkel announced the Padres Little League Initiative, a program aimed at providing uniforms to local little league teams. On Friday afternoon, Mentor announced that the little league uniforms have arrived, ready to be worn by 10,000 kids in San Diego County.

(See his tweets here, here, and here.)

In response to a blog post by BP over at Lobshots, Mentor explained that the uniforms were custom made by Majestic, many with sewn-on logos. Also, the unis will come with matching hats.

This has to be one of the best community outreach programs the Padres have ever done. I can't wait to start seeing little leaguers around San Diego sporting badass uniforms from all the different eras of Padres history. It almost makes me want to find a kid on a little league team and steal his jersey from him. But that would be creepy so of course I wouldn't do that. Anyway, these look awesome. Kudos to Tom Garfinkel and the Padres organization for making this happen!

[Note by jodes0405, 01/31/12 2:51 PM PST ] UPDATE:

Sort of Padres related, and definitely baseball in San Diego related. University of San Diego has announced that after the current baseball season they will be replacing the current Cunningham Stadium with a brand new state of the art ballpark. The change is being driven by the fact that 1,200 seat, no lights, Cunningham Stadium is not up to NCAA D1 standards and cannot host post season play. The new park, to be named Fowler Park is going to be built on the site of Cunningham Stadium. They hired Populous (HOK Sport), the same guys who designed PETCO to design it and the results are pretty spectacular for a college venue.

The new park will feature lights for night games, 1,700 regular fixed seats with expansion room for up to 3,000 to host post season play. It will also feature a new entry plaza next to Jenny Craig Pavilion rather than just the handicap ramp the current stadium uses. It also is going to have 2 suites, a kids party deck, and a new clubhouse with new offices and locker rooms for the coaches and players. The whole thing will end up costing around $13 million almost all of it courtesy of the Fowler family (for whom the ballpark is named and I've been informed are part owners of the Pads). To continue honoring ex-coach Cunningham however the field itself will now be named Cunningham Field. Overall it's a great addition to the two great venues we already have in San Diego for baseball at PETCO Park and Tony Gwynn Stadium at SDSU. Opening day is slated for 2013.

via media.utsandiego.com

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/28/new-yard-next-year-usd/?page=2#article

So I read an article the other day that stated the owner of the Houston Astros is considering a uniform and name change when the team migrates to the American League. That got me to thinking about what other names would befit a San Diego basball team; what if the Padres weren't called the Padres? Obviously the name would be associated with something about San Diego. What the hell is San Diego known for? Its weather? Beaches? Its proximity to Tijuana? Fish tacos?!?!? I cannot think of a better name for our fair city's baseball team. However, Gaslamp Ball has much more creative thinkers than I. I present for your consideration a hypothetical name change for the Padres. Names cannot be variations of 'Padres' (e.g. Friars, and...well, that's the only one I can think of right now).

So, I've had these dreams involving the padres and a top hat twice now. I think it's time I jot it down.

The first dream was a few months back. Maybe even a year.

I live in Nevada which has no state lottery. My friend had just returned from Arizona with some lottery tickets we agreed to split. Well, I dreamed about winning the lottery. The first thing I did with my lottery money was buy a condo at The Legend overlooking Petco Park.

The next thing I did was buy full season tickets in the dugout seats. For whatever reason, I saw it as important that I be seen on tv. I wanted to be the guy you thought of when you think of Padres games. I must admit some inspiration came from that guy on the dirty doggers who used to do the speed gun behind the backstop.

Anyways, I decided that wearing a top hat to every game would get me the attention I deserved. It worked. I was talked about on the tv broadcast and was generally known around town.

Last night's dream continued the story. I was becoming too famous as "Top Hat Guy". People in the stands started wearing top hats too. Though some people would only put on their top hat in the later innings in order to start rallies. I got a bit sick of going to local gaslamp restaurants and people recognizing me. I tried walking around town without the top hat, but I was still getting harassed by fans who wanted to take pictures with me. I did get lots of free beers though.

The dream ends with my friends inviting me to The Tilted Kilt and me trying to decide whether or not I want to bother being out in public.

As I got comfy to watch the NFC title game last evening on FOX, I happened to catch a pre-game interview with self-professed Padres fan , 49er QB Alex Smith. Much to my DISGUST he was wearing a SF Giants ballcap!!! What? Why Alex, WHY????????? Did they make you, or have you sod-out to the city you play in???? I live on the East Coast (Ct.) and I've been a Padres fan since 1973 despite hearing it from Yankees, Mets and Red Sox fans. I was pulling for you, but if you've turned to the dark side I 'm glad you lost!

Is it me or will no self respecting Padres fan buy this game? First of all, Gonzo, really? Second of all a team who choked hard in the playoffs? Get out of here. Screw ESPN and their video games. I can't believe they'd put him on there to begin with and of all the Red Sox players they pick him? You have GOT to be kidding me. I, for one, will be avoiding this game this year. I don't know about the rest of you all, but anything with that sellout on it isn't worth buying.

The tweetup took place at Bub's at the Ballpark. That's on 7th and J, for those that haven't seen it before. It's a 21 and up bar, which I thought kind of made it a weird choice for this sort of thing. In my mind I expected the place to be mostly empty on a Wednesday and there to be a specific area for the tweetup. Not the case. Most seats were full and it wasn't until I started wandering that I practically ran into Josh Byrnes getting chatted up by Jim Laslovic.

I was kind of milling around, saying "Hi" to a fellow Padres fan, Scott, who I've met a few times. Then, Josh Ishoo whose listed title is "Coordinator, Media Relations" approaches us and wants us to meet Trader Josh. We kind of hovered as Laz and Byrnes built up their relationship, but eventually got in and shook the man's hand.

My expectations for this thing was not to end up having an up-close-and-personal conversation with the Padres GM. I guess that was naive of me. At one point I had thought about having some questions prepared just in case, but I really didn't. I also didn't know what kind of answers to expect.

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