Gaslamp Ball will occasionally provide endorsements and judgments in the world of baseball and beyond. Should Gaslamp Ballers need to cast a vote or require an official opinion, look for Gaslamp Ball Proclamations first to see what our official stance is. Thank you.

After thinking about all of the special times that GM Kevin Towers has had with the Padres, Gaslamp Ball has come to the conclusion that he should remain in employ with the team not only for next season, but the season after and into perpetuity. While he remains of this Earth, no decision should ever be made in regards to the Padres' player personnel without first consulting Mr. Towers.

Should Kevin Towers, at a later date, become obviously unfit for the position of General Manager, we'll probably have to stage a coup.  

• It's Ghandi's birthday today.  "You must be the change you want to see in the world."  I'm only going to wear Retro Padres gear from now on.  If you see me wearing Sand and Blue colors around, you can punch Dex in the back of the head.

• When do the Padres release single game ticket prices?  I'm interested to hear if you can still buy the $5 Park at the Park tickets.  When Garfinkel says "We have eliminated advanced pricing and premium pricing – there is now only one individual game price."  I know that probably means that the Park at the Park tickets will probably be like $8 now.
• I'll also be interested to hear if they bring back the 5 for $5 promotion.  I really seriously doubt it, it's too good to be true.  A boy can dream though.  The last few games I've noticed that the Food Service crew can't serve large crowds quickly.  I hope they do something to remedy that.  Are they still using all volunteer employees?  When the crowd is over 20K or so, it takes at least an inning and to get your food, too long if you ask me.
• You can tell a lot about someone by how they throw a baseball.  No matter how much you look up to someone, if you see that they can't throw a baseball properly doesn't that affect the way you think about them?  If I was running a baseball club, I'd play catch with all my employees just to see where they stood.
• This Dodgers / Rockies series is True Blue LA and Purple Row  reminisce about the Padres / Dodgers series from 1996.  It's funny hearing Dodger fans try and convince you that it didn't matter to them that the Dodgers were swept because both teams still made the playoffs and both were swept in the playoffs.  Oh... it mattered.  Trust me, I was in the stands for that final game of the season in Dodger Stadium and it mattered to their fans.  
• I'll be completely honest with and say that I have not been excited about this team until probably this week.  I just hope they don't go soft in this last series, I need to have fond memories of them going into the winter break.
• The Padres should turn the Park at the Park into a cemetery with recessed grave markings. They could probably make some pretty good money selling the plots to loyal Padres fans.  Maybe turn that empty Candy Factory next door into a mausoleum.

Lt. Amy Tomlinson sure looks like Kevin Towers

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• Giles still hoping for better ending - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "Hopefully, maybe, we'll see," Giles said. "It's not important for me to go out and have one last at-bat, just in case it is the last time I play in San Diego. I'd just like to get a couple at bats. It probably won't happen, but we'll see."

• Padres' housecleaning may include Towers - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "When we signed on, we said 2009 was a season of assessment," Moorad said recently. "The assessment continues. We have some strength there (baseball operations). There is likely some room for change."

• GM Towers faces uncertain future | padres.com: News
  "There's no guarantee that we're going to be contending [in 2010], but what I've seen the last two or three months is we have young players who have shown that they belong here and that they are comfortable up here," Towers said this week.

• Padres won’t confirm job status of GM Kevin Towers
  "I have spent the last 25 years in some form or fashion with this organization," Towers said to XX-1090. "I’d like to stay here. Jeff has not given me any indication of his decision."

• insidethepadres: Towers update
  I highly doubt that Moorad wants a puppet for a GM. I'd be stunned if Moorad envisions himself as a de facto GM. Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch, who is close to Moorad, said in June that Moorad is a big-picture guy who "has a long-term vision" and "knows what he doesn't know."

• PADRES: Towers left to wonder about '10
  Moorad said in an email to MLB.com regarding Towers' comments. "At this point, Kevin is our general manager and is under contract through the 2010 season."

• Friar John's Blog: K.T. takes to the skies
  "Those guys are amazing athletes," Towers said of Walborn and his fellow pilots. "I'm trying not to pass out as we're at 5, 6 G's, and they're up there without G suits, talking and everything. I felt like I had worked out for about three hours. I was completely exhausted."

• Padres 2009: A season in review
  The Padres 40th season has brought about plenty of frustration and disappointment but ends with real hope for a better 2010.

• Vic Salazar: Youth give Padres potential pot of gold
  First of all, center field needs to be upgraded. Tony Gwynn, Jr. may be the son of a legend, but he is not the type of up-the-middle player that can power and run a team to a title. Second base remains an enigma. Yes, David Eckstein has been signed for another year. He provides great leadership and is a mentor to Cabrera, but he doesn’t provide enough offense to help the team get over the hump.

• Restless Latos learning from dugout | padres.com: News
  "To me [not pitching] is like fasting, going a day without eating. No matter who you are ... it's hard to do," Latos said this week. "It's eating away at me. But at the same time, I understand."

• Padres Finishing On A High Note
  Chris likes what he sees from the Padres as they continue to slay the contenders in the NL West, while Craig also notices how L.A. is coasting across the finish line

XX Sports Radio: Kevin Towers Interview (MP3) with Darren Smith

• Towers flew with the Blue Angles yesterday.  "It was an incredible experience."  He didn't barf.
• The Padres are finding ways to win each and every night.  The young players are no longer in survival mode, they believe they can play in the big leagues.  "This has been one of the better bunches I've been around in a while."
• Kevin Towers considers '98 to be his best work, but that was a veteran club.  This is the youngest club Towers has had in his 14 years.  "We finally have a team that fits Petco Park."  The 2009 team is a lot like the '96 and '98 clubs because they may not be favored to win, but they expect to win.  Bud Black had his best year as a manager.  The coaching and scouting staff has done a good job too.
• "I'm contractually obligated to the club until the 2010 season."  He's glad he didn't leave the organization in 2005.  Towers wants to be part of the club.  Ownership will make the decisions about baseball operations after the season.  "My relationship with Jeff [Moorad]and Tom [Garfinkel] has been good.  The working relationship is great. I'm smart enough to know that when new people come in they want new people to run things."
• Towers doesn't know when decisions will be made.  The month of October is usually a busy month for Baseball Operations.  He doesn't know if a decision has been made yet about bringing him back.
• "There have been no assurance beyond this year."  He's going to give them everything he has as long as he's here.
•  "I haven't lost a lot of sleep, I keep my head down and my boots on, until they tell me to take those boots off, I'm going to keep wearing them."
• "I'm not surprised by anything Darren.  I'm certainly -- this is kind of where I want to be, but if something were to happen, I have a lot of confidence in my ability that I'm going to be sitting in a GM chair somewhere if it's not in San Diego."
• "In the 2008 season we rolled over in May and never came out of it."  Towers is really happy with the way the 2009 team has finished strong.  "There is definitely a big light on at the end of the tunnel."  He's hoping that the Padres will be popping champagne in a couple years.

Garfinkel and Ramos probably talking about busing in fans from Mexico to Petco Park.

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• Padres' top Draft pick to have surgery | padres.com: News
  Outfielder Donavan Tate, the Padres' first-round choice in June's First-Year Player Draft, will have surgery next week in Los Angeles to repair a pubic bone stress reaction that has troubled him for the past month and a half.

• Padres top pick Donavan Tate suffers injury, will miss Arizona fall league
  Tate — who has not played since late spring — will undergo surgery next Wednesday in Inglewood for torn tendons in his pubic bone area.

• No celebrating for Dodgers at Petco Park - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "It's great, man," said Kouzmanoff, whose three-run homer in the third gave the Padres a 4-0 lead. "We're going out and playing hard. We didn't want them celebrating on our field ... it's tough to watch another team celebrate, because you want to be the one to celebrate."

• Richard, Padres blank LA on one-hitter | padres.com: News
  Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a three-run home run on Wednesday, and Clayton Richard tossed seven shutout innings as the Padres defeated the Dodgers, 5-0, at PETCO Park.

• Friar John's Blog: Tijuana mayor visits PETCO Park
  The Padres had a special guest at PETCO Park on Tuesday night to watch their 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos led a delegation of city officials who were guests of Padres Vice Chairman/CEO Jeff Moorad and President/COO Tom Garfinkel.

• Correia looking at considerable raise - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "I haven't thought too much about my contract," Correia said. "I haven't looked at any numbers or even discussed any possibilities with my agent. That's for after the season.

• PADRES NOTES: Multipurpose Blanco open to 2010 return
  "If I get the chance to come back, definitely," Blanco said. "It's a good group of guys, good group of young guys and I'm willing to come back. We'll see how everything works out. I enjoyed it. I've enjoyed this year and being around Nick and these guys. It's been a great opportunity."

• Correia opens final series vs. old team | padres.com: News
  Maybe it's only fitting that the Padres begin their final series of the regular season by throwing their unlikely staff ace, Kevin Correia.

• Ramos to start season finale for Padres | padres.com: News
  The Padres needed a starter for their regular-season finale on Sunday, and the fact that rookie left-hander Cesar Ramos pitched well enough in his first start Tuesday made it easy on the Padres to give him another start.

• Unfinished Business: 5-0 :)
  I love my boys so much!!

• Perpetual Padres Saga: Few inches away from finish line
  I'm going to Friday's game at Petco against the Giants. I'm 1-1 this season.

• XX Sports Radio: Bob Scanlan (MP3)
  To keep Scan and Coach's home lives peaceful, this weekly segment and their Saturday show have to happen. Otherwise, they'd talk their wives ears off about baseball. Honestly, these two don't talk about anything else, even off the air. It's baseball, baseball, and more baseball. So get your fix now.

More photos » by Lenny Ignelzi - AP

about 1 month ago: Los Angeles Dodgers' Manny Ramirez strikes out for the second time in the ninth inning of the Dodgers 5-0 loss to the San Diego Padres in a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The Padres swept the two game series and prevented the Dodgers from clinching the division. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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Went to the game tonight. Padres killed the Dodgers. Unless the Dodgers wake up somehow, they are going to struggle in the postseason.

Kouzmanoff hit a home run that got out of the ballpark in a hurry. The Padres in general hit the ball really well and played solid defense. Combine that with a combined one hitter and the Dodgers go home feeling sad. More importantly, Dodger fans go home feeling sad. That's right, Dodger Fan. I celebrate your misery.

We ran into Steve Quis after the game. It was good to see him again. JBox spotted Pad Squad Loxie one section over from us and was yelling to get her attention, but she ignored us for the most part.

Last home games. So sad! So sad!

More photos » by Lenny Ignelzi - AP

about 1 month ago: San Diego Padres' Kevin Kouzmanoff, center, Adrian Gonzalez, right, and Luke Gregerson high five after the Padres 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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That was a fun game. These last two nights at the park have had electric crowds.  San Diego was so psyched to stop the Dodgers from celebrating in our ballpark.

Tom Garfinkel gave Dex and I a couple tickets in that dugout section down by first base.  Man those are nice seats.  They had all this free food for us, but we weren't sure if it was free so at first we were kind of careful of what we were ordering and then when we realized we weren't being billed we got a little carried away.  Here's a question: How do you tip your server?  Is it 15% of your ticket price?  Is it 15% of the approximate price of what you ate?  Is there some other rule?  We went with the latter.

Those seats down there have those little fold out desks, I felt like I should have brought a scantron with me to take a test.  Dex busted out his computer and we hacked into the media's wifi, so we could live blog and tweet.  Oh the good times we had.

Did you dudes, see that Kevin Kouzmanoff home run?  That was like one of those light cycles from Tron. 

Man, Clayton Richard is so good.  He one hit them Dodgers for what 7 innings?  I'd like to see Peavy try and do that!

Let's see, what else happened?  We saw Steve Lyons, he was just standing around, probably all excited about covering the Dodgers clinching the NL West.  Not so fast Lyons!  Not on our watch!

After the game we waved to Steve Quis who was interviewing Kouz for the Channel 4 Postgame.  He came over and shook our hands and we talked about the good times we had hanging out back in the day.  We told him to pass along our "hellos" to Scan and Weisbarth and to wink at Jenny Cavnar.

While we were talking to him and people were exiting we suddenly notice that the Petco Park sound system is once again playing Bob Dylan's "Wigwam" (video) as the exit music.  I told Dex, "I think Garfinkel is teasing us".

Dex has some pictures on his phone.  I think they are mostly of the back of Steve Lyons' head though.

You know what was weird?  Right at the very end of the game with one out in the 9th, an Usher yelled at a Padres fan to sit down and stop cheering.  Not sure what was going on there.

As we were walking out one of the security guards gave us knuckles and said "Not in our town Dodgers!  This is our town!"  Word.

Thanks to Tom for the tickets.  Good times.

At Tuesday nights game we had an impromptu Gaslamp Ball Tweet-up.  We got on twitter and asked if any followers were going to be at the game and when people started responding we decided that we should meet up or...tweet up out at the Tony Gwynn Statue right as the 6th inning started.  We were a little late getting over there, but the tweet-up was a success because people actually showed up. 

Look here, we got our picture taken:

Everybody was real nice and very knowledgeable about the Padres.  Though things got a little out of control towards the end when out of nowhere, the Impromptu Tweet-Up turned into an impromptu hill rolling festival featuring xtina and matto619.

This is how we roll!

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Tony Gwynn Jr.

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• Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | Gwynn talks about the joys of playing for the Padres - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia
  Tony Gwynn Jr. talks about playing for his hometown team

• Friar John's Blog: K.T. to fly with the Blue Angels
  "I consider myself a military buff," Towers said. "I like to read a lot of miliary magazines, and I have the utmost respect for those who serve in jets and on aircraft carriers. To be in the back of an F-18 Hornet with the top aviators in the world, it's exciting."

• Black expects staff to stay intact - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "It's pretty safe to say they'll all be back if they want to return," said Black, who himself has had his contract extended through the end of the 2010 season.

• Ramos helps keep Dodgers' celebration on ice - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "To pitch against that team and work against that lineup, I was pretty nervous that first inning. But this is great.

• PADRES: Party Poopers
  "We're not in the hunt. It's fun to go out and hurt them ---- to disrupt their chances."

• PADRES NOTES: Rookie Blanks glad to give his boot the boot
  "I'll definitely be more personally aware of what I'm doing," Blanks, who hit .250 with 10 homers and 22 RBIs, said Tuesday. "I'll be doing some more exercises to make sure for precautionary reasons so that it doesn't happen again. ... There's no 100 percent insurance that it can't happen again, but anything that can help with that, I'm more than willing to do."

• LA native Ramos helps deny Dodgers | padres.com: News
  Kevin Kouzmanoff broke a tie with an RBI single in the sixth inning on Tuesday to help lift the Padres to a 3-1 victory over the Dodgers at PETCO Park.

• Kouzmanoff returns after long layoff | padres.com: News
  Never in his wildest imagination did Kevin Kouzmanoff think he would miss 17 games when he was felled by a strained calf on Sept. 8 against the Giants.

• Richard set for final start of season | padres.com: News
  In his last start, Padres pitcher Clayton Richard finished fast, tossing five shutout innings against the Rockies after allowing a three-run home run in the first inning. Richard will attempt to finish fast in a different way on Wednesday, when he makes his final start of the season against the Dodgers at PETCO Park.

• Friars offer 'Shirts Off Their Backs' | padres.com: News
  Gone are the days when Jim Saxton had to peddle scratcher tickets for the Padres annual "Shirts Off Their Backs," the fund-raiser that benefits the Padres Foundation for Children.

• XX Sports Radio: Kevin Kouzmanoff (MP3)
  Kouz discussed why it's important for the team to finish strong, not wanting to watch LA clinch @ Petco & what he's taking from this season personally.
• XX Sports Radio: Grady Fuson (MP3)
  VP of Padres Scouting and Player Development discusses the team, injury situations, the Dodgers, and more.

• Padres Notes: Gonzalez, Bell, Latos: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com
  Goldstein quotes one front-office official hailing rookie Mat Latos as a potential ace if his change-up develops more. “Seeing him in person was one of those ‘holy [crap]’ moments,” the official said.

More photos » by Lenny Ignelzi - AP

about 1 month ago: San Diego Padres relief pitcher Heath Bell reacts after striking out the side in the ninth inning to save the Padres' 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009, in San Diego. The Padres' victory prevented the Dodgers from clinching the National League West title. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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If there's one thing we all know and love, it's that beating the Dodgers makes us feel super happy.

if there's another thing that we all know and are slightly weirded out by, it's Heath Bell. Seriously. I'm not the only one who finds Heath Bell mildly creepy for some reason, am I? I'm pretty sure I like the guy, but I wouldn't turn my back on him. There's a wild animal in there somewhere.