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.

More photos » by AARON J. LATHAM - AP

about 1 month ago: San Diego Padres' center fielder Tony Gwynn attempts to catch a hit by the Arizona Diamondbacks' Chad Tracy in the sixth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 in Phoenix. The hit was reviewed by officials and was ruled a home run. (AP Photo/Aaron J. Latham)

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• PADRES: Club victimized by improbable duo
  "The telling tale of today's game, we couldn't finish off an inning to get a third out. They got key hits today, from some guys that are not in the middle of their order," Padres manager Bud Black said.

• Gonzalez hits homer No. 40 in loss | padres.com: News
  Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run shot -- his 40th home run of the season -- in the fourth inning of the Padres' 7-4 loss to the D-backs at Chase Field on Sunday.

• Padres head home to close season | padres.com: News
  The Padres head to San Diego for a five-game homestand, which opens on Tuesday against the playoff-bound Dodgers, who are in town for a pair of games. The Giants then come for a three-gamer to end the season.

• D-backs' late slam does in Padres | padres.com: News
  Chad Tracy's grand slam, a solid drive to right-center field off reliever Luke Gregerson, paved the way for an 8-5 D-backs win over the Padres on Saturday night.

• Padres' starters set through Friday | padres.com: News
  Padres manager Bud Black has set up his starting pitching for the next four games, including right-hander Edward Mujica in Sunday's road-schedule closer against the D-backs at Chase Field.

• Hurt by disputed home run, Padres falter in road finale - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "I'm pleased the umpires got together and reviewed it," Black said. "They looked at it from three angles. It was inconclusive to me, although I think Tony might have been able to make a great play."

• Ramos to get his first big league start - SignOnSanDiego.com
  "We're going to skip Tim to take a look at Cesar," Padres manager Bud Black said yesterday.

• Compadres Club Card (1996) " .400 in '94
  This current Frequent Friar BS is lame.

• Chase Headley and the Art of the Comp
  When will Chase Headley show a decent amount of power? Or will he ever?

• Darren & Marty Are Officially Losers
  My official site is twitter.com/Marty1090 so if you want to follow what The Darren Smith Show is up to, feel free to follow.

• SDFriarFan sent me pictures.  He thought that Buckner might have had pine tar on his wrist that he was using between pitches.  It looks more like a birthmark to me.  You be the judge!

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The date was September 28th, 2003, the last time the Padres would play in Qualcomm Stadium. We scored some tickets in the first row on the first base line. I thought I'd share some of Jonny Dub's pictures from that day.

I don't remember too much about the game, I remember all the festivities though. Apparently Jake Peavy pitched too.  A ton of Padres players from our history showed up and took their place on the field wearing their jerseys. Ken Caminiti got huge cheers. Tony Gwynn threw out the last pitch to Bruce Bochy. Mike Darr tragically died during spring training and Gary Matthews Jr. and Phil Nevin carried his son off the field on their shoulders.

Here's the Ducksnorts' post from that day to refresh your own memory.

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

about 1 month ago: San Diego Padres' Tony Gwynn, Jr., follows the flight of his RBI-single against the Colorado Rockies in the eighth inning of the Padres' 5-4 victory in a baseball game on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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• Gregerson's first save no act of piracy - SignOnSanDiego.com
  As teammates offered congratulations, Gregerson was dressing himself as a "pirate hooker." He was not alone. Fourteen Padres rookies dressed in costumes in a ritual almost as much a part of baseball as Opening Day. Best of show: Luis Perdomo, who nailed his role as Tinkerbell.

• Gregerson punctuates series victory | padres.com: News
  Waiting for Gregerson at his locker was a female pirate outfit that was part of the Padres' annual rookie hazing event, where players dress in costumes that are as uncomfortable as they are unbecoming.

• Correia in command to close out year | padres.com: News
  Kevin Correia had already impressed the Padres' brass in his first season in San Diego, but he's pitching even better as the end of the year nears.

• Bell not satisfied with 40-save plateau | padres.com: News
  "To me, this year is a disappointment," Bell said.

• Unfinished Business: Saving The Game
  Thankfully, Heath was unavailable, and Luke Gregerson pitched the bottom of the ninth. I trust Luke a lot more than Heath right now, that's for sure.

• The Sacrifice Bunt: A San Diego Padres Blog " Blog Archive " "I don’t know if we need to do a lot this winter"
  The Padres Pythagorean record puts them at 63-90. Paints a different picture than their current actual 70-83 record, huh?

• PADRES: Hundley helps put crimp in Rockies' postseason hopes
  "It's big for this young club," infielder David Eckstein said. "We are a club that wants to shoot for those clubs and be there next year."

• Friar John's Blog: Affordability the theme of Padres ticket pricing in 2010
  As part of the streamlining of the ticketing proces, the Premium and Advanced pricing will be eliminated. Season ticket holders will find a more flexible payment-plan structure.

• Padres create affordability for 2010 tix | padres.com: News
  Holding true to a mantra that they want to "create affordability," the Padres announced on Thursday that a majority of their tickets for 2010 will either be reduced or remain at the pricing level they were this season.

• Cheaper tickets coming in 2010 - SignOnSanDiego.com
  19,676 individual game tickets will be priced at $21 and below and 8,095 individual game tickets will be priced at $14 and below.

• XX Sports Radio: Bob Scanlan talks baseball (MP3)