Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Dex.

Happy birthday to you.

My gift to Dex is posting this open thread two innings too late.  Go Pads.

I'm sure all of you read the opening day post by jbox, and his take on the demise of the old Compadres Club and launch of the Frequent Friar Rewards Club. 

Just prior to posting that story, jbox and I met for lunch at DZ Akins (a fine jewish deli with the best chopped liver on rye and matzo ball soup).  After he told me the story of how his old Compadres card of 10+ years was worthless, and how the Padres tried to sign him up for their new rewards club for $10, I just about spit up my brisket and pickle all over Ted Leitner's likeness. 

Is it just me, or is this new program insulting on so many levels?  After carefully reading through the new program rules, I quickly realized that the Padres have eliminated an excellent socialist-esque program for one that promotes a capitalist system of rewarding the fans that spend the most money on tickets with the Padres, and not necessarily those that attend the most games...  there is a difference in these two demographics, so let's explore that idea.  Considering the general economic sentiment in this country is growing more negative, you would think that a multi-million dollar organization would be sensitive to the fact that the "average fan" is stretching their dollar even further to enjoy a baseball game. 

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Let's see if my one open thread for the year makes a difference in this playoff race.

Go Padres?  Experience It?

Let's see if my one open thread for the year makes a difference in this playoff race.

Go Padres?  Experience It?

With all this optimistic and pessimistic banter floating around GLB today, I thought I'd post some realistic info on the wild card situation.

If the Pads tie for the wild card with the Phillies or Rockies, the coin toss earlier this month says the following one-game playoffs would take place...

Phillies at Padres  or Padres at Rockies

Just as a reminder, the Padres lost 3 of 4 vs the Phillies in SD, and the Padres lost 5 of 9 vs the Rockies in CO.  

If it's a three-way tie between the Pads, Phillies, and Rockies, or possibly a four-way tie with the Mets in there, it's way too complicated for this blog.

Anyway you look at it, we're screwed.

I know we're all sick of talking about Phil Nevin, and hearing him co-host shows on XX sports radio in San Diego.  I've got a couple of stories that will definitely reinforce the idea that Nevin is a lot like contracting herpes... it will never go away no matter what you do and will flare up on you when you least expect it.

On the Saturday before the Padres game vs Atlanta on ESPN, XX sports radio (Darren Smith, Randy Jones & Phil Nevin) had Peter Gammons on the show.  Nevin asked Gammons about the Padres taking a risk by bringing on Milton Bradley, and how it might affect the team's chemistry.  It was an interesting discussion with Gammons, and he had nothing but the nicest things to say about Bradley (I stand corrected on my previous perception of MB).  He said despite his past blow-ups, Bradley's misunderstood, and he was the most compassionate player while Gammons was recovering from his life-threatening brain aneurysm by always writing him to see how he was doing.  Then Gammons went on to say, "besides, you don't want your team to be vanilla and without drama, right Phil?"  Nevin laughed it off, but I enjoyed hearing Gammons imply that Phil's a prick.

I just heard the other day that Nevin's anger management took a turn for the worse at a Poway National Little League (PNLL) 9-10 year-olds All-star game.

My Local News:

 I heard that someone called into XX sports radio claiming that Nevin was dropping tons of F-bombs to the ump at the top of his voice in front of these kids and their families.   This guy is a class act.

Editor's Note: Due to the response of some readers, we apologize for the picture we previously posted. However, we should all be ashamed of an individual that uses profanity to the worst degree in front of children. This is allegedly what Mr. Nevin did, and for that, we say "Shame on you Phil."

I woke up this morning and I'm relieved to say that the incessant ringing of "Let's go RedSox!" is finally gone.  

As Jbox mentioned, I was at the game yesterday with my Dad, and we were fortunate enough to sit in front of a die hard RedSox fan who flew in that morning to see the game. I kid you not, after the first pitch of the game the guy yells "Let's go RedSox" and my Dad turns and says "Oh no way! We're not doing that all day!"  Dude says "Oh yes we are!"  Turns out he was an okay guy, really knowledgeable on baseball, and not too obnoxious.  But I digress.

Yesterday was brutal on so many levels.  Our ace got rocked, our hitting was inconsistent as usual, and the Padres' 10th man was no where to be seen or heard.  Seriously, WTF?!  Going in to the bottom of the 9th as the RedSox took the field, RS Nation completely owned Petco.  It was ridiculous.  It started bringing back memories of the Chargers loss to the Pats earlier this year.  

There was some consolation in all of this.  We gave it to Big Papi good, and not the other way around.  In the series, he was 1 for 11, 1 hit, 1 RBI, and 5 SOs.  I was unimpressed with Ortiz, and most of Boston's team offensively.   They managed to take the series on our home turf, and owned Petco Park and SD for a weekend.  I'm just glad they're taking their sun-burned arses home to Boston.

As many of you know, the legitimacy of this blog is growing daily in the eyes of the sports community.  Little did we know how much influence we could have on the Padres' front office.   Dex and jbox had this grand idea for a tribute to Tony Gwynn in the form of a statue.  Well, eight statues to be exact.

It turns out, the Padres have agreed to meet us half way (actually 1/8 of the way). They are going to unveil a statue of Mr. Padre himself on July 21st at PETCO Park as Dex mentioned in his parlay last week.

I managed to catch T Gwynn on XX this morning, and when asked what he thought of the concept for the statue, he laughed.  He said it looks real good, and he's very happy with it.

I know we're all wondering what year of his career they chose to represent in the statue.  My guess is it will be T Gwynn slapping a shot in the 5.5 hole in his early years.  

I know it's been months since I contributed to this blog, but I just remembered why.  The Padres don't inspire me.  There's no excitement, no passion, no drama.  

According to Scott Miller over at CBS Sportsline, drama doesn't hurt, it helps. 

So this begs the question of who on the Padres is ready to throw down for the benefit of the team, AND the fans for another NL pennant?  Here's my list of match-ups that I'd pay money to see...

Cruiserweight division (El Cajon style):
Brian "Broadway" Giles  vs  Marcus "Jamacha" Giles

Heavyweight division:
Adrian "La Posta" Gonzalez  vs  Paul "Chunk" McAnulty    

Special match to the death:
Greg "The Professor" Maddux  vs  David "Fat Man" Wells

I was in Boulder yesterday for business, and managed to catch the Pads v Rockies game.  All these pics are from the suite we had for the game - which is on par if not better then the Western Metal Supply suites at Petco.  





There was maybe 20,000 people at this game, but it felt like 50,000 after Hoffman gave up that HR in the 9th.  Balls were flying out of this place last night, and the stadium lived up to its rep.