I recently found an archive of 3 years worth of old emails from 1998 to 2001. The basic premise behind "Before the Blog" is that I search the emails for references to the Padres and then post one of the emails each week for our collective enjoyment.
This email comes from a time when our buddy Kev (the third admin of Gaslamp Ball who doesn't do anything) was apparently a really big Jim Rome fan. After the Padres beat Houston in the NLDS, he crafted this letter hoping it'd become Rome's "Big Fax of the Day".
I sent this old email to Kev seeking his permission to reprint it here and he noticed a couple of interesting things. He was like "I was a really intense Padres fan back then. I was probably a bigger fan than you chumps." (Kev is always really disrespectful to us.) He also thinks he coined the phrase "Padres Fan Since '76" which would later become the name of our original blog.
Also you'll notice that we've been calling Gwynn, "Tony The Gwynn" for a long time.
Mon 10/5/1998 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: Big Fax
All I know is that if San Diego beats Atlanta
and goes to the World Series, I'm calling the
show. Anyways, here's my addition to the big
fax:
The Big Unit comes to Houston and is supposed
to win playoff games. The Killer Bee's are
supposed to hit the ball and provide run support.
And the San Diego Padres and their supposedly
band-wagon fans, are supposed to get punked
in the division series. The Padres pitching is
supposed to get lit up by Houston and
Tony The Gwynn is supposed to come back the
next season fifty pounds heavier and keep
his hopes alive that maybe, just maybe, the
Padres will make it to the playoffs again.
I mean hell, it's been fourteen God forsaken
years since the Friars from Mission Valley have
won a playoff game. And what do they do, they
punk Houston in their own crib and take it in
four games. Enough about the Padres, because
put simply, they are going to take this NLCS.
Props to Bell and Bagwell for sucking so bad.
My sympathies go out to ESPN. I mean, they
carry the first three Houston-San Diego games
which were by far the best post-season games
yet. Then those lucky sons of bitches at Fox
get the fourth game which is even better than
the previous three and shows San Diego going
Yard on Houston. What's fresh is Jim Leyritz
going deep three games in a row, and what is
not fresh is Tim McCarver opening his pie hole
on national TV.
Shut up you washed up hick and don't try and
make like you know what you are talking about,
because you don't.
Padre Fan since '76
Kevin in San Diego
Kev wants to make it clear that he's more of a Dan Patrick guy now, he's distanced himself from Rome. I should probably make it clear that I wish Kev was still a passionate Padres fan.