Tagged: chargers
Spring Training Countdown: 8 Days!!!! (Plus a Rant!)
Guess who’s wearing #8 right now? Kyle Blanks! What a coincidence. Here I was going to talk about our center field situation, and an outfielder is wearing number eight. Anyways.
I kind of talked about it yesterday, but I think that Scotty Hairston and Tony Gwynn are going to be the main guys in center field. Who’s going to be starting Opening Day? Probably Tony Gwynn. But you never know.
Yay for only EIGHT more days!! It’s officially one week until the charity game, by the way. I bet the guys are super excited.
Now I need to talk about Adrian Gonzalez. He’s seriously breaking San Diego’s hearts. I mean, it was bad enough that the Chargers released LaDainian Tomlinson a couple days ago.
We are going to miss you so much, LT. Thanks for all the memories and the amazing years of being a Charger.
I hate it when this happens to San Diego sports teams. The Chargers released him. They dumped him, kicked him off the team. They didn’t want him anymore. And that’s really hard on the fan, just to know that their front office didn’t think enough of that player who meant so much to them.
I wasn’t that attached to LT, like he wasn’t my all-time favorite player. But hey, he was San Diego football. Everyone looked up to him, and he was one of the greatest guys ever to play Chargers football. And he was here for NINE years! It didn’t really matter if you had another player on the team who was your favorite, LT was like an automatic favorite.
I’m telling you people, this is the exactly same situation as the Trevor Hoffman situation. I remember being so frustrated with people after he got released because everyone seemed to care more about LT then Trevor, saying that LT was the better person and player. I used to even resent LT a little because he seemed to be a lot more popular than Trevor. I know that there were a lot of huge Trevor fans out there and that a lot of people were very upset when he left the team, but I wasn’t really seeing it as much as I saw, “oh my goodness, we need to keep LT!”
But both of these situations are exactly the same. Player gets older, but still can play phenomenaly, is a huge icon to the fans and to the city, and the front office doesn’t want to spare the money to keep him, so they just kick him out. It was like that with Trevor last year, and it’s like that this week with LT. It makes you very, very angry at the front office.
I was a huge fan of Trevor Hoffman. I was outraged at the way the front office disposed of him. Man. I was not happy at all that they didn’t even try to get him back. It was absolutely horrible. I understand that this is a business, but I don’t believe that it’s a good business decision to kick out a freaking icon!
So anyways, then Adrian has to come out with this little whining speech about how we have to win a championship or pay him the money he deserves or else he’s outta here.
I totally understand that he wants more money. A player of his caliber deserves a lot more than he’s getting right now. And I’m sure he’s thinking about his family and his foundation and stuff like that. I don’t think that he’s demanding the money just to be selfish, but he does have a right to. He should be getting much, much more right now. But I also know that at this point, the Padres probably aren’t going to be willing to part with the money that he should be getting. So, Adrian’s probably heading out the door.
If we’re not over .500 by the second half of the season, he’s going to get traded. If we can stay above .500 and be somewhere near first place, I’ll think the Padres will risk keeping him so that we can make a push towards the playoffs. I guess we’ll just have to see how this team pulls together and how they do in the first half.
But the point is, THANKS A LOT ADRIAN!! This is just what we needed to lift our spirits this week and to have a happy outlook on the season!
Like I said about LT, Adrian’s like an automatic favorite for the Padres fan. He’s an amazing player and a great person. But we have to win the World Series this year, or else he’s gone. But you know what, I have a feeling that even if we did win the World Series this year (right), Adrian would still be out the door. We just can’t afford him.
So enjoy having Adrian here for the next few months. ‘Cause he’s not going to be here much longer.
EIGHT MORE DAYS!! WHOOHOOO!!
GO PADRES!!!
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Catching Up…
First of, I would like to respond to a comment made by padres2050 a few days ago on my entry Baseball Q and A. The first question was, why do I think that we are improved enough to make the postseason this year? I think that we’ll make the postseason this year because of what we saw in the second half of the season last year. If we had played like that all year, we would have either been in the postseason or very, very close. Now, things are going to be a little different than they were last year, with the addition of the Hairston brothers and the subtraction of Kevin Kouzmanoff, but I still think that we’re going to be very good this year.
Plus, these are tough times for a San Diego sports fan. The Chargers have failed us for 50 years, and the Padres have failed us for 40. Thankfully, the Little League kids were finally able to do something big for San Diego, but I think we’re all getting just a little frustrated with the Chargers and Padres. We need to have some kind of hope and something’s gotta give here. Really soon.
Buddy Black is a great manager, and I personally think that he is one of the very best. I believe that it’s not his fault that we did so terribly the past two season, but that the stupid front office didn’t give him the pieces that he needed to make this team good. I know that in some cases you can blame the state of the team on the manager, but I don’t believe that that’s applicable in this situation. I love Buddy because he doesn’t yell at his players, he’s got a great relationship with them, and he plays smart baseball. He knows when to get fired up if he has to, but most of the time he just stays quiet. I think that a good quality of a manager is to keep the attention and focus on his players, and not on his fiery temper.
Number 1, I am a Padres fan. My loyalties go to the Padres first before anything. But I also am a huge fan of the game of baseball. It’s so amazing! Unfortunately, my family does not believe in watching TV of any sort, so the only way for me to follow sports is to listen to the games or check things out on the internet. Believe me, if I was able to, I would have to MLB Network and be watching it 24/7!!
I read many, many blogs here as much as possible. The blogosphere has been growing so much that it’s getting hard to read all of them! In terms of Padres blogs, Perpetual Padres Saga, Gaslamp Ball, RJ’s Fro, and The Friar Faithful are essential daily reading.
I can’t thank you guys enough for all your support!!!
So Kouz settled his contract with the A’s yesterday. He’s getting $3.1 million for the year!
Last year with the Padres, he made $432,000.
Jeff Moorad said that trading him had nothing to do with money, but I don’t believe it. There is absolutely no way the Padres would have given him that much money this year. Oh well.
I guess I should talk a little about the Hairston Brothers! We got Scotty Hairston back when we traded Kouz, which was kind of weird for me. I absolutely love Scotty. He was one of the best players in ’07 and ’08. I’ll never forget his walk-off homers after we got him in the middle of 2007 from the Diamondbacks. That was definitely a mistake on Arizona’s part. Because of him, we almost overtook them for the NL West!
Anyways, he is just a really amazing player. I always got so excited when he came up to bat late in a game with the score really close. I was pretty sad when we traded him to the A’s last season.
Now, I’m glad that we have him back, but you know, I lost Kouz. It’s just not as exciting as it would have been if the circumstances were different.
So then the next day we find out that we signed Jerry Hairston Jr.!! The Padres are kind of like the team of family reunions. We’ve had a lot of brother combinations on this team, most recently including Brian and Marcus Giles and Adrian and Edgar Gonzalez.
The GilesBros. only lasted a year. The GonzoBros. only lasted a year too. Let’s see how long the HairBros. last.
It’s going to be pretty cool to see them together, though. I’m really excited. I’m huge HairBros. fans, so it’s going to be so sweet to see them on the same team. Those guys are adorable.
I can’t believe the stupid Chargers!! It’s so crazy how they had the 11 game winning streak and it’s our year and all that and then they go a lose the very first playoff game. So stupid!!!!! Argh. I am just so frustrated about that. Not cool at all. San Diego needs some major help, that’s for sure. Goodness.
Well, I think that’s all I have for today. Miss you, Kouz 😦
GO PADRES!!! GO KOUZ!!!!!
Padres Sign Correia
We signed Kevin Correia to a one-year deal on Saturday, but did not get anything done with Heath Bell, Mike Adams, or Kevin Kouzmanoff…yet.
I am very glad that we will have Correia with us again this year. We signed him to a minor league deal last offseason, but he became one of our most consistent starting pitchers over the season. He became our ace when Jake Peavy was traded. It was great to have him in the rotation and I can’t wait to see what else he’ll do for us next year. Welcome back, Kevin.
But now the Padres have a little work to do: sign Bell, Adams, and Kouzmanoff to contracts for next year +. These guys have just been huge for the Padres in the last few years, and it would be a crying shame to lose any of them. Hopefully, we will be able to get these guys safe and signed up by Christmas. I’m waiting in nervous anticipation for them all to get locked up. I do not want to lose any of them, and I’m probably not going to relax until they’re safely signed. Get on it, front office, and for goodness sakes, don’t trade any of them!
On a different subject, how ’bout them Chargers? They’re on an eight-game winning streak, and I really think that this is our year. I think we’re going to the Super Bowl. It’s gonna be so sweet.
Also, happy one year birthday to Perpetual Padres Saga! It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Hyun Young over the past year and being able to talk Padres with her. Be sure to head over to her blog and wish her a happy birthday!
GO PADRES!! GO CHARGERS!! GO FRONT OFFICE!! KEEP THE KOUZ!!!
Always Belong to Us
As some of you may have heard, LaDanian Tomlinson signed a restuctured three-year contract with the San Diego Chargers last week. To be honest, it really went under my radar. I heard a snippet in the morning news on the radio, but that was it. Then again, I don’t listen to sports radio, so I probably missed it. After the Chargers lost in the playoffs, I realized that I had jumped on the bandwagon, and once they were done, I jumped right off. Now I don’t want anything to do with football. It’s baseball time. So, I am not here to talk about LT that much. Yeah, I’ve gotta talk about Trevor…again.
Trevor Hoffman and LaDainian Tomlinson are two major San Diego sports icons. Trevor was here for sixteen seasons. LT has been here for eight years. In fact, he was drafted by the Chargers. Now, there’s no doubt that both of these men have made huge impacts on the city of San Diego, both on the field and off. I don’t know if it’s just because they don’t like the Padres, but people are comparing Trevor to LT and saying that Trevor has less class because he left.
On Sunday I read the weekly letters to the editor in the sports section of the Union-Tribune. Aw man that drove me nuts! First off, there’s one from a man who lives in San Diego and says that, “…in the end he (Trevor) did not demonstrate the class of the athlete we had thought we knew so well.” This guy is talking about the fact that Trevor “takes the bigger money to leave town.” Uh, correction! Trevor was kicked out of San Diego. He didn’t have a choice but to leave. Sure, he could have taken the $4 million, but the Padres’ front office didn’t want him back. That was obvious. I mean, $4 million, no options. Not good enough. The front office did not treat him with the respect he deserves and has earned over all these years in San Diego!! Trevor’s brought so much to this city, and to this team! It was one of the worst things the Padres’ front office has ever done.
Tony Gwynn spend twenty years in a Padres uniform. He was never part of another team. He certainly took less money to stay in San Diego. And guess what? Trevor has done that too. The last time Trevor was a free agent, the Indians offered him a great contract. He could have been gone years ago. But he stayed with the Padres, with a much lower contract. He did that because he loves San Diego, just like Tony Gwynn. He would not leave it if he could help it. Trevor did not leave San Diego willingly this offseason. He was forced to. You can’t sign with a team if they don’t want you. Merely hours before his signing with the Brewers, he contacted the Padres again, to see if there was any hope of negotiations. The Padres said no. THEY DON’T WANT HIM!!! I don’t know why. I’ve been struggling with this all offseason.
So now he’s with the Brewers. He still loves San Diego. It is my hope that he will be back here to pitch again for his team next year. But Trevor didn’t sign with the Dodgers. He could have. The Dodgers look like they are going to be very good this year. They have a chance to go deep into the postseason. Plus, they were just up the road. But he know what that would do to Padres fans. He wants to be here, but to make it easier for the San Diego fans, he signed with the Brewers. It also helped that the Brewers pursued him. Probably more than LA did.
Another letter in the Union-Tribune said: “Tim Sullivan’s column, ‘CEO Spanos makes it clear…’ was so very nice, and right on. For the first time ever, he made me cry. Specifically, his line, ‘LT might play for some other team, but he will always belong to us,’ brought tears to my eyes. Trading LaDainian Tomlinson to another team at this stage of his career would be akin to the Padres trading Tony Gwynn to the Dodgers…” etc etc. Do you see it? You could use this letter to perfectly describe Trevor! “Trevor might play for some other team, but he will always belong to us.” “Trading Trevor Hoffman to another team at this stage of his career would be akin to the Padres trading LaDainion Tomlinson to the Raiders…” I think you get the point.
Trevor is as good of a person and a player as LT. And though the city of San Diego gets to enjoy watching LT play for at least three more years, we’re not going to have our all-time saves leader here, at least not yet. Padres GM Kevin Towers has said that he would at least like Trevor to sign with the Padres, get one save, and that would be enough. I agree. We would love to have him here longer, like a whole season, but if that’s all he’s got left in him, we will settle with one game. Just to see him again in that Padres uniform, to hear Hell’s Bells ringing through Petco Park for one last time, to see him pitch, would be incredible. I want to be at that game.
So, that’s what we true die-hard Padres fans are longing for. We want our closer back. Maybe one more game. Maybe one more season. We just want him back in San Diego. He will always belong to us. And we want him back where he belongs.
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Be sure to check out the Max Madness that’s going on over at the Max blog. My turn will be coming around sometime in the next few days, and I would really appreciate votes! I’m going up against another popular blog, so it will be a battle to see who comes out on top. But it’s all in fun, so I would love to move up, but if not, I won’t boycott MLBlogs or anything 🙂 Thanks for the votes!
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Today the Padres are playing the Los Angeles Angels in Peoria. I have no idea who’s starting. All I know is that the game is at 1 pm and that Kyle Blanks will be playing first.
UPDATE: Corey Brock posted his entry just after I posted mine, so I now have the lineup:
CF Jody Gerut
2B David Eckstein
RF Brian Giles
3B Kevin Kouzmanoff
1B Kyle Blanks
LF Chase Headley
C Eliezer Alfonso
SS Luis Rodriguez
SP Josh Geer
Followed by pitchers Greg Burke, Scott Patterson, Ivan Nova and Mark Worrell. Geer is supposed to go five innings.
Looks like Team Mexico got eliminated last night, so the Gonzalez boys and Scotty Hairston should be back in camp soon. That will be good. But tonight is a do-or-die game for Team USA. That will be very interesting. Team USA is dealing with a lot of injuries right now. This is pretty concerning. These guys need to be ready to play in the regular season!
Also, I’d like to welcome back Friar Fan, who started a Padres blog late last year and is now getting back into it. It’s so great to get all these Padres bloggers here! I am very excited. This blog never really got welcomed into the community, so go say hi!
Well, today is St. Patrick’s Day. I’m pretty sure I have some Irish blood somewhere from my parents, but a holiday isn’t a holiday if you don’t get work and school off. That’s what I think. And plus, I don’t like the color green. So, I’m a big St. Patrick’s Day humbug, but Happy St. Patrick’s Day anyway!
GO PADRES!!!!
(editor’s letters quotes credit to the San Diego Union-Tribune)
Chargers Win!!
On Saturday night, the Chargers did it. It wasn’t easy, but they got it done.
The Chargers weren’t favored to win this game against the Colts. Even some of the Chargers fans that I know weren’t sure if San Diego could pull it off. But the stadium was packed on Saturday night, and the fans were the 12th player.
The game was incredible. The Chargers had a few leads, thanks to touchdowns by the injured LaDanian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles. LT left the game soon after his touchdown. But the Colts came back and took the lead, 17-14. In the second half, the Chargers were not doing well. They were making fumbles and bad calls and plays. As the end of the 4th quarter neared, it seemed unlikely for the home team to come back. But then the Chargers hit a good field goal, and the game was tied. It went into overtime soon after.
Six minutes and twenty seconds into overtime, Darren “little big man/lightning bug” Sproles had the ball. And he had a path to the end zone. He dodged a few guys and blew by them, running 22 yards to win the game, 23-17.
This guy has just been incredible. He’s only five-foot-six, and he weighs 181. But he can run, and he has really been stellar as LT’s backup. He did have a fumble in the fourth quarter, right next to the end zone, so you know he was really for redemption. And he got it.
It was very exciting. I listened most of the game, trying again to figure out what was going on. But I got it. The Chargers won. It still seems kind of unbelievable that they actually pulled it off. They are moving onto the next round, after beating the team that was considered one of their biggest obstacles in the playoffs. And let me tell you, the Chargers are really hot right now. They are on a 5-game winning streak. They just seem to get even better game after game. I don’t see how anything can stop them, even without LT.
Now they will play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. I don’t know if they can win that game. It is very unlikely that they will have LT to play, but Sproles seems to be doing a good job in his place. Besides, they can win without LT. We’ll just have to see how they do.
In other news, the Padres website has a new article: Quiet Padres are not done reloading!! Well, what do you know?? I think lots of people are desperate for something new. So, they just take old news and try to apply it to right now. That article was basically restating that Kevin Towers said that they will be getting players in late January to early February. So, we will still be making moves! How exciting. I am really ready for baseball. Go Padres! and Chargers!
AFC WEST CHAMPIONS
Last night, the Chargers won, here in San Diego. It was a great, great game, even for this person who doesn’t really grasp football. Sometimes, just listening to the emotions of the broadcasters, you can tell what’s going on.
I’ve been keeping track of this team all season. Mostly to see if they lost. And they were not that good this year, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, they looked like the football version of the Padres! But they really came through this month. They won 4 games in a row to overcome Denver’s lead and win the AFC West. It’s pretty exciting for the citizen of San Diego.
I can’t say that I understood everything that was going on. I listened to the game on the radio, which was interesting to say the least. On the radio, they use all sorts of different expressions to make the broadcast more interesting. It’s the same with baseball. There are all these strange terms that would never make sense to the person who doesn’t know anything about sports. And so, while I was listening to this football game, I had to try to figure out what was going on. I think I got most of it. It was kind of difficult since I didn’t have a mental picture of the field in my head, so when they said something like,”He’s taken down at the 30,” I wasn’t really sure where that was.
But the important thing is that they won. And the score was 52-21. The Chargers set a bunch of different records in this game, too. They played really, really well. Everything was just clicking for them. I am actually excited about this team.
I hate to say that they are growing on me, since I have been an avid Chargers hater for a few years now. It’s kind of embarrasing to suddenly like the Chargers. For example, my younger brother has kind of followed in my footsteps, and he hates the Chargers, too. So, yesterday when I was talking about the game, he was like, “Boo Chargers!” I was like, “Well, actually, we WANT them to win.” Just shows that you have to be a good role model to your younger siblings. So am I becoming a Chargers fan? I sure hope not, but we’ll have to see. If they go deep into this postseason, they are inevitably going to grow on me. But if they get eliminated early, I probably won’t. We’ll just have to see….
So, the first game of the playoffs for San Diego is this Saturday, at Qualcomm Stadium against the Colts. Some of the key players are injured (like LT), but hopefully they will be able to heal up. This is pretty exciting, because it’s a San Diego team. We have had a lot of bad years in our sports, but now our NFL team has been in the playoffs for 3 straight years. I’m excited. Let’s see how far they go!
The Hope of the Playoffs
Well, in Padres news over the weekend, Jody Gerut signed a contract for 2009. This is pretty exciting because Jody was a very positive part of 2008. He’s a center fielder who was out of baseball because of surgery to both knees. Now he’s back, and he did an excellent job last year. This does make me wonder what our center field situtation will be. Obviously, I think Jody will get the majority of the time out there. But Will Venable showed us that he can play center very well when he was up here at the end of the year. But if he’s up here, he needs to be playing. It will be very interesting.
OK, as most of my readers should know, I really do not like football. But it has come to my attention lately that I need to broaden my sports knowledge, which means that I need to learn about America’s most popular sport, football. So I watched a little college football on Saturday. It was fascinating. I’m still learning, but it’s actually pretty cool to watch all these guys crash into each other. And I knew a lot more than I thought I would.
Anyways, I would like to talk about the San Diego Chargers. Believe me, I cannot stand the Chargers. The memorabilia is all over San Diego, and they are so much bigger than the Padres. I do not like it. BUT if anyone is following the NFL closely, they will know about this situation between the Chargers and the Broncos. Yesterday, the Chargers won 41-24 against Tampa Bay. The Broncos lost, so now the AFC West will be decided next Sunday in San Diego. I’ve already said that I don’t like the Chargers, but when the hope of playoffs comes here, all San Diego sports fans get excited. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Padres, the Chargers, the college teams. Successful playoff teams are so rare here in San Diego, and we get so excited about the potential playoff team. I am so excited about this game on Sunday! It’s pretty insane since I hate the Chargers and I’m not even going to be watching it. But I will be keeping track of the score on the Internet and the radio. Games like this are so exciting, no matter what sport. Whoever wins this game will go to the playoffs. Whoever loses will have the season over. The hope of a Superbowl is there if you just get to the playoffs. Same with the Padres. If they win the NL West, all fans see the far hope, the World Series. Now, I really don’t know if the Chargers have the talent or the pieces to win this game next Sunday. They’ve been pretty bad all year, but we’ll just have to see. It will be very exciting, that’s for sure. I’m looking forward to it.
Well, it’s raining again!! Sounds like we’re going to have big storms all week, which will be amazing. Only 3 days ’til Christmas!
What is Happening to San Diego Sports?
The Padres were absolutely pathetic this year. 99 losses is BAD. But the San Diego disease is moving to their NFL team, the Chargers. They are terrible this year! They are losing at a steady rate, and they will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs. Now, I really don’t care about the Chargers. I don’t care for football in general, but this is just so weird. We have amazing players here. I mean, Jake Peavy, Adrain Gonzalez, LT, Philip Rivers. And yet, the teams are horrible. It is very strange. Last year, 2007, the Padres were one game away from the playoffs. The Chargers came within one game of the Superbowl, I believe. I know that the Chargers fans are not happy. Neither are the Padres fans. What could it be? Is it the front offices? The coaching staffs? The players? I really have no idea, but I blame the front offices. I think the Chargers need to be rebuilding too. How ’bout they trade their best player and San Diego icon, LaDainian Tomlinson? Maybe they can get a few prospects. The two front offices should get together and coordinate to trade LT and Jake on the same day. Maybe Christmas. That would be so lovely for San Diego sports fans. We would probably boycott both teams.
There is also the matter of San Diego teams in the playoffs. The Padres have been to two World Series, lost both of them. The Chargers have been in a Super Bowl, but lost. Whenever San Diego teams even get into the playoffs, they have a hard time going deep. The Padres rarely get past the first round. The Chargers have gone deep, but not deep enough. We have problems.
Maybe it’s the pacific air. Maybe it’s the front offices. Maybe we aren’t cheering loud enough. Whatever it is, it’s unacceptable. San Diego teams are supposed to be good. Players are supposed to want to came here to be on championship-caliber teams. Maybe it’s just an off year. Maybe we’ll get a World Series and a Superbowl in the same year. It might take a while, but San Diego will get their championships. I just hope it’s soon.
Unfinished Business 