1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Friday “Padres–El Nino–Center of the Baseball Storm”
“Padres–El Nino–Eye of the Storm”-0-
He is so much fun to watch.
He is the straw that stirs the drink.
He is El Nino and he is at the eye of the storm, always.
Fernando Tatis is so much fun to watch.
The drama, the big plays, the gaffes, and the injuries.
It has been a wild year, a scary year, and a year of issues for the Padres shortstop.
We have had some scares with him so far, and it is just the first week of June with two-thirds of the season to be played.
The latest is the oblique injury that hit him during the Cubs series. Luckily it appears it was a minor tweak.
Before that was the Covid scare, when the Padres had issues with 5-players in a two day span. Luckily for all, there was no outbreak.
Of course, he had the real scare, the shoulder dislocation on a swing that put him on the disabled list, and cast a wide area of concern, about possible surgery, or repeat injuries. Neither has happened.
And in spring he was ill with a virus that impacted half of his Cactus League preparations.
Tatis early career was sidetracked by a significant hamstring injury running the bases. And before that the serious wrist injury that wiped out a chunk of a minor league season.
He’s resilient, he’s tough, he’s a fast healer, and he’s smart when it comes to learning how to take care of himself.
For Tatis to be able to reconstruct his explosive swing, while spending 10-days on the DL with the shoulder injury is pretty impressive. No more one handed swings, or famous whiplash effect on that left shoulder.
And he has retaught himself to slide feet first rather than his favorite head first dives…protecting the wrist, the hand, his fingers.
Yes there have been the throwing errors, but they seem the end result of how he is now fielding balls and how he is setting up to throw the ball, again to protect that left shoulder.
He is hammering home runs with power. He is still making highlite reel plays at shortstop. He is still dynamic running bases.
It’s like watching a drama in the movies. What is he going to do next? With fans due back en masse at Petco Park on June 17th, I can imagine the noise, the energy and fans showing up with their own version of the ‘Swag Chain’ in the stands.
Padres baseball is fun, they are winning, and worth watching, because the eye of the storm, the straw who stirs the drink, is El Nino.
Fernando Tatis is the primary reason the Padres are so entertaining.
=============================