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“QB History-Anniversary-San Diego”

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Dan Fouts-Stan Humphries-Philip Rivers.

Pretty good NFL quarterbacks. Fouts in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Humphries led the Chargers to their only Super Bowl Appearance. Rivers has rewritten all the passing records, but has only gotten to the AFC title game once.

Mention those names and the stories keep on coming about record setting passing days, big wins, wild comebacks, and memorable games.

This weekend is the 20th anniversary of another quarterback with the Bolts, Ryan Leaf, who brought the franchise down, and destroyed his career-life.

It was 20-years ago now when the Chargers, coming off horrid seasons, selected Leaf with the 2nd pick in the NFL draft right after the Indianapolis Colts had taken Peyton Manning.

The Chargers went thru 18-different quarterbacks between the time Dan Fouts retired and the franchise traded for Stan Humphries of the Redskins.

Then Humphries career ended with a concussion a couple of years after the teams Super Bowl run, and they went thru 18-more quarterbacks, until that 1998-draft, that brought them Leaf.

Thru all those bad years, you’ll remember the names Mark Vlasic, Sean Salisbury, Bob Gagliano, Mark Herrman, Jim Everett, Jim Harbaugh, Tom Flick, Craig Whelihan, Jim McMahon and more, as the franchise tried to find someone-anyone to be competitive under center.

The Ryan Leaf acquisition was supposed to be the one that led the franchise back.

While Manning led Tennessee to great seasons in the SEC, Leaf set passing records at Washington State in the Pac 10-Conference. Leaf and his ‘Fab 5’ receivers corps were so much fun to watch.

The fun ended shortly after he was drafted.

GM-Bobby Beathard, like a lot of scouts around the NFL, thought they had a diamond in the rough in Leaf. Big (6’5), thick (235lbs), a cannon for an arm, a smile and a leader. The so-called diamond became fools-gold.Ωz

They were misled by Cougars coach Mike Price, who flat out lied about Leaf. Disliked by teammates, arrogant, not a student of the game, a party guy, an arrogant ass.

He wasn’t ready to play, and yet troubled head coach Kevin Kilbride threw him on the field early.

The memories of this mess are still everywhere in San Diego, even if the franchise is no longer here.

Leaf drunk in a bar, wearing sun glasses. Leaf injuring his writs screwing around in practice, diving on a loose football.

Leaf, supposedly doing rehab, discovered playing flag football in Mission Bay, while the team was on the road, and he wa supposed to be doing rehab.

The horrific (1-15) passing day with 3-picks in the rain in Kansas City. The 6-interception game in Seattle’s Kingdome against the Hawks. The blowup in the lockeroom with the media. His suspension by his General Manager.

A career record of (4-17), a trade to Dallas, a spiral down addiction to pain-killers, jail time-rehab and all.

Peyton Manning went to Super Bowls and will go to the Hall of Fame. Leaf went to prison and goes down as one of the all time biggest busts in NFL draft history.

It took forever for the Chargers to pick up the pieces. They discovered Drew Brees, then they traded the rights to Eli Manning for the rights to Philip Rivers.

The Chargers have had good seasons with Rivers at the helm, though they have never gotten to a Super Bowl.

We now look forward to next Thursday’s NFL draft, where 5-quarterbacks could all go in the first round. Might be a superstar in the Sam Darnold-Josh Allen-Josh Rosen-Baker Mayfield group. Might be a washout or two too.

The pictures are everywhere in the minds of longtime Chargers fans.

Fouts, with blood on the front of his uniform, quarterbacking Air Coryell. Humphries bomb’s away mentality in the playoffs. Rivers slingshot passing style and all those 400-yard games.

But you can never get away from the horror of Ryan Leaf era either.

Twenty years removed, the nitemare that was Ryan Leaf is part of Chargers history, and it just will never-ever go away. An anniversary you’d like to forget.

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“Padres Pitching Problems-Everywhere”

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Root-root-root for the home team. That’s what the old time baseball chant is.

Not here in San Diego, not right now.

Not after the Padres got sand-blasted three straight games by the Dodgers. Now the Friars go on the road to face the first place Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Colorado Rockies and their humidor home run balls at Coors Field.

I told you when spring training opened, the Padres didn’t have enough starting pitching. I recall writing the 10-potential starters they had brought to camp, had a combined (5.62-ERA) a year ago.

I told you opening day of my fears that they still did not have enough arms in that rotation, and then Chris Young walked out, Dinelson Lamet got bad news, and they proceeded to waste the opening home stand, going (1-6) to start all this.

Now the Dodgers drill them, and off they go on another road trip, where the D-backs and Rockies have a history of trashing pitching in their ballparks.

Thank goodness for Joey Luchessi, assuming the role of ace, with a 1.66-ERA in his first group of starts. Good stuff, better composure. Doing here what he did for 3-seasons in the minors.

Clayton Richard grinds thru starts and will give you everything he has. Some outings good, sometimes he gets banged around. But his ERA is a gaudy (5.73).

Tyson Ross, proven veteran, so far so good, and has reclaimed his dominance and competitive fire post blood clot surgery. The veteran ha a (3.50) ERA.

Beyond that, problems everywhere.

Bryan Mitchell has a crackling fastball, but all types of location problems. A glaring (5.09-ERA), even worse, it seems like he’s pitching from the stretch the minute he leaves the dugout. He’s allowed 37-baserunners in 19-innings, and struggles nightly.

Luis Perdomo got torched by the Dodgers, probably his worst outing of his San Diego career. The problem, he’s had many more bad outings than good ones in the last half of last year and the start of this season. An ERA that is now at (8.36)

And there is no Lamet coming back, maybe not till 2020.

We’re just 3-weeks into the season, and the starting pitching is so shoddy, the bullpen has been used 66-times in the first 19-games. They had the second most innings working out of the pen in all of baseball.

The team leads the National League in unearned runs allowed (18) leading into last night’s game, so defensive issues keep popping up..

And of course the team, which showed us a 20-strikeout night on Tuesday, has also struck out a whopping 197-times in the first 19-games, again leading all of baseball.

There are no easy answers to all this.

Young college lefty Eric Lauer is likely the next one to be called up, but who knows if he is really ready, though he has a (3.00-ERA) in the hitter happy Pacific Coast League. Even better, is Brett Kennedy’s (1.04-ERA) but he has yet to be called up last year or this year.

The first round pick of a couple of years ago, Calvin Quantriill is at San Antonio, has a good ERA, (1.23) but has walked a bunch of batters, and put a lot of runners on base.

Ex-Royal Matt Strahm is being flipped back to a starter, and is at (3>68) at Class AA, but is coming off knee surgery, and needs to build innings, and does not appear major league ready.

Yes the future is better than today, but with this lousy start, we are looking at a lot of bad baseball this summer. The Friars have pissed away two homesteads already.

You see the crowds for the Dodgers series-not good. And remember they gave up a 3-game homestead with the Dodgers to go play in Mexico too.

I had hoped (81-81) was possible as the season opened, but that was before Lamet got hurt, and Perdomo stopped getting people out.

Any ideas? AJ Preller could use some advice. The suggestion box is open.

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“Spraying Hits All Around the Ballpark”

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DODGERS BLUE…..They booed and booed and booed him, and he kept hitting homers. Matt Kemp, you remember him? He was brought to San Diego in the first wave of big money player acquisitions by GM-AJ Preller.

It didn’t work out. He was making a lot of money, didn’t hit very much, wasn’t a clubhouse leader at all, and then was dealt away. And in his closing comments, he openly admitted he wasn’t all that motivated.

Yes I guess it would be culture shock to go from a pennant contender, and playing in LA, to go to a perrenial cellar-dweller in San Diego. He was welcomed with open arms by fans, who wanted him to succeed and to lead. He did neither.

Then Kemp went to Atlanta, dragging his big contract with him, still getting paid by the Padres, and played on a loser there.

After being dealt back to the Dodgers in salary dump deals involving Adrian Gonzalez, he admitted to being over-weight and not playing well for the Braves.

That’s the most offensive part about Kemp. All that money, with teams that needed him, and he admits he was jaking it in San Diego and Atlanta. This is his final year on the mega-deal, and he won’t ever get a big contract again.

Sure he’s wearing Dodgers colors again, but he’s not the same player, and he’s not viewed the same by the fans either.

It would have been nice if he had embraced the Padres. Of course it would have been nice is Justin Upton hadn’t come here and acted ike a mercenary, or if brother Melvin Upton had acted like a turd, or James Shields could have acted like he cared to fix things when things went to bad. But none of that happened.

But Kemp acted in such an appalling way, here and in Atlanta, I can see why they boo him, boo him, boo him more, regardless if he hits a home run or not. Would have been nice if pride was important as his paycheck.

PADRES PROBLMES…..Not an easy time for 3rd baseman Chase Headley. Once a Silver Slugger-Gold Glove 3rd baseman here, he is on the Friars bench now.

Who could have imagined Headley hitting (.038) to start the season? Who would believe the guy, who once controlled the strike zone, and hit so well with the Yankees a year ago, would be (1-for-26) with 13-strikeouts?

Manager Andy Green seemed offended when I asked him if Headley had become a ‘lost soul?’. His confidence is waning. He’s taking so many pitches. You just don’t recognize him at the plate. And he won’t get on the field until Christian Villanueva cools off, or pitchers start throwing him curveballs.

Maybe Green was peeved when I asked with so many smart guys in the Padres dugout, Green, Mark McGuire, hitting coach Matt Stairs, there would be a smart guy among the three, who could find a flaw, to help Headley out.

Give the veteran credit. He wants to play, wants to earn his 13M a year on the final year of his deal, and still makes himself available to the media.

ANGEL OVERWHELMED….Nerves, the moment, the batting order. It sure didn’t look like Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday night. After two dominant starts against the punch-and-judy Oakland A’s, the Red Sox jumped on the Japanese pitching sensation.

He looked un-nerved facing a (13-2) Bosox batting order. Mookie Betts, the leadoff hitter, teed off a home-run pitch as the first batter of the game, and it went downhill from there.

Obtain was throwing at 97-99-100, hitting the strike zone sometime, but missing as much too. That and he had no location at all with his secondary pitchers.

His arm slot looked different from the first two games I saw him pitch. His stride to the play looked stiff. His follow-thru was off. Balls sailed high, low, inside and outside.

I also wondered if the language barrier was a problem, when he was struggling How does catch Martin Maldonado communicate with him. There were 3-mound trips in his 56-pitch two inning struggle.

Pitching once every 7-days, the Angels have done a good job scheduling him on the mound and at DH. But this was really surprising. The coming out party turned out to be a knockout outing.

But he’s just a kid, who will figure it out.

Matt Kemp probably won’t ever. Chase Headley wants to. Shohei Ohtani will get his next opportunity next week.

And so baseball moves on.

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“No Game Tonight”

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The scowl on his face pretty much told the story. The measured tones of his answers were restrained. The resolute body language reflected his feelings.

Dallas Eakins, the successful coach of the San Diego Gulls, was near despondent after his season ending exit meetings with his players, and his end of season comments with the working media.

There’s a finality, like a jolt, or maybe like a head on collision, when your team fails to make the playoffs on the final night of the season. Horrid disappointment for at team that 10-days ago was in 2nd place, got beat, and finished fifth, out of AHL postseason play.

He said a lot, but he bit his tongue a lot. You got the sense he wanted to scream, blow his lid, and throw things across the team room. Except there were no players left in the room, as they cleared out, headed for home and a longer than expected off season.

Eakins stood in there answering every tough question thrown at him:

..This is a jolt..it does not sit well with me…it’s gut wrenching…we will move forward.
..The AHL Pacific is a tight division, we kept moving up and down till we ran out of time
..We didn’t lose this on the final weekend in Tucson.
..Over 68-games, lots of bad losses come back that would have made a difference.
..That’s what makes this so hard-my constant message-every game is important.

..We were streaky all season..in the NHL you can pinpoint where it goes wrong.
..In the AHL, it can be a struggle, callups-injuries and more.
..I can’t remember but it’s been a long time since I felt this way..it hurts.
..Losing our experienced players, Fehr-Rassumussen-Abbott in trades hurt us.
..You need younger players to step up when veterans leave.

..Maybe I need to be more encouraging or maybe more firmer…tougher.
..I knew playing Ontario-Tucson last five games could age a problem.
..We need to reassess how to get younger players up to speed.
..Younger players need constant learning to become the core group.
..Young players need to invest in time in San Diego

..My contract is up in June…this is only AHL coaching job I want
..My first NHL experience was not a good one..I am a better coach now
..I have a chip on my shoulder
..I’d never rule out being an NHL assistant…but I have a strong personality

..Sometimes you need different personalities on coaching staffs
..The same 2-personalities in a room doesn’t always work.
..Missing the playoffs is unacceptable to me and to our fans in San Diego
..You play to win, then win again in the playoffs.

..I work for a great leader in Bob Murray and the Ducks
..Callups of our kids are important-help the team..help the kids learn about NHL
..When you’re around Getzlaf-Perry-Kesler-it helps them grow in practice and games
..The Ducks will likely call up 5-to-7 of our players to keep them on a ready list for game

And with that he exited quickly, just like his team exited the playoffs with 3-straight losses, when all they needed was one point to get to the postseason.

3-Gulls players praised Eakins, despite the last week of setbacks, saying he is not only a strong hockey coach, but a strong teacher of life. They said they learned so much about hockey and how you should approach hockey.

The Ducks need to sign him, and at the same time, find a way to give him a couple of more veteran players to anchor the roster. Too many kids, struggling to learn at this level, on a game by game basis. It’s not like playing in the Quebec Junior League, or at St Cloud State, or in the Finnish junior league.

There will be no playoff hockey tonite or Friday or on the weekend. A successful franchise shuts it down for this post season. The raging success, a franchise averaging a league leading (9,305) per game, won’t have a place to go. Our playoffs will be on TV watching the Kings-Ducks-Penguins and Golden Knights

The off season never tasted so bitter, despite the sunny weather in San Diego. Unless you’ve been in the room, worn the crest, rode the buses and flights, you cannot understand the culture, and how important the postseason really is.

This hurts. You could tell it by his words, sense it by his body language, understand it by the sadness in his face. Dallas Eakins, the Gulls coach ,reminded us of this time and time again on Monday..

And we are reminded, ‘no game tonight’

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“Honoring Someone-We Shall Never Forget”

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If Martin Luther KIing had the biggest impact on Black America, then Jackie Robinson had the great impact on blacks in sports.

Baseball, on the directive of former Commissioner Bud Selig, set aside April 15th as the day the game was to salute the memory of all things Jackie Robinson, meant to the game, to blacks in baseball, and to society.

It was April 15th, 1947, Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in a win over the Boston Braves. He went hitless but scored the winning run, via a walk and running the bases.

What followed were years of excellence, determination, and a dominant personalty to excel.

They all wore #42 yesterday across major league baseball, players, managers, coaches, even the umpires.

Whereas King’s victories were scored in places like Selma and Mobile and Atlanta, and Washington, all with his peaceful protests, Robinson’s happened other places.

From Montreal to Ebbets Field, from incidents in the Deep South in the International Legue, to hate filled road games across National League diamonds, Robinson persevered.

King was threatened, taunted, beaten, arrested, jailed, and eventually murdered.

Robinson was beaned, spiked, cursed at, bombarded with hate mail.

King stood stoically on his marches, and rallied support, black-white-and religious with his firebrand speeches.

Robinson fought his battle alone, seething, but not reacting to a bigoted intolerance that still existed in America, just years after ‘Johnny Came Marching Home’ from winning World War II, battles fought by blacks-whites-Jews and Latinos.

King’s heroics delivered us others who carried on, from Stokely Carmichael , John Lewis, Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte to H-Rap Brown and Bobby Seale.. The battle with-in society still goes on sadly in some parts of America.

Robinson was followed by Larry Doby, Ernie Banks, Henry Aaron, and a legacy of great players, all given he chance by his talent, morals, and Constitution.

We relish in the memory of the ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ and so many other things Kings brought to our radar.

In history now we fondly remember Robinson for his accomplishments, and the shadow he cast going forward, that opened doors for so many others to play the game.

On a Sunday in the spring, we remember a special person in baseball, Robinson. A week ago, we remembered the other great African American in society, King..

We will never be a be to know in this year, how hard it was for them in that era of hate-discord-denouncement in those years.. But what they did forever changed society.

Some days you doubt that things are different or better in life, police brutality, excessive force and all. But we can hope. We had a black president. We have great black leaders, coaches, administrators.

We have great black athletes everywhere in sports.

We should forever thank Bud Selig for keeping the memory alive and allowing the message to go forth.

Jackie Robinson-Martin Luther King. We should never-ever forget, who they were, what they accomplished, how they did it, the price they paid.

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