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“Thinking Out Loud On a Tuesday”

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GOLDEN STATE GREATNESS….They can beat you any way you want..fast break street ball…a 3-point shooting contest…or a back alley brawl….The Warriors use it all in putting away the Cavaliers for the 2nd time in 3-years….LeBron James is such a great individual talent-plays so hard-just did not get consistent help from others…for the Warriors it was Kevin Durant, helped by the firepower of everyone else on that roster.

LAKERS-WOE IS ME….This could really turn out ugly…Jerry West closing in on a deal with the team down the hallway, the Clippers….and Lonzo Ball in a poor workout may have cost himself the second slot in the draft…waiting for LaVar Ball’s explanation why his son was in out of shape condition for the biggest workout of his basketball life.

COUNCIL VETOES THE MAYOR AGAIN…a bitter night for Mayor Kevin Faulconer as City Council votes down the November proposal for a special vote to raise hotel taxes for the Convention Center expansion, plus money for the homeless situation and street repairs…Council wants a vote in November 2018, not a costly lower vote turnout this fall…it does give the city proper time to configure the land purchase for the annex..but at the cost of the construction fees going up again.

SOCCER CITY IN TROUBLE…Maybe-maybe not…now that is appears there will no special vote for their Qualcomm sight land purchase this fall….Maybe it should not be death….maybe they need to convince MLS to grant them an additional year to work thru the land purchase and build the relationshhips needed to solve the San Diego State question….What’s the difference if MLS adds two teams in 2020…or just adds one that year and maybe San Diego the next….if MLS believes in this market, and they should, then waiting till 2021 does not hurt them, if theis deal is done right.

PADRES PITCHING…Strange happnenings just above them on the draft board and the Padres wind up with high school pitching sensation MacKenzie Gore, the high school lefthander from North Carolina…thosw were impressive numbers (0.19-ERA) this spring, and four straight trips to the state championships for his school….looks like a cross between Cole Hamels and Madison Bumgarner.

CHARGERS GOODBYE….Last workout for the media to attend on Tuesday at Chargers Park, the final mini-camp workout for the team before it boxes everything up and moves to Costa Mesa….What a bitter feeling this is in our community…what a sad commentary it is on Dean Spanos and his greedy family.

NORTH TO ALASKA…Well not quite for ex-Aztec QB-Ryan Lindley, though he has gone north to the Canadian Football League, and in his first exhibition game after just 10-days in camps, goes (15-25) for 132-yards..a length of field drive for a field goal and then the game winning TD pass late in the fourth quarter….He has 1-more exhibition game to try and play himself onto the Ottawa Red-Black roster.

MY NEWSPAPER-OUR PROBLEMS….I thought the LA Times purchase of the Union-Tribune would be great, for we’d have additional content from a wide variety of Times writers to compliment what we have here..but the change hasn’t worked out well….Deadlines for Padres writers for the first editions of the paper are (8-30pm)…the late edition deadline is (9-30pm)….so that means seldom do we get a game story nor boxscore, but rather filler stories….Now please explain to me, how the LA Times can get a Padres story and a box score into their editions that are dropped into my driveway-but the UT cannot? UT is printed at the Times plant up in LA and then bussed down here. Bad deal for the fans, again.

GOOD LUCK…Longtime Padres PR-Chiefs Shauna Wilson finishes up this week, and heads to UCLA to become Communications Director of the PAC-12 School….longtime Chargers PR Director Bill Johnston stays here as the team goes to LA-he will not be making the move after 39-years of loyal service to the Gene Klien-Alex-Dean Spanos organization.

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“Padres-Next Step Forward-No More Bad Drafts”

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Padres baseball, losing streaks, last place finishes, errors, strikeouts, home run balls, bad innings, blowout losses, and tons of fans in the stands, wearing the other team’s colors.

It’s quite a resume this Padres franchise has put together in recent years.

Late this afternoon, another opportunity to take a step in bringing quality baseball back, when MLB holds its college and high school draft.

All you need to know about the state of things is, the Padres draft 3rd this year. Petty high pick, end result of another bad season last year. Likely they will be draft high again next June.

But today they get a gem atop the first round. Minnesota and Cincinnati draft ahead of them. In some order, the Padres will wind up with either college pitcher Kyle Wright of Vanderbilt…Louisville pitcher-1st baseman Brendon McKay…or Sherman Oaks SS-pitcher Hunter Green.

They cannot lose out because all these are rated far and above any of the other picks later in the first round.

To be decided, do they allow Green to be a shortstop or pitch, with his 100mph fastball? Do they let McKay be a position player and hit homers as a first baseman, or put him on the mound? Wright is all pitcher all the time.

GM-AJ Preller and Scouting Director Mark Conner had lots to say about lots of things yesterday, on the eve of the draft, talking philosophy-talent and scouting reports.

“We have lots of dollars left to sign our top picks”
“Not drafting based on need, will take the top talent on our board”

“Our success is because of our area scouts and what they’ve done two years running.”
“We use lots of analytics to rate players, but gain great insight with personal interviews.”

“Finding intangibles about the kids is very important”
“There’s lots of pitching depth to this draft.”

“We will not decide on our top pick being a pitcher or a positional player till he has a chance to play his first year”
“Need to find out what these kids do best..give them time to figure it out”

“Likely we will find out if they can hit first, if not, you can always shift them to pitcher?

“Hunter Green-has been in the limelight a long time-been exposed to pressure and expectation…big time pitching arm…big time strong shortstop too”.

“Brendan McKay-lots of history with him-since we drafted him a couple of years ago…,,intense demeanor…really competes..good delivery…hits well..a college standout”

“Kyle Wright..Good body…projects well…real work ethic..good makeup.

“Travel ball has helped a lot of these players cope with expectation, pressure and learn the grind”.

The Padres drafts have been littered with failure. They had 1-established major leaguer make it in a 15-year span, shortstop Khalil Greene.

They bombed giving and wasting a 6.3M contract on Donavan Tate, who couldn’t play, and could not stay healthy.

But more recently, there is success. True Turner is in the majors already, though traded to Washington. Hunter Renfroe is a budding star, learning in right field at Petco Park already.

Last summer’s group of pitcher are doing well at Lake Elsinore,

The foundation is being laid. Today they will start adding more building blocks.

Sitting and watch Dinelson Lamet give up 3-home runs, watching 2-foul pops drop infant of fielders with no effort to get the ball, watching Eric Aybar commit back to back errors, makes you reel with despair.

Since the day Preller was given command of the team, the Friars have a combined record of (206-274). By the final day of this season, they will have had 9-losing seasons in the last 10-years.

Lots of work to be done, but today should land them another gem like Hunter Green, rather than a fool’s gold player like Donavan Tate.

It better.

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“Final Week-Final Farewell-No Finality to the Resentment”

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How do you describe the emotion we will feel in the next week?.

The Chargers are headed to their final 3-days of off season workouts in Murphy Canyon. Once their last workout is over mid-next-week, they will pack up gear, and begin moving football operations to Costa Mesa, for camp to open at the end of July.

It’s been strange to watch these final days, the death watch of the Lightning Bolt, in San Diego, unfold.

The OTA workouts have been behind locked gates. The once a week access to the media has been sparsely attended. When the players have been on the field, more times than not, they have been at the opposite end of the field, hundreds yards away from the what media is there.

There are no open workouts for the fans.

There is no lockeroom access. Player press conferences are short with limited access. The new head coach Anthony Lynn and his staff have never been officially introduced at a press conference in San Diego by the franchise. His press briefings have been 7-to-10 minutes.

The GM Tom Telesco has talked individually to what local media have shown up. The VP-Football Operations, John Spanos, has virtually disappeared.

There has been no sighting of the villain owner, Dean Spanos, when the media has had access.

The newspaper, the UT, does not have an NFL beat-writer now. Their lead columnist, who covered the Chargers, is not there, and is not writing columns about the team.

The LA Times beat writer has been there, and the ESPN.com NFL writer, who will go to LA, is a weekly presence.

None of the two radio stations who do sports-talk, have had any presence out at camp. No hosts out there. No shows out there. Little conversation on the air either.

Of the 5-TV stations that cover sports, only NBC 7-39 and Fox-5 have appeared. CBS 8, KUSI and KGTV seem set to ignore the team in its final days. Oddly, none of the LA TV-stations have staffed any of the workouts.

There is absolutely no buzz around the workouts. No excitement nor anticipation about what these high draft picks will look like.

Sources say the building that housed the business operation is ‘half empty’. A chunk has already moved to the “Hive” business park in Orange County where they have set up operations.

People inside say the atmosphere has been like “Black Monday” every week since the move was announced. A large number say they cannot forgive ownership for what they did, and the ‘cold-corporate’ staff meeting that was held days after the move was announced.

Of the 65-non football staff members who work at Chargers Park, at least 35-have decided they will not go to LA. In addition, the team has cut away its Stadium Operation staff, and let loose a large number of sales and marketing people. The top 3-PR people are not going with the team either.

It has been strange to see the lack of sizzle, lack of interest. It’s understandable the remorse that still exists in the community.

The players have tried to toe a company line, knowing what is ahead, and telling us they are preparing for a new season. But they must ache also, like being in an orphanage.

In 6-weeks, the pain, like a toothache, will return, when preseason camp officially opens, and there is no team here to talk about, cheer for, or care about.

Emotionally lots in our community have said farewell to the greedy owner and his family. But the farewell to the resentment over what happened is not going away.

What will go away will be the moving vans, which are parked daily out front of the building, hauling away helmets and file cabinets, uniforms and desks, and 56-years of loyalty and memories.

What won’t go away will be the hurt and the emptiness we will feel going forward, as our NFL team, goes out of town..

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“Questions Worth Asking Today”

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THE MAYOR…He has the authority to over-rule City Council on his budget battles. And now he has the true land value of the kind of money he can generate for the city if he sell land to Soccer City. Will Kevin Faulconer use the hammer he has in his hand to get the deal done?

AZTECS..With advanced apologies to the San Diego State past presidents group. You say there are now over 200,000-Aztecs graduates living the County, and they care. If so, how come you SDSU averages only 15,000-paid admissions for home football?.

PADRES…Caught twixt and between on this Petco Park-SDSU football situation. I’ve seen the blueprint, and how they want to lay out a temporary football stadium, that would stretch from home dugout to left field by the scoreboard. But you cannot erect stands on one sideline that would sit in the outfield. It would destroy the field in September and October. Can you make it available without the temporary stands and just fill a third of the stadium from first baseline-to 3rd baseline?

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE…Yes they can help SDSU with football scheduling, but playing all road games in September, with byes in there, is unfair to the Aztecs. They need a balanced home-road schedule don’ they?

PADRES PAIN….You knew this was going to happen, the kids getting shelled on the mound, and we still have alot of baseball to be played. You look at the standings this morning, the Houston Astros are (43-17) and just mashing people. But they lost 305-games in three years before they got good. Can San Diego’s fans handle that? Can the ownership handle that?

MLB Draft..Next week, the Padres take the next step forwardin rebuilding, with the entry draft. They pick third, and will get a blue chip player, who will be a multi-position talent. Everyone says Hunter Green, the shortstop-pitcher, with the 100mph fastball. The question, where do you project him at, on the mound or in the infield?

HOCKEY PUCKS-PHONE CALLS…I hope they don’t but they might. The Anaheim Ducks jettisoned their lead assistant coach Paul McLean. Might they take Gulls coach Dallas Eakins who has done yeoman work here in two years with what was really an expansion team?

CHARGERS CONTROVERSY…Nick Hardwick, long a popular player, now into broadcasting, does a U-turn in the road, months after criticizing the Spanos family for moving the team, and saying he was done with them, now decides to return to the team’s broadcast booth to do color commentator work. Guys love working in the NFL. Understand the emotional pull to want to do games. He’s probably offended some fans in San Diego. Best way to heal it all..never-ever refer to the team as the Los Angeles Chargers…and never ever praise Dean Spanos. Just call them the Chargers or the Bolts.

DID YOU SEE WHAT I SAW….No one has yet signed ex-Chargers starting offensive lineman King Dunlap nor Orlando Franklin. An awful lot of money spent with very little return. What does that say about the Pro Personnel Department over at Chargers Park?

USD….The challenge of a lifetime is just ahead for the new AD-Bill McGillis. How to market Torerors football, a 1AA power, and how to make basketball relevant and how to grow the baseball program to be playing in June every year? Are there enough hours in the day?

UCSD…On the hill, but off the radar. What a great for Tritons basketball, and now baseball in the Little World Series. But it’s Division II, and that’s an issue isn’t it?

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“Chargers-Another Injury”

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Does this ever end? This siege of injuries for the Chargers with key players?

Well actually it will, on July 1st, when the team exits Chargers Park, and moves everything, football and business to Costa Mesa.

But there is a team still practicing in San Diego, in Murphy Canyon, and it’s a Chargers team that still is dealing with injured players.

‘Team Torn Achilles Tendon’ saw its season decimated by those injuries and torn knee ligaments too. The top 3-running backs, top wide receiver, a group of linebackers.

A year prior to that, it was an offensive line, that saw 5-of its top six starters go down with an assortment of injuries, concussions, shoulders, knees.

And now it’s hit again, this time top draft pick Mike Williams, the Clemson wide receiver, the number 1-pick, the kid who caught 98-passes a year ago from QB-Deshaun Watson in that fabulous season, capped by the dismantling of Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide.

Williams never got thru his first mini-camp workout. Diving for an errant pass from a street free agent quarterback, he hurt his back.

Strained muscle maybe? Back spasms, maybe? No torn ligaments, no spinal colum damage. Nothing related to broken neck he suffered two years ago in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

But it went 21-days since the injury, all those missed routes, missed practices, learning curve days on the field.

Now we find out he has a herniated disc in the back. No surgery prescribed. Just rest, weight work, time and hope.

But that’s what he has had for nearly three weeks, and the condition never changed.

Why do I sense red-flag already, with this latest piece of bad luck news?

A receiver group that lost Stevie Johnson in camp, then star Keenan Allen early in the year, nagging problems with Tyrell Williams all year, and late season knee problems for Travis Benjamin, looks at risk again.

First Donnie Inman had surprise core-abdominal surgery, likely impacting him into August. And now Williams, with something significant.

There’s a new training staff on board, with the removal of longstanding trainer James Collins. The new people couldn’t detect this disc issue weeks ago?
What are MRIs and CT scans for. It’s not the first time these people have seen a back issue in the NFL. An epidural shot early might have prevented it from getting worse?

These things seldom heal quickly. Two weeks ago he was running on the side with trainers, despite still having back spasms. Now he is gone a minimum 8-weeks.

Why do I fear Philip Rivers needs magic markers and name tags to hand out everyday the locker room opens, to introduce himself to the latest wide out coming in, to replacing somebody who has gone down.

Missing lots of time to start camp, or start a season, won;’t help Mike Williams, nor Rivers, nor the offense.

And knowing the injury history of these other receivers, you worry what could be a strength, won’t be, because the words ‘Chargers-another injury’ are always part of the conversation.

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