Memorial Day weekend. Picnics, family, Padres games, the Indy 500, the Lakers in the playoffs, the Stanley Cup finals. Lots to see, experience and think about.

Memorial Day weekend, a time to remember also. We see hometown heroes amongst us. The Padres icon broadcaster Jerry Coleman flew fighters, even landed upside down on a flight deck. Red Sox hero Ted Williams was a fighter pilot both in the Pacific and in Korea, survived two crashes, and came home to super stardom.

The are two Purple Hearts in my house. Family members who served in our World Wars, were wounded, killed, and whose lives were forever changed.

When you come from an extended large family of that era, you are influenced by their experiences. Influenced by those you know, those you loved, those you lost.

I’ve been to Arlington, to the Punch Bowl cemetery in Hawaii, to Rosecrans Cemetery here, and know full well about the US cemetery at Normandy.

I wept when I went to the black granite Vietnam Wall in Washington, and was moved by the D-Day Memorial in Virginia. If you go to the Balboa Naval Hospital you are impacted. When you know them, when you cared about them, when you see them, when you ache for them and their memories, it leaves a lasting impression.

Blame game. There will be a public hanging soon if this keeps up.

They’re not going to play in October if they keep playing like this in May. The San Diego Padres season is fast eroding, and so is fan support. You can throw all the parties you want at Petco Park, honoring the past, but that gets old, when the current is much like recent seasons, and there is little to look forward to.

The Padres let a struggling Minnesota team come in here and take two games in a row. They’ve been shutout 8X this year. 23-times they have scored 2-runs or less in a game. The pitching staff is 3rd best in baseball, the bullpen 2nd best, and the batting order dead last in virtually every category there is.

Appalling last nite, the middle of the batting order was hitting 194-193-168-200. And they got blanked by another struggling team Minnesota.

It’s a great idea. Why would they not move on it now? I know. It’s who they are.

The NFL, always coming up with new ideas to capture the fans attention, has decided not to expand their playoffs. The 16-game schedule; Thursday nite-football on top of Saturday-Sunday-Monday; the combines; the NFL Network; the 3-day draft. They elected not to expand the playoffs yet.

Doesn’t make sense. Not when the product is at an all time high in popularity. Don’t give me that razz-ma-tazz, you don’t want to become the NBA or NHL where almost everyone gets to postseason.

Add a 2nd wildcard team in the AFC and NFC makes all the sense in the world. The league is so competitive, each game so important, allowing 14-of-32 teams into postseason makes is right.

There have been 24-so far…he won’t be the 25th-at least not yet.

Andrew Cashner and the Padres can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for the next couple of weeks. The worst fears have not be realized in San Diego. The MRI result on the ace of the Padres staff shows soreness and inflammation in his right elbow, but not a ligament tear.

Rest-rehab-a limited throwing schedule for two weeks, and possibly less use of the vicious slider is the PX anti-dote. No surgery. He won’t be number 25-to be operated on.

Baseball is dealing with a major epidemic. Since February 15th, 24 players have had elbow surgery for torn ligaments. 23-pitchers and one phenom shortstop. Baseball is searching for reasons-answers-solutions.

Explanations are everywhere. Young pitchers, throwing violent whip actions with their arm, to create ball movement like never seen before. 97mph fastballs that jump. Sliders, cutters, four seamers, sinkers.

You want to give him respect and space and you ask for understanding, but there are questions worth asking now.

It’s been a week since the NFL draft. It’s been a week since the St-Louis Rams took Missouri defensive end Michael Sam with a 7th round pick.’

It’s been a week of a wide variety of questions. How good is he? Why did the SEC Player of the Year last so long in the draft? Are people staying away from him because he has come out of the closet, not just to chase quarterbacks, but with the pronouncement he is gay.

We live in a different culture now, where being gay is public and is part of our lifestyle. It’s no longer the era of Dave Kopoy or Jerry Smith, who lived in fear in the NFL of being ‘outed’ back in the 60s and 70s.