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“Padres-Decision Day”

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Waiting.  Waiting for a decision from the Padres.  Waiting for an explanation from the Padres.

They have interviewed the five candidates on their list of finalists for their managerial job.

It appears the job is going to Ron Washington, a baseball lifer, and an entrusted teacher, valued by GM AJ Preller.  Or is it?

They spent a lot of time with Jayce Tingler, a Player Personnel guru, who has also spent a lot of time with Preller, when they were both in Texas. Not him, not yet.

A last minute interview with former player, front office exec, and Cubs bench coach Mark Loretta.  Why the delay in talking to him?

They had alengthy interview with Brad Ausmus, who had mixed success in the beginning of a rebuild in Detroit, and then was treated poorly in his one year with the Angels.

The Padres ownership told us they valued experience, but they never had  a sit down with retiring Giants manager Bruce Bochy., who rebuffed overtures for a meeting.  They never got the chance to talk to Joe Maddon of the Cubs.

They bypassed making calls to Joe Girardi and Buck Showalter, both who have won other places in the major leagues.

Maybe they weren’t willing to pay, nor value an investment of 5M per year, what the Angels paid Maddon.

Maybe Showalter is too much of a control freak for their liking.

Maybe Bochy, who has had heart procedures, decided he needed some time away from the baseball grind that consumed his life.

I don’t know why the World Series credentials of Girardi, or the attention to detail style of Showalter would not merit an interview.

So we march on and wait for the announcement.

Washington has had success as a manager, and he is a teacher, with great rapport with players.  He did it with a young group in Texas, help usher in success with the money-strapped A’s, and had huge impact on the kid players in Atlanta, Ozzie Albies, Ron Acuna and more with the Braves.

Tingler has credentials in the new world of baseball, where analytics are viewed as important as experience in the dugout.

Whomever takes the job, will be challenged to get this everyday roster to play better, improve and grow.

He will need to solve the clubhouse chemistry, and find a leader, a voice, on that roster who will hold players accountable, stretching from a star like Manny Machado to an erratic young Francisco Mejia.

Taking the pitching staff to the next level will be equally important, as they grow the learning cufve that the young group of starters went thru last year.

Ron Washington has a track record as a teacher of young players in Atlanta and Oakland and the success he had as the Rangers manager.  It appears his off the field issues that stained his reputation, women and drugs, are a thing of the past.

Might there be a hidden message the club does not want with Tingler, another inexperienced clone of Andy Green, full of philopshy, but absent bench experience.

And of course the unanswered question, will the next Manager be his own man in the dugout, or a puppet to the people in the front office, who want to pull the strings.  You wonder if all these 90-loss seasons in a row have changed the way they might do business in the future with their next manger?

If it were my team, I would have taken a big run at Maddon, or on Girardi’s leadership skills.

We find out soon, for Thursday is an off day in the World Series, or maybe later on Monday, the next off day, or maybe they wait till the Fall Classic is finished.

Me, I’d hire Washington, give him the data you want, but let him manage “his” team.

The process seems agonizingly show.  I thought the Padres brass knew what then wanted.  Maybe people they want, don’t really want to be in the situation in San Diego.  They blew out Andy Green in mid-September, had lots of time to think, find and finalize a deal.  But it has not happened yet.

I think the guy coming into the Padres job is coming unto a good situation.  Maybe we’ve misread the value here.  Maybe the Padres have misread potential candidates.

Job still open.  Situation unresolved.

Padres, possibly paralysis by analysis.

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“World Seies-Aztecs-Colors”

Baseball-Coach Mark Martinez”

The baseball spotlight is in Houston as the World Series moves into Game two.  That spotlight will have a ‘Red & Black’ hue attached to it, as former San Diego State All American takes the mound against the Astros.

The legendary Aztec goes down as the second greatest player ever to wear the SDSU colors, right behind Tony Gwynne.

SDSU baseball coach Mark Martinez had plenty to say about what Strasburg has become in Washington, and what he has meant to the Aztecs program.

Martinez also spent time talking about the newly proposed restricting of minor league baseball by the Commissioner Office.  He comments on the proposal to fold 4-Class A and rookie leagues…the decision to cut the draft back to 20-rounds…a move to make all teams to reducer to ‘150’ the number of minor leaguers they have under contract, and what this could mean to college baseball across the country.

Coach Mark Martinez:

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..So proud see what Stephen Strasburg has done with Washington Nationals.
..Fabulous job-learned how to be enormous talent
..Have had a lot of chill moments thinking about his career and now the World Series

..His expectations have been so high, he has answered the challenges.
..Look over his career and now this year-what a season for him.

..He’s kept hitters off balance all postseason-strikeouts and soft at bats
..He has a different style of pitching-he dominated with fastball with curveball-changeup.
..He is up to 95-to-98mph…
..He speeds guys up-slows them down using all three pitchers.

..Heartbreaking when he suffered elbow injury that second year…
..1st think you think, ‘My God” what has happened.
..Respect work he put into his career.
..We knew how he competes at the highest level.

..I texted him to say congrats and let him be.
..Our guys see what he has done-they know him
..He is here in the off season around our guys.
..He’s done so much for our program..talking life lessons.

..Sit and watch him now..memories come rushing back.
..His 23-striekout game, in a (1-0) win vs Utah..holy cow-amazing
..His no hitter in final home start…amazing.

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..New minor league structure-waiting for data on what final decisions will be.
..Knee jerk reaction is this will help college baseball
..Change how we sign people coming out of high school..more players available

..First reaction it is an awesome deal for us in terms of players available for us.
..If they cut draft back to 20-rounds in draft…alot of California usually sign.
..Pool of players available will change..more available to us

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“The Fall Classic-The Best”

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They play Game 1-of the World Series tonight.  The Astros-vs-Nationals.

The history book will be full of stories about the old Houston Colt 45s in their early years.  And the roots of Washington Nationals baseball, dating to their former Montreal Expos franchise, or actually the other teams in the District of Columbia, the original Senators, who moved to   Minnesota, or the second Senators, who wound up in Texas as the Rangers.

This series will feat power pitching, Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke against Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin.

But it may also match all the big bats in the lineup, Anthony Rendon-vs-Alex Bregman in the battle of 40-home run hitters.  The talents of Treu Turner-vs-Jose Altuve.  The star status of George Springer-vs-Juan Soto.  The old dog Howie Kendrick-vs-the Cuban veteran Yuli Gurriel.

The statistics are staggering, wins, ERAs, strikeouts, home runs, runs batted in.  This shapes up as a World Series to remember, but then so do so many of the others from years-decades gone by.

Close your eyes, and remember the games, the heroes, the outcomes.

1956-Brooklyn-Yankees..the Don Larson perfect game outing.

1955-Dodgers-Yankees..Johnny Podres getting Brooklyn the ring

2016-Cubs-Indians..The Curse of the Billy Goat on the Cubs ends

2004-Red Sox-Cardinals..The Curse of the Bambino is over.

1986-Mets-Red Sox..The Amazing Mets-Billy Buckner’s error.

1960-Pirates-Yankees..Bill Mazeroski’s legendary HR for the Bucs.

1975-Reds-Red Sox..The Carlton Fisk home run on the foul pole

1988-Dodgers-A’s..Kirk Gibson’s legendary pinch hit HR

1993-Toronto-Phillies..Joe Carter’s historic HR for the Jays

1964-Cards-Yankees..Bob Gibson wins 3-games that fall

1957-Braves-Yankees..Lew Burdette won 3-games for Milwaukee

1947-Dodgers-Yankees..Cookie Lavagetto breaks up a no hitter

1912-Red Sox-Giants..Names like Christy Mathewson-Smokey Joe Woods…pitching on 1-day’s rest

1944-Cardinals-Browns..Battle of the Gas House Gang-vs-the Brownies team made up of 4F-players during World War II-before Johnny Came Marching Home.

So many great moments in the Grand Old Game.

And with the first pitch Tuesday night, fireworks and another chapter in baseball history about to be written.

2019..Astros to win in six games.

Gonna be fun, because that is what October and the Fall Classic has always been.  How can you not fall in love with the game, and with the moments like this?

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“Chargers Season-House of Cards Collapsing”

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It was awful to watch, the end of the Chargers game, the loss in Tennessee to the Titans.

The excruciatingly long instant replays.  The decisions made on 2-potential touchdowns, taken away from the Chargers.

The blundering mistakes made by the Titans  coach  on 4th down play calls, the decision not to use a challenge flag on the spot of a ball, and the obvious defensive calls that let the Chargers back into the game late in the 4th quarter.

The Bolts season has unravelled, done in by chronic late game turnovers down at the goal line.  Finished off by just injury after injury, week after week.  And 1-individual player who has cost this team the fast start out of the gate most thought they would have.

Melvin Gordon is back on the roster, but he is not the player we knew, saw, liked his first four seasons with the Bolts.

And for the first time this season, I can say I will agree to something Melvin Gordon said on his return to the team.

“There are a lot of haters out there” he popped off about, answering a question about the reaction of people around the team, and the national media, who had opinions on his holdout.

His holdout has cost the team dearly.  They have lost 4-of their last 5-games.  The running game, that was solid early on, has disappeared too.  The 3-games he played in have been 3-losses.

A coaching staff ,trying to reignite Gordon into the offense, has now lost the flash-dash that made Austin Ekeler so dangerous at the start of the season.

The Bolts gave the starting job back to Gordon once he returned.  He has shown nothing.

Sunday’s horrible fumble at the one, with (:15) left crushed the team.  He had three straight carries from the one at the end of the game, and never got into the end zone.

Gordon finished with 16-carries for 32-yards on Sunday.  In his 3-games back, he has now carried its 36-times for 81-yards.  Running backs who average (2.2YPC) shouldn’t be going around asking to be paid 14M a season.

Even worse, now Ekeler has gone into a funk.  In the 3-weeks since Gordon returned, he has 13-carries for all of 28-yards rushing, just a shade over (2.0-YPC).

You don’t run the ball in the NFL, you don’t win, and now they’re not, having fallen to (2-5) on the season.

If Gordon had never held out,this team would likely have won early season games.  If he had been in camp, he would have hit the floor running, in tandem with Ekeler, taking an enormous piece of the workload from an over burdened Philip Rivers.

No he had to stay away, wanting a 125% pay raise, even though he still had a year left on his contract at 5.9M.. He wound up losing 2.2M in salaries by staying gala.

So we sit here on Monday with a team buried in last place.

What’s Gordon going to say now.  Blame it now on fans not coming to their home games in Carson?  Going to blame it on the media?  Point a finger at retired players who should know the value of a running back?  Attack the former players now on network TV again, as  puppets?

Melvin Gordon had lots of things going for him his first four years in the league. Now he’s lost a piece of his popularity with the holdout and his mouth.  Now he’s lost his ability to make plays too.

Talked a good game, but hasn’t played a good game since he ended his ill-advised holdout from the franchise.

I agree with Gordon today.  There are going to be a lot of haters out there now.

He created this situation, hurting his reputation.  Worse so, damaging his team’s season.

Blame him for what has happened.

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“Gulls Hockey–Flagship Franchise”
1-Man’s Opinion on Sports
by Lee ‘Hacksaw’ Hamilton

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They’ve come a long way to get to Opening Night.  They being the American Hockey League, and they being the San Diego Gulls.

The Gulls kick off the home schedule with this Friday night clash with the Stockton Heat, future Anaheim Ducks-vs-Calgary Flames prospects.

The 5th year is launched, quite a road travelled, considering the home opener in 2015 was within minutes of being cancelled by bad ice and 90-degree temperatures outside, and a building that struggled to get the temp into the 50s to maintain the ice.  The Sports Arena, the Old Gray Lady, like everyone else, needed lots of reps to get it right, but they have now.  And has the town responded.

And so they have, as the Gulls drop the home ice puck, they’ve gone (154-95) in the teams first four years, with an assortment of a few veteran AHL players, and a truckload of Ducks draft picks, college free agents and an influx of players from Europe.

San Diego of course has had an enormous hockey history, dating back to the old Ice Gardens, then the Sports Arena.  The mailing address was the Western Hockey League, the World Hockey Association, the IHL, the West Coast Hockey League and then after the merger, the East Coast Hockey League.  There were big name players coming thru here.  There were championship trophies.  There were name coaches and execs and brawls.  But nothing like we have tonite.

The American Hockey has arrived, thanks for foresight of NHL owners, and the imagination of a longtime General Manager.

The league that started in 1937 coming out of the depression, has had lots of members, lots of problems, and now is enjoying lots of success.  There’s only 1-of the original teams left, the Hershey Bears.  Franchises have come and gone, done in by economics, cost of operation, travel, the arrival of the World Hockey Association.

A league that some years stretched from St Johns, Newfoundland to Abbortsford, British Columbia, is now rock solid with working agreements with every franchise.  They hauled in teams from the North American Hockey League, the Southern Hockey League, the International Hockey League.

They devised a formula for each NHL team to help run, finance, operat an AHL franchise.  No more horror stories of Eddie Shore and the old Springfield Indians from back in the day.

Most all of the old arenas are gone, replaced by shiny new minor league structures.

The Gulls head onto the ice thanks to the creative energy of former NHL-General Manager Brian Burke, who envisioned a need to create a Pacific Division so NHL teams could have access to their top talent close-by, rather than trying to fly a player into Anaheim from Portland, Maine or Norfolk, Virginia or Syracuse, New York.  Burke had great success in the NHL with the Ducks-Leafs-Canucks-Calgary.  Part of his legacy is what he did to get this product on the ice in America’s Finest City.

There are 7-teams in the Pacific Division now, all linked to NHL teams out west, highlighted by this successful run the Gulls have had with the parent Anaheim Ducks.  In two years, another team will be joining, Palm Springs, the top farm club of the soon to be admitted Seattle expansion team.

All you need to know about this edition of Gulls hockey, is its short history of success developing players for the Ducks.  John Gibson was here for 3-weeks in year one and has gone onto stardom in goal in Anaheim.

At one point in the Ducks playoff runs there were 9-Gulls on the ice on game night, guys who started here-wound up there.  Brandon Montour, Shea Theodore, Marcus Peterson, Nick Ritchie, Ondrej Kane among others.

Up in Anaheim tonite is the Gulls leader, now the first year Ducks coach Dallas Eakins, who worked miracles with a revolving door roster of players, coming and going almost on a daily basis.  Think about a team that wound up 59-games over .500 in the Eakins Era, while having to use 50-plus players a year on the roster because of callups-trades-injuries.

Last year’s hot prospects, who played well in San Diego, are now at the Honda Center, youngster Max Comtois, Sam Steele, Troy Terry, Max Jones.

Young Swedish phenom Isac Lundestrom just came down, so did young defenseman gem Simon Benoit, and goalie Kevin Boyle seems on the brink of an NHL career.  Add to that, another batch of prospects has just arrived, Antoine Morand, Hunter Drew, Brent Gates and Scott Moldenhauer.

The history of the Ducks front office to sight, select and sign a strong cross section of young players has led to the success in San Diego, and likely the rebirth of wins in Anaheim.

San Diego is a melting pot of fans from everywhere.  If they ever had a ‘jersey night’ you’d see a huge cross section of fans wearing Maple Leafs-Canadiens-Red Wings-Penguins gear and more. Was always a good hockey town, became even better when the Ducks arrived.  Witness the skyrocketing attendance figures, including all those 12,000-crowds mid-winter and a league leading season attendance in excess of 9,000-a game.

It’s not ‘Slapshot’ anymore.  It’s a shiny new product.  A new season begins with typical Friday night minor league promotions, flags, banners, team jerseys, beers, babes in the stands, cheerleaders on the concourse, and a roster full of players, just 1-phone call away from the NHL.

Of course as I warned GM-Bob Ferguson and newly minted coach, former NHL goal scorer Kevin Dineen, “if your cell phone rings and the caller ID says Area Code 949, don’t answer it.  It’s probably the Ducks calling to take your top players up.”

But that’s what Flagship Franchises are there for, and the Gulls have done that well.

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