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“A lot of Junk on TV”

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Boy there was some bad stuff on my television and yours too on Sunday.

Yes there was a dreadful performance in another preseason game by the LA Chargers.

There was another Padres loss to the Washington Nationals.

But aside from that, we have so many channels, that need to fill time, they put all this other stuff on television.

The Chargers drew a TV rating of 6.8 for their Sunday nigh loss to Saints, down from their first preseason game piped into San Diego.

The Padres TV numbers are really low, in another losing season. They drew a 2.9-rating.

But look at all the other stuff that was on TV on Sunday.

The Little League World Series drew a 1.8 rating for Sunday’s games, the third highest in the market..

Something called the Wyndham Championships, used to be the Greensboro Open, drew a 1.2.

The English Premeir League soccer match, with headliner Chelsea attracted a 1.2 rating.

The LPGA tour, the Solheim Cup was ranked at a 0.6, as ladies golf slips into a sinkhole..

Indy car racing, once very popular, come home with a 0.5.

So did the US Gymnastics championships with a similar 0.5..

And the prestigious US Amateur golf championship finished with a 0.2

It gets us to the bottom line that says the NFL draws, regardless of whether it is preseason, regular season, beloved team or hated team.

The Chargers have played two very poor games so far. The fan turnout at the Stub Hub Center has been poor. The television ratings back here are still strong.

But the bottom line should also tell us there’s lots of junk on television on Sundays, including a poor Chargers team.

I am surprised. Are you?

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“Cleaning out a Notebook”

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Padres…Great to honor ‘Trader’ Jack McKeon, who built the Padres first World Series team…the talent-laden 1984 team that faced the Tigers in the World Series….He spent Ray Kroc’s money in free agency, he made blockbuster trades to acquire veterans….He drafted Tony Gwynn and Alan Wiggins….It was an fascinating 11-year run for him in the front office and in the dugout….He then went on to success in Miami and was also with the Reds and Royals….a fun loving guy.

Padres..A bit of a surprise the option of RF-Hunter Renfroe to El Paso. His batting average has hovered around (.230) for most of the year. There were still lots of strikeouts….Thought his play in right field had improved…but his (.285) on base percentage was horrible….He will be a fixture of this team going forward.

Padres…The amazing sinkhole Will Myers has fallen into continues. Since May 17th, his batting average has been just above .200. Yes he hits home runs on occasion but the strikeout totals are stunning, and the number of called third strikes is staggering….Seems like he is guess on so many pitchers….He says his confidence in not lagging, but if you look at body language you see something else.

Padres..P-Travis Wood got offended when I asked him his feelings about the Confederate Monument issues in the Deep South….”No politics-just pitching” if we are going to talk. Wood is from Arkansas. Who better to ask that a deep southener?

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Chargers…How’s that fight for LA going….Empty seats again at Stub Hub Center….by halftime-half stadium empty….New Orleans mugs the Chargers (13-7) in really ugly game…Coach Anthony Lynn visibly upset in postgame interview ‘team did not compete’….Chargers lose 2-mmore offensive lineman-Tyreek Burwell-with possible broken hand…C-Dan Feeney-finger injury

Chargers…Nightmare of a night in offensive line…allowed 8-sacks….had 9-run plays of zero or negative yards…committed 6-penalties….1st team offense running backs had 17-carries for 17-yards in the first half….Failed on a 4th and 1-run…..Chargers had (171Y) total offense…Chargers offense has now gone 18-straight possessions without a TD over 2-preseason games…Bolts special teams fumbled a kickoff…had a (-12) yard run on a punt return….

Chargers…Dexter McCoil had a 99Y=TD interception return for a score…LB-Melvin Ingram had a sack and tackle for loss…CB-Desmond King had a sack and pass deflection….Kellen Clemens had 3-scrambles for 29-yards in loss.

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Aztecs….San Diego State came up with the slogan….”1-City-1Team” as a way to market themselves in the community after the defection of the Chargers to LA….Hasn’t had much impact. SDSU has sold just 2,000-new season tickets for the coming season. The Chargers left behind 51,000-season ticket holders….Despite all the successes of coach Rocky Long, SDSU still has not figured out yet how to market itself in this city….Yes they say attendance was at 40,000 last year…but the UT reported that was just 25,000 paid…the rest are free tickets….in a city-county of 3.1M, with an Aztec alumni base of 110,000 in the city alone.

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USD….A major setback looming?…Tough to hear the Torreros won’t have record setting tight end Ross Dwelley to start the season. He left camp August 2nd with family-personal problems. and has not returned. Might have been the best small college tight end in the nation…Coach Dale Lindsey won’t talk about specifics….But a huge loss to QB-Anthony Lawrence, who also does not have graduated RB-Jonas Hodges-gone to the CFL.

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Soccer City….The ‘FS’ investors group is going to continue its push to get Major League Soccer to delay its decision on the expansion teams for 2020. waiting till the ballot measure for the Qualcomm sight is voted on in November 2018….By then we will also see if SDSU actually comes forward with a developer for their own stadium and campus expansion ideas.

Soccer City…has wrapped its arms around the greatness of Landon Donovan and what he meant to the World Cup program? Should Soccer City do something to entwine itself with legendary San Diego Soccer stars Julie Veee and Brian Quinn and Kevin Crow, and the other indoor starts still living here? They should.

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AHL Hockey…The San Diego Gulls have put together two strong seasons..and the Pacific Division growth will continue….The Colorado Avalanche will move their top farm club to Loveland, Colorado, replacing the ECHL team in that city….the Colorado Eagles team will launch in 2018 and become the 31st AHL club, matching the 31-NHL teams…Keep an eye out for two other storylines….Do the Vancouver Canucks relocate from their upstate NY location (Utica Comets) and move closer to home, and does San Jose take its AHL team out of its building, and move it somewhere else, Reno, Fresno, Sacramento, to draw better?

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“Pitching-Good Days-Bad Days”

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He’s gone.

The first locker stall in the Padres clubhouse, usually reserved for veterans, is empty.

Jered Weaver is gone, headed to retirement.

We hardly knew him here, but we knew all the things he did before he got here.

When last seen here, he was booed off the mound in the aftermath of an ugly 8-run first inning in his last start.

His body broke down on him. First neck issues, that spread to his shoulder, that robbed him of velocity.

Then hip issues, that impacted his back and his mechanics.

I felt bad for Weaver in his last start before heading to the disabled list.

Padres fans were cruel as he got blasted in that final start.

Velocity gone. Ball movement non existent. And it was over just like that.

But there’s so much more to Jered Weaver, that this (0-5) record and inflated ERA in San Diego.

He was a workhorse for the Angels over a decade long span.

He pitched with a fury to his personality. He won 150-games in the regular season. He rang up big strikeout totals. He had some spectacular ERA’s for the Halos.

He was everything a high lst round pick was supposed to be, and he did it in his own backyard, coming out of Simi Valley.

He could have been, should have been a Padre, but lousy ownership refused to pay the going rate for high draft picks.

The Padres wound up with Matt Bush, bad attitude, bad drinking problems, and and bad elbow.,

The twilight of the Weaver career came quickly, like a fast arriving sunset in winter, much as it did for his talented brother Jeff Weaver, who did so many great things for the Detroit Tigers.

Jered made a lot of money because he had a lot of good seasons. He could have left the Halos, but he elected never to test free agency, just sign an 80M extension at the height of his career.

Up till the final year in Anaheim, when the injuries overwhelmed him, he answered the call and brought attitude and accomplishment to the mound every 5th day.

I was impressed with his demeanor and dedication thru this painful to watch season.

He answered questions honestly about being hurt, about the home runs he gave up, about what he was trying to do with his body to continue to make starts.

Inside, this man of fury, had to be hurting, but he never struck back, not at the media, not at the fans, who booed him so badly at the end at Angels Stadium than Petco Park.

Remember him for his amazing decade long career. File and forget how it all ended up, for that was a small sliver of all the man accomplished.

Sometimes you violate the media code, no cheering in the press box, by wanting a guy to do well.

You cheer privately when you see Brandon Morrow, the ex-Blue Jay and Padre, come back from diabetes and shoulder and forearm surgeries, to throw 95 this year out of the Dodgers bullpen.

You are saddened when you know 3-elbow surgeries have ended the career of once promising Padres left-hander Corey Luebke, retiring at age 30.

And for Jered Weaver, you remember his fire and the finality to how he pitched so many good games.

An odd bad day or bad season, does not denigrate all the great things he did for his team.

It’s baseball. Lots of good days, but yes, some bad days too.

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“What Were You Watching on TV?”

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That lst weekend of NFL preseason came and went across the US.

And here in San Diego, the first weekend without our team, the Chargers here, and all wondered how the fans would react, how they would handle it, what would they watch.

Well the Sunday TV ratings are in, and to my surprise, the NFL still attracts viewers here in San Diego.

According to my TV sources, these were the Sunday TV ratings in this market.

(7.2) share..Chargers-Seahawks
(3.4) share..PGA Golf Championships
(3.1) share..Padres game
(1.7) share..NASCAR-Michigan 400
(1.1) share..Yankees-Red Sox
(0.7) share..Lions-Colts game

Of course we cannot determine if that big share for the Chargers game was made up of solely Chargers fans, who root for the team, or NFL fans intrigued to see what the NFL layout for the Stub Hub Center looked like, or if they were haters hoping to see the worst beating a Spanos owned team has had in preseason in years.

The angst, anger, dislike continues to spill out across the city. A number of sports bars did not show the game. Lots of those replying to twitter were heaping venom comments towards the team now in LA.

It was fascinating to see what the layoff at Stub Hub would be like. But it was stunning to see tarps over end zone seats, and empty seats lots of places.

It was interesting to listen to the CBS-broadcast team.

Spiro Dedes, the play-by-play guy, kept up a steady stream of comments about this being an emotional weekend, but never really openly discussed the story in depth, about what new fans were experiencing, and what fans betrayed back home must have felt.

Hall of Famer Dan Fouts was clearly uncomfortable with any conversation about the history of the Chargers, what happened last off season, what the owner did, what the fans and former players would feel.

On field analyst Alex Flanganan, gushed, smiled, and gave us ‘wow’ moments about the arrival of this team in LA, ignoring the hard core questions you’d think an NFL network reporter would ask.

You would have thought there were would have been segments about all the new features of the futbol stadium that now houses football. You’d think there’d be something about tailgate parties, unless there weren’t any int he parking lot.

We got lots of pictures of fans holding up the “12” sign, signifying Seahawks fans were in the house. We saw tons of big plays, mostly all made by Seattle guys.

It was a sanitized broadcast. Thank goodness, because the Chargers performance on the field, soiled their potential. A horrific beating as the Seattle backups buried the Bolts backups once the starters were pulled after two series.

Onto this weekends game with the Saints, and the question, will fans come back and watch this Sunday’s game on TV here in San Diego?

And if the fans watching, will be rooting for the Chargers to lose every game going forward?

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“Padres-Be Bold-Outside the Box”

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You remember him don’t you?

Showed up at Petco Park and won the Home Run Derby in the All Star game last July.

Hit 61-total homers in the 3-levels of competition.

You might not be following him right now.

He’s the one atop the stat sheet, with 43-homers this season,, playing on a lousy Miami Marlins team.

You know him don’t you?

The maverick, rogue, free spirited GM of the Padres, AJ Preller.

The one who went on that spending spree and was unafraid to trade a chunk of his farm system, to try things out with Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Melvin Upton and James Shields.

He’s the one who has spent a year and a half signing virtually all the hot prospects in the International free agent world.

So now I ask you to connect the dots between the Marlins and the Padres.

New ownership is coming into Miami, led by Derek Jeter. They are going to shop Stanton and his monster contract shortly.

Yes the Marlins slugger has 10-years left on this mega deal, that will pay him 29M per year at the end.

It will cost alot of payroll to get him. It will cost alot of talent to trade for him.

The Padres have added 91-young draft picks and free agents since June 1st of 2016.

They are loaded with pitchers, excelling at almost every level in the farm system.

They’ve uncovered some promising prospects they got in trades, some already here, others on their way.

Of all the teams in baseball, the Padres will have more payroll space than anyone, thanks to their young roster. And they have enough talent in the farm system, they have 8-minor league clubs in all, to execute a mult player deal.

And the Padres now own the sports market with the ownership of the Chargers chasing the dollars in Los Angeles.

The corporate sponshorship money in this market could be amazing, if there is a quality team on the field.

Signing all that talent was part of a game plan to fix this franchise. A bunch would arrive at Petco Park. Some of the others could be trade chips.

Could you imagine a Padres batting order of Stanton, Renfroe, Myers, Margot, Spangenberg, Hedges and a host of young guys still to be delivered?

The payroll will be low for the next 5-years because virtually all these young players are controllable for years.

Why not take a plunge? Why not move up the calendar a year or two? By the time the arms are here in 2-seasons, all the young bats will be in place, with Giancarlo Stanton as the centerpiece.

He likes to hit in Petco? Wouldn’t he look good.hitting in Petco? The Padres need to think outside the box to put a winning team in Petco don’t they?

Step outside the box. Go get a bomber to stand in the batter’s box.

You remember Giancarlo Stanton? Don’t you think he’d look good hitting home runs, lots of them, in Padres colors?

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