“Thoughts about the Team-in-Town”

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Padres….Thank goodness for the Colorado Rockies pitching staff, for it is worse than the Padres. They got smoked in games 1-and-2 of the weekend series as the Padres teed off for 29-runs and 36-hits up in Denver. Sure the thin air had something to do with it, but so did the bad arms.

Still not convinced the Padres have enough pitching, and now Tyson Ross is gone till the end of the month after laboring on opening day. James Shields is still a 6-inning pitcher, but he battled the Rockies, though giving up 3-solo home runs. He gave up 33-shots last year.

Wafer thin, now they lost 3rd baseman Yanger Solarte with what looks to be a bad hamstring pull. Anyone seen a 3rd baseman around? Not Adam Rosales everyday. Surely not Alexi Amarista. Maybe a swap out of Corey Spangenberg moving over.

Love the signing of James Loney as a free-agent first baseman, for the veterans minimum. He is not a proto-type power hitter, but a lifetime (.285) guy, with a great glove. Bet he is here quickly. Now Wil Myers goes back to the outfield, and who knows where the excess baggage of Melvin Upton winds up.

Rumors-rumors won’t go away, involving Pablo Sandoval, he of girth (261lbs), he of big contract (19M) per year. I would not deal Shields away from this limited rotation. But here’s what the Padres should say. You take my bad contract (Melvin Upton) and a minor league prospect, I’ll take the Panda Bear off your hands. You add Loney and Sandoval for next to nothing, would make a big difference.

And the Derek Norris trade rumors have popped again with the Rangers needing catching help. Texas has a loaded farm system, but I’m not sure you deal a fiery leader-grinder like Norris for more prospects.

AJ Preller likes to wheel and deal, but this year’s transactions leading to open day left the big club vulnerable. He did not get any ready-made major league players for San Diego, while trying to restock the farm system.

Bad reminder, the Padres have not been in the post season in 10-years, and have not a home playoff game in 18-years. They have had 5-winning seasons in the last 17-years.

The LA Times dinged Padres ownership saying lead owner Ron Fowler has lots of explaining to do to the fan base in San Diego, answering the question “do the owners know what they are doing”? A bit early to condemn everything I’d say, but this does look like a 4th to 5th place team. And if they have any significant injuries-oh my-as Dick Enberg would say.

By the way, still awaiting the TV debut of Dan Orsillo, the Red Sox voice. Let him work games with Enberg and let him have some series when Dick takes time off.

The Padres like to talk about prospects. The only real one at AAA-El Paso is Hunter Renfroe. Have you seen the Chihauas starting rotation?. 4-journeyman starters, led by Jeremy Guthrie. Not a prospect there on the mound for sure.

The Friars have had a great relationship with the San Antonio Missions. bit ot appears the Missions will be moving from the Texas League-AA to the Pacific Coast League, if the Colorado Springs Sky Sox team moves into that market. Don’t think the Padres want their AA-team located in the Springs, high altitude, bad for pitching confidence and evaluating players. Years in Las Vegas taught them lots about that.

Once the Friars get done with this series in Philadelphia, they come home but they start facing real people again, Pirates-Cardinals and then road trips to Dodgers Stadium and San Francisco.

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“Lakers Basketball-All Time Low”

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This is not what we expected. I will expect something more very shortly.

Kobe Bryant’s farewell season in the NBA has turned into a farewell funeral. Thank you LA Lakers Thank you Jim Buss. Thank you Jeannie Buss. Thank you Mitch Kupchack.

The final memories I will have of the guy who wore #8-#24 in Purple and Gold, will be him hoisting up tons of shots in losing efforts. He being hugged by players on opposing teams after each game. Some mid-court presentations of momentos in the various arenas he has played in. Him packed with ice on his shoulder and both knees.

I will also remember him sitting on the bench laughing, and his teammates joking in the midst of 4th quarter blowouts at home and on the road, as if they had no cares at all. Getting bombed, no problem, because I still get to pick up my paychecks on the 1st and 15th.

The proud franchise that Jerry Buss left behind is burning to the ground. Daughter Jeannie, a business whiz, has not been able to stop the free fall. I assume shortly the club will start to feel a financial pinch shortly from all these bad years of basketball.

Rebuilding is painful, and growing Julius Randle, the power forward, and DeAngelo Russell, the young guard takes time. The rest of the roster resembles something from a D-League team.

General Manager Mitch Kupchack has been victimized by deals gone awry. The price they paid to get Steve Nash of the Suns, multiple lst round picks, blew up in their face, when his back gave out and he broke a leg. The Dwight Howard rental proved disastrous.

Years and years of drafting very late in the first round caught up to them too, with most of their picks failing badly. Maybe adding another piece, this June’s high lottery pick, will help put the club in a better direction. When the last impact player you drafted was Derek Fisher, and that was alot of three point shots ago, your franchise has problems.

But the Lakers are no longer a destination point in the NBA. Free agents are going there any longer, because there is nothing of awesome talent for a Kevin Durant or the likes to join.

The coaching carousel is equally pitiful. Byron Scott, hired on his Lakers past, has brought nothing to the team. Neither did Mike D’Antoni, Mike Brown, Rudy Tomjanovich or others of late.

Think about this. The Lakers are worse now than the Sacramento Kings, a perennial doormat in the NBA Pacific Division. Think about the talent level of the Golden State Warriors, and then laugh-or-cry, when you try to compare the Lakers roster to Golden State’s.

Maybe it was destined to be this way. The once-upon-a time Boston Celtics fell on very hard times. The New York Knicks are down, and have yet to get up, despite the arrival of Phil Jackson. You saw what the Chicago Bulls became when the Air Jordan era was over.

The cycle, the whirlpool, takes you to the bottom, and it’s a long way back to the top.

The Buss family says it will not sell the team. But watch as the fans start to drift away. The franchise is no longer what it was forever, something special.

Blame game? Probably a whole bunch of people.

The falling out of the relationship of Phil Jackson hurt this franchise immensely. The bad player decisions followed.

The Kobe Bryant-Shaq O’Neal feud plunged the team downward. It has never recovered since, not with trades, draft picks or random ventures into free agency.

The housecleaning has to begin shortly. Start at the top. Playboy-owner-President Jim Buss has overseen this mess. He has mandated and dictated this enterprise for the last three seasons.

Once upon a time you’d stand on the Lakers practice court and look up to the executive offices, and see 5-NBA trophies. The aura-the era of Magic and Kareem, Wilt and West and Baylor, Kobe and Shaq is over.

It will be a sad day shortly when Kobe plays his final game, next week. It will be even sadder knowing the franchise will be worse off the day he leaves.

They ought to hand a sign on the wall that reads “68-178”.

That’s the Lakers composite record the last three seasons. No one expected this. I expect something else now.

Jim Buss, I expect your resignation on my desk, tomorrow morning. Your era-of-error should be over too.

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“Mastering the Masters”

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The Masters Golf Tournament, not where the sport was born, thank you British Open-Scotland, but where the tradition is carried yearly.

Augusta, adorned in azalea’s, mulberry bushes, oaks and maples, and flowers everywhere. Where the greens are green, the fairways fine, the creeks flow, and the color and pageantry on any given day is only outdone by the history and tradition.

Amen’s corner, Butler’s Cabin, the Green Jacket, the Champions Dinner.

They tee off early this morning, and oh you wish this golf course could speak. It has seen alot since the very first time the tourney was held, back in the post-depression era of 1934.

It is a tourney of spectacular shots, tremendous comebacks, a few collapses. It’s about the pressure, the galleries, the leader board, and beauty.

History tells us of Gene Sarazan making up 3-shots on one hole, with a double eagle, forcing a playoff, then winning a 36-hole playoff the next day.

It was the dazzling day of Tiger Woods in 1997, when he shot a record 18-under par, and won by a landslide 12-strokes, wearing his blazing red shirt.

It was the 2004-day that belonged to Phil Mickelson, birding 5-of the last 7-holes, after Ernie Els had scored two eagles that final Sunday.

Oh there have been bad days too, the Fuzzy Zoeller comments about collard greens and the winners dinner. The frustration of playing so well, but never winning, Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller, a combined 7-runner-ups, but never the jacket.

It’s been the place of winners coming out of nowhere, like two time champ Bubba Watson, or those winning, then disappearing forever, the Larry Mize-Mike Wier-Charle Schwartzel’s of the world.

But more than anything, it is the history, knowing this is where Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan dueled. Where Slammin Sammy Snead came out of West Virginia, to become a star. Where South African’s finest Gary Player won three times, the same as Nick Faldo, and the super Spaniard Sev Ballesteros.

More than anything, the Masters gives us memories of Jack Nicklaus, and his 6-wins. Arnie Palmer’s 4-jackets.

Augusta, home of the Golden Bear, and Arnie’s Army, and the Shark.

Today’s stars are great, from Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, the defending champ, to the Aussie Jason Day.

The next four days will be fun, with golf’s finest, trying to get fitted for a Green Jacket. The Master’s, a slice of Americana.

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“JMI-The Q-SDSU”

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It’s novel, it’s thinking outside the box, it is a step forward in creativity, it has no financing behind it.

And so the new JMI proposal to convert the Qualcomm Stadium 166-acre sight into a West Campus, for San Diego State, USD, and UCSD, was unveiled to positive reviews.

But as in all things San Diego, no price-tag was ever affixed to it, no commitments by any of the universities towards the project, and no funding plan was put forward.

All we heard from the JMI (John Moores firm) was that the land should be donated to the University as a starting point. That seems to carry no clout because the price of that property has enormous value for future business development, and it is an asset for the city.

The plan entails using the tract to develop a 40-acre San Diego Riverwalk Project, which would involve state funding.

The proposal envisions seeking Research grants, to allow for the construction of academic research buildings, much needed at SDSU.

There would be condos for 3,900 students, helping the housing crunch for SDSU-USD; a 1,400-car garage to alleviate the parking horrors up on Montezuma Mesa. There would be faculty buildings and even faculty apartments. There would be 200,000-square feet of commercial space for a University village.

Part of the plan might be the building of a 35,000-seat stadium for both the Aztecs and for a possible MLS team, possibly using the inside bowl of the Chargers current stadium, and converting the outside part of the stadium to office space. And of course, a 200-room hotel, a Moores-JMI specialty, would be part of the deal.

It is just a flashy idea right now.

I don’t think the city will give away the land, but using City-County money to help fund the project, the money originally earmarked for the NFL stadium, would be a step in the right direction. Getting Sacramento River-Walk money, a large amount, would help grow the pot. Research grants, and money from the Cal system, plus SDSU and USD, could all be part ot the funding scheme.

We have glossy slick pictures and drawings right now. We have ideas. Next would be a game plan as to how to fund all this, privately and professionally.

Growing our academic signature in San Diego is a spectacular idea. Making the West Campus a reality will be a much more complicated mosaic to paint.

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“Amazing Win-Awful Loss”

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It was good, it was bad. We got doses of both on Monday night.

They’ve been playing baseball since the turn of the last century, 1902 to be exact, and it had never happened ever before, a lopsided loss like this. The Dodgers trashing of the Padres (15-0) on opening day.

The all time record worst loss on opening day was 1911 when the Pirates beat the Reds (14-0). Not so any more, this (15-0) drubbing by the Dodgers. You would have thought the game was being played in LA with the roar of the crowd.

It only counts as one, but it was a bad one. It was the worst opening day loss in the 48-year history of Padres baseball.

Tyson Ross will pitch better, because he has in the past. But my concern remains, what the middle relief is going to look like in San Diego, for virtually all the guys who followed Ross got roasted by the Dodgers bats.

That coupled with the fact there was no offense in San Diego’s lineup. I’m worried about whether Matt Kemp will see a strike this year, consider there is not alot of protection behind him in the lineup. Of course it was Clayton Kershaw, throwing a 1-hitter and striking out nine, and retiring 13-in a row at one point.

Back to work today, and James Shields gets the ball, to see if the Padres can bounce back and even the series.

And speaking of surprises, who could have seen this coming, the Villanova upset win over North Carolina in the final game of March Madness, a (77-74) stunner.

A Tar Heel team that was huge inside, and had a lead. A Wildcat team that didn’t score inside, but wound up getting hot out on the edge.

Jay Wright’s bunch shot their way into a 9-point lead with about 7-minutes left, only to have UNC claw their way back into it.

And then the thrilling end. Marcus Paige nails a three for Carolina with (:06) left to tie it, then Kris Jenkins launches an even longer 3-form downton with (:01) left to win it.

It resembled the Villanova come from behind win in 1985 against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas.

It was good, it was bad, and we got doses of both. Dave Roberts gets an opening night win as Dodgers boss, Andy Green’s team gets stomped. Nothing wrong with what Villanova did, nothing to be ashamed of if you are Roy Williams going back to Chapel Hill.

But both surprising to say the least.

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