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Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast…1pm
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“PADRES PLAYOFF INSURANCE”
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That’s why you buy insurance, for your home, your car, your baseball roster.

And now the Padres will need to have those insurance policies pay off starting this weekend when they face the Dodgers.

The insurance comes in the form of starting pitching and the depth in the bullpen.

The excitement of the Wildcard series with the Braves lost some of its energy when Joe Musgrove had to come off the mound, with an elbow twinge.

Java Joe, No-No Joe, has been dazzling since coming off the disabled list after the extended treatment for a bone spur in the elbow.  And then this.

Breaking off curve balls, throwing with 90s velocity, then a loss of velocity, and then he was seen shaking his elbow, and then he was gone.  The guy who had a (2.15-ERA) since coming off the DL, could be done for the postseason.

Home town hero-made good, no hitter, fiery leader, now hurt.  A glum looking expression walking to the dugout, and suddenly the fans in the stands sensed this was not good.

The insurance policy we have is the Japanese legend, Yu Darvish, no stranger to pressure situations, the guy who has 7-different pitches from all types of angles, will move into the rotation to replace Musgrove.

And just like the 7-deep bullpen the Friars have, he is big time trustworthy.

The Padres flirted with danger all night, even with a (5-1) lead as Atlanta found a way to overcome the loss of their own starter Max Fried, who labored after getting hit with a linedrive in the hip.  He exited after 2-innings.

This coming on top of the loss of ace Chris Sale with the back spasms, cancelled out of his opening day start against the Padres, after his (17-3) season.

The Friars got big hits early, the Kyle Higashioka home run, and the 2-run scoring hits from Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado.

Atlanta would not cave despite all their adversity, getting home runs from Jorge Soler and Michael Harris.

But the Braves, who led baseball in strikeouts this year, kept leaving guys on base in game two, much like they did in the first outing.  23-strikeouts in two nights with a bunch of guys on base.  End of hope.

Some other time, maybe Atlanta is still playing.

But the Padres had the full insurance policy, and it has paid off during the season and especially in this series.

The win is fun, the Dodgers next, but an ache in your baseball heart with what has befallen Joe Musgrove.

Thank goodness for insurance policies.

And as the fans exited the noise of Petco Park..what stood out at the end was the fans screaming ‘BEAT-LA..BEAT-LA”

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“PADREVILLE-PLACE TO BE”
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So how did you like that opening playoff game?

It started with the ESPN salute to the legacy of the late-great Peter Seidler

From the electricity in the opening inning, to the first pitch, 2nd deck, 2-run home run of Fernando Tatis, it was a night never to forget.

Padres (4-0) victory over the Atlanta Braves.

When they were done, no one wanted to leave Petco Park, though there is a second game hours from now back downtown.

The Braves had to turn the night into a bullpen game, after the emotional 24-hours of doubleheader baseball, the loss and the gut-wrenching comeback win in the second game against the Mets.

I thought they would be drained, with the twinbill, the cross country night trip, and the loss of their Cy Young ace Chris Sale, who will miss the entire playoff series with back issues.

A stunning 5-innings of near perfect relief kept the Braves in the game.

But they were never in the game, because Michael King was the king on the mound.  You name it, he got it done.

Atlanta had runners on 1st and 3rd..1st and second, and then again on second thru the first four innings.  Those guys were left on base, because King got stronger and stronger as the night went on.

King was dazzling…a 12-strikeout night, and no walks in his 7-innings, and by the way, no home runs balls either.  He has become an elite starter who has worked thru what few stressful innings he encounters, but dominates in so many of the other innings.

Heroes this season have come from all parts of the roster.  How about Kyle Higashioka’s insurance sealing home run?  How about the bullpen being so dominant?

How about the intensity in the dugout.  The energy within the stadium was spectacular.

A great win by the Friars.  A pretty credible fight put up by the Braves.

Oh a couple of other items.

Did you have a Greg Maddux flashback, watching King paint the black, and dominate with ball movement.  Looked one and same to me.  It was not a no hitter but it was damn close to that type of outing.

Speaking of the past, anybody miss Juan Soto on the roster, in the batters box, in the clubhouse.

And how cool was it to see Padres fans send a message to the nation, San Diego is a great baseball city.

And I had a payback reaction to the crowd at Petco Park.

It felt like an NFL playoff crowd.  You remember when the self-serving-greedy minded Dean Spanos turned his back on Chargers fans to go to Los Angeles, where he is on the perimeter of fan interest, where Chargers football is not all that important.  He had that fan support in San Diego.  That support now wears Brown & Gold.

Bring on the 1st pitch-Wednesday night.

Padreville sure makes you feel good… about the state of the team and about being in San Diego.

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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast
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“PETE ROSE-VS-HISTORY”
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So how should we remember the ‘Hit King’, who left us on Monday afternoon?

Pete Rose passed away in obscurity, a disgraced legend in a sport he helped move into a new era.

Legendary as the greatest hitter the game has seen.  He blew by Ty Cobb’s historical records, finishing with (4,256) career hits.

He also blew away his credibility in the aftermath of the Dowd Report, cited for gambling on baseball games, including the Cincinnati Reds teams he managed in the 1980s, after he spent 24-years starring in the game he was passionate about.

His career momentos, bats, balls, jerseys, hats are in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

He himself was never allowed entrance into the Hall, as baseball invoked the rules that dated back to the 1919-Black Sox scandal, the Shoeless Joe Jackson-attempt to throw the World Series.

The player, the personality, defined a rebirth of baseball in the 1970s and 1980s.  His style, his flair, his persona, his skill, was something to behold.

A 17-time All Star…an MVP…3-World Series rings…3-batting titles…2-gold gloves, the 44-game hitting streak.

He was the straw that stirred the Cincinnati Big Red Machine drink.  He drove the Phillies to excellence in the sunset of his career.

His personality was as big as the game.

But so was his addiction to gambling and the lies, and the failures as a father and husband.

He lied-denied for 15-years he bet on baseball, but after being denied entrance to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he finally admitted in 2005 he did it.

Of course you had to buy his book to read about it.  Always the huckster.  Also remembered as the guy who would set up a card table at a bar in Cooperstown on Hall of Fame weekend, selling his autograph to anyone who would pony up the $50 signing fee.  It became an embarrassment to baseball.

Always the Charley Hustle approach to life and baseball.  Always about attention and him getting money.

Part of me thinks he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame.  The other part of me, says no, forever no.  Then Commissioner Bart Giamatti called the findings in the Rose probe-were the ‘saddest day in baseball history’.  Giamatti dropped dead a week after Rose agreed to the lifetime ban.  Bud Selig and Rob Manfred never spoke of the glowing accomplishments of Rose, only citing Rule 21, the gambling rule, what he did and what he admitted too.  End of the Cooperstown conversation.

Part of me says you cannot write baseball’s history without him being part of it.  Of course you had to write the history that also included Ty Cobb-the racist, Babe Ruth-the womanizer and Mickey Mantle-booze and broads.  Of course you can now add the juiced era wrapped around Mark McGuire, Alex Rodriguez and that ilk.

There was an arrogance about him at home plate..the (.303) batting average, the (1,314) RBIs…the (.348) hitting season..the way he played, running over Ray Fosse in the All Star Game, getting into a bad brawl with Bud Harrelson and the Mets.

He was Mr. Baseball from 1963-to-1986, but it was never enough.

There was an arrogance in life too, the broken marriages, the kids out of wedlock, the lawsuits about sex with underage girls too, and the lifetime of denials and lies.  There was income tax evasion and a prison term.  He wanted you to forget all that.

I couldn’t.  I read the sleazy Dowd report.  Shocked that this man, this era, would do all that, and then deny it, this addiction to money, gambling, glory.  Shocked at how many bets he placed from a team hotel in San Diego-the opening game of the 1983 season.  Shocked at the documentation of calls he made to gamblers from the manager’s office in the stadium, before the Padres-Reds games.

Now there is a knot in my stomach, when I think of his name, despite the player I followed, liked and even interviewed.

Pete Rose was revered in Cincinnati, still is, just like the steroid cheat Barry Bonds still is in San Francisco.  The Reds Hall of Fame, next to the Great American Ballpark, has a wall display of all of the balls from Rose’s record hits over that 24-year career.

But there is something that I cannot accept.  He loved baseball history.  He knew baseball history.  And yet he did in Cincinnati what the Black Sox did back in the day, because he was Pete Rose and he thought he could do anything.  Hits to bets to lies included.

He belongs in the Hall, with all his memorabilia.  Baseball would have to put an asterisk next to his name if that ever happened.  But tough to forgive a superstar who became a slug.  He whined constantly about ‘being punished forever’.  Guess he did not understand the meaning of the word ‘lifetime’.

His favorite phrase-‘I played the game right’.  Yes, but he didn’t live life the right way.

What a talent-what a terrible person.
What a baseball treasure.  What a disgrace.
What a struggle, Pete Rose-vs-History.

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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast-1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“A WEEKEND FULL OF OPINIONS”
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Here’s what happened.  Here’s what I think.

PADRES..Complete a very rewarding season.  Team Chemistry-Check.  Front line pitching-Check.  Solid bullpen-Check.  Bench Bunch-Check.  Leadership in the Dugout-Check.  Now we wait to see if it is the Mets or Braves as their Tuesday opponent for the wildcard series.  If they win the first round, the likely reward-a trip back to Dodgers Stadium.

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS..Luis Arraez hits (.314) to take his 3rd batting title in a row.  A free swinger.  The best bad ball hitter in baseball.  And get this, the Miami Marlins paid all of his (8M) contract this season as part of the trade in spring.

DODGERS BLUE..A once in a lifetime opportunity to see the greatness of Shohei Ohtani, finishing the regular season with staggering numbers (.310-54HRs-130RBI-59 Stolen Bases) all the while continuing the rehab on his surgically repaired elbow.

NOT THIS FALL..Dodgers surgeons say Ohtani will not pitch in the playoffs-they are not willing to bypass certain steps of his rehab program in terms of building up pitch count and velocity.  The ramp up is a progression and must be part of this winter’s regimen.

ANGELS IN HELL..So hard to understand how a man with good intentions, like owner Arte Moreno, could allow this franchise to fall into the disrepair abyss it finishes the season in, the worst record of all time (69-99). He does not want to sell the team, but how can anyone accept his blueprint as a way things might improve.

CHARGERS-CHIEFS..KC wins for the 10-straight road game against the Chargers.  The Bolts played hard, self destructed, wore down and got wiped out in the 2nd-3rd-4th quarters of a (17-10) loss that was more lopsided than the score shows.  The worst part, seeing Justin Herbert take as many shots as he did, and yet hang in there trying to make plays with a hopeless roster around him.  9-penalties called on the offensive line and tight ends in a game that eroded from the 2nd quarter on.  The best thing, a bye week, for the Bolts to get the offensive front and the quarterback healthier.

RAMS REELING…All those injuries catching up to the franchise.  They get whacked by the rebuilding Chicago Bears.  Matthew Stafford gets battered behind an offensive line patched together because of injuries.  The season will likely get worse before it gets healthier.

AZTECS..Just not a complete team yet.  I thought they’d have a chance to beat an equal like Central Michigan, but the Chippewas kept making big plays and SDSU kept taking bad penalties.  Just need to give Sean Lewis more time to build a complete team.  The offense looks fractured. The defense can only play so many snaps before they wilt.

USD..Lost in a major market, 2nd year coach Brandon Moore has a really competitive offense, though a bit overscheduled.  They are (2-2) with strong QB play and a takeaway type of defense.  Anybody in town pay attention?

USC..They can be explosive, but are not always consistent.  A strong comeback win over Wisconsin after the thumping in Michigan the week prior.  QB-Miller Moss is a gamer, big yards, bunches of TD passes.  The defense leaves alot to be desired still.

UCLA..No longer what they were.  Just not enough talent on the roster.  Deshaun Foster leadership questions.  Not much offense.  And a no longer dominant defense. Long season ahead now that they are moving into the Big 10.  Wonder if they will win a conference game?

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