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Old 03-02-2014, 10:37 PM
 
2,338 posts, read 4,694,817 times
Reputation: 2022

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To say that the turnout along with the game against the Reds today was revolting would be an understatement. I drive by the other ballparks through the PHX area and see filled stadiums and car lots. I get to the Padres game in Peoria and the stadium was a 1/3 filled with mainly Reds fans today.

I barely knew any of the backgrounds on some of the players on the Padres today. I wonder how this team even got to 76 wins last year. I sit there surrounded by mainly Reds fans and the only emotions from Padres fans came when we mockingly cheered when they broke their hitless drought in the 6 inning against some Reds pitcher they brought in as an act of mercy who had a 7-14 record with a 5 ERA in Cincy's minor league system last year.

I've seen some bad Padres teams but they had some players that still brought out some entertainment. This 2014 version just makes me think of Nyquil. Maybe it's their ridiculously bland uniforms. Didn't they have an ownership group that purchased the team for 800 mil ? Where is that money going ? Headley will probably get traded to the Yankees at mid season since he is on another one year contract for godsakes.

Do people go to Petco just to warm up for a night of drinking at Gaslamp ?The apathy is both understandable and really makes us look bush.
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Old 03-02-2014, 10:49 PM
 
1,175 posts, read 1,907,459 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by magnum0417 View Post
To say that the turnout along with the game against the Reds today was revolting would be an understatement. I drive by the other ballparks through the PHX area and see filled stadiums and car lots. I get to the Padres game in Peoria and the stadium was a 1/3 filled with mainly Reds fans today.

I barely knew any of the backgrounds on some of the players on the Padres today. I wonder how this team even got to 76 wins last year. I sit there surrounded by mainly Reds fans and the only emotions from Padres fans came when we mockingly cheered when they broke their hitless drought in the 6 inning against some Reds pitcher they brought in as an act of mercy who had a 7-14 record with a 5 ERA in Cincy's minor league system last year.

I've seen some bad Padres teams but they had some players that still brought out some entertainment. This 2014 version just makes me think of Nyquil. Maybe it's their ridiculously bland uniforms. Didn't they have an ownership group that purchased the team for 800 mil ? Where is that money going ? Headley will probably get traded to the Yankees at mid season since he is on another one year contract for godsakes.

Do people go to Petco just to warm up for a night of drinking at Gaslamp ?The apathy is both understandable and really makes us look bush.

I"m from the east coast and am a Yankees fan (Jets, Rangers, Knicks as well) so whenever I get the chance to go to Petco or Qualcomm it's either because the Chargers or Padres are playing my favorite teams or I have friends in town (family and friends from back East like Philly, Miami, etc) who want to root for their teams and so on. Other times I have buddies who know sponsors at the stadiums, so I can get into box seats or whatever.

But in all honestly, baseball is popular but it's not. Baseball was always my favorite sport growing up. It's the one sport I played after high school and college. But it's become poorly marketed. If you look at the NFL and the NBA, there are superstars who get pimped out everywhere. Baseball has guys like A-Rod who are hated and Jeter who is retiring and nobody else that is "the image." I mean a guy named Miguel almost one a triple crown two years in a row, something nobody has done really ever, and the triple crown wasn't something done since brooks robinson. You would think Miguel Cabrera would be a name. Instead most people wouldn't know who he was walking down the street. You have guys like Mike Trout and Stephen Strousburg who nobody really knows besides fans of their teams.

Hell the St Louis Cardinals have won 1 world series, been to 3, the Giants have won 2 World series, etc over the past few years and nobody outside of their towns care. Sports is far bigger than people who show up to stadiums these days.

This might have been off the topic, but in a sport where young stars are pretty much unknown, a team like the Padres almost becomes an after thought because they don't even have that. Or they have a young star who gets traded away by the time he becomes great. So in a city where many of us are fans of other teams, you need to draw some attention to the team. I'm just not sure they care to though. They have a beautiful park, a revitalized community near the park, and a great experience for singles, families and so on. But in reality, the Padres are kind of a mirror to baseball to me. They suck at marketing the sport.
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Old 03-02-2014, 11:20 PM
 
Location: San Diego CA>Tijuana, BC>San Antonio, TX
6,484 posts, read 7,461,069 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro2000 View Post
But in all honestly, baseball is popular but it's not. Baseball was always my favorite sport growing up. It's the one sport I played after high school and college. But it's become poorly marketed. If you look at the NFL and the NBA, there are superstars who get pimped out everywhere. .
NFL is king in the USA and NBA has turned into an international sport. In the NBA, even small market teams like San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Portland get great exposure. Not so much in the MLB, no salary cap is killing baseball. But this is a topic best left for another forum.
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Old 03-02-2014, 11:32 PM
 
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I think baseball needs a salary cap bad but poor owners will always be poor owners. I wish sports were more about winning than business.
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Old 03-03-2014, 01:03 AM
 
182 posts, read 194,587 times
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The salary cup excuse doesn't exactly fly anymore with the success of teams like Braves, Rays & Pirates AND how much the playoffs have expanded.

Padres just don't have the management or minor league coaching to be a serious contender right now. Granted in the 2000's, the issue was inability to sign draft picks. How are you supposed to improve without young talent coming in.

The home uniforms are crap. White pants with blue/white hats? Pretty sure that's the Dodgers

Should have never gone away from




San Diego has no Downtown community so most people are commuting. Your sarcastic "warm up for a night of drinking at Gaslamp" is true for those without a family. My friend has been unable to even give away tickets the past few years.

The ironic part is if you calculated NL team W/Ls over the past 10 years, Padres would be fairly decent. But mediocrity only sells so much and I think making the ballpark pitcher friendly also backfired. Padres have no history of great pitching, so the strategy made no sense.

Didn't the John Moores divorce derail the franchise? I think San Diego is destined to be a Miami type sports city: spotty fan support. An NBA franchise (again) would be perfect given the climate and women but no way the Lakers allow that to happen in their backyard.

OP, you miss Khalil Greene and Ben Davis?
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Old 03-03-2014, 06:07 AM
 
Location: San Diego
50,116 posts, read 46,724,808 times
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It's been that way for as long as I can remember. We'd get free tickets and tailgate until the 3rd. If they were getting smoked by then we'd just stay outside. It is sad seeing a mostly empty stadium each game.
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Old 03-03-2014, 07:47 AM
 
Location: Lyon, France, Whidbey Island WA
20,831 posts, read 17,015,172 times
Reputation: 11532
And so it begins.

The Padres have no sting. Maybe it's the name itself. Teams that win have a bite, a sharpness and a matter of fact crispness. At times I see this and then.....like the politically correct atmosphere it fades. The service is great at the stadium the salute to the troops is great and the in and out of the parking is pretty good. But that spark, the essential mad dog nervy held down by discipline is missing. Darn, but hey maybe this is our year.
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Old 03-03-2014, 08:27 AM
 
2,338 posts, read 4,694,817 times
Reputation: 2022
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro2000 View Post
I"m from the east coast and am a Yankees fan (Jets, Rangers, Knicks as well) so whenever I get the chance to go to Petco or Qualcomm it's either because the Chargers or Padres are playing my favorite teams or I have friends in town (family and friends from back East like Philly, Miami, etc) who want to root for their teams and so on. Other times I have buddies who know sponsors at the stadiums, so I can get into box seats or whatever.

But in all honestly, baseball is popular but it's not. Baseball was always my favorite sport growing up. It's the one sport I played after high school and college. But it's become poorly marketed. If you look at the NFL and the NBA, there are superstars who get pimped out everywhere. Baseball has guys like A-Rod who are hated and Jeter who is retiring and nobody else that is "the image." I mean a guy named Miguel almost one a triple crown two years in a row, something nobody has done really ever, and the triple crown wasn't something done since brooks robinson. You would think Miguel Cabrera would be a name. Instead most people wouldn't know who he was walking down the street. You have guys like Mike Trout and Stephen Strousburg who nobody really knows besides fans of their teams.

Hell the St Louis Cardinals have won 1 world series, been to 3, the Giants have won 2 World series, etc over the past few years and nobody outside of their towns care. Sports is far bigger than people who show up to stadiums these days.

This might have been off the topic, but in a sport where young stars are pretty much unknown, a team like the Padres almost becomes an after thought because they don't even have that. Or they have a young star who gets traded away by the time he becomes great. So in a city where many of us are fans of other teams, you need to draw some attention to the team. I'm just not sure they care to though. They have a beautiful park, a revitalized community near the park, and a great experience for singles, families and so on. But in reality, the Padres are kind of a mirror to baseball to me. They suck at marketing the sport.
Very insightful post Pedro. As a Padres fan living near Phoenix I see modestly more excitement for the DBacks as well. I am not sure where people in the sports media get off on viewing Kevin Towers as some kind of great baseball mind of a GM. Outside of 1998 which was used to help publicly finance Petco by keeping a competitive team, Towers has been a tightwad for both the Padres and DBacks.

I even miss the 2006 team let alone Khalil Greene. LOL. Towers did make SOME effort in 2006 to field a winner. Even if it was a bunch of guys approaching 40 like Mike Piazza, Woody Williams, Greg Maddux and over 40 like David Wells. San Diego is looked upon as a place where aging vets go to catch a couple extra years of great weather winding down their careers. The only aging FA who really made a difference was Steve Garvey who was in his mid 30s when he signed on with the Padres over 30 years ago now.

In closing, I am happy to see some rage from fellow Padres fans. I know this has been discussed on the "Sad Truth" thread last year. As Roger Daltry said, "Meet the new boss...same as the old boss."

The only thing I partially disagree with some posters on is MLB is lagging greatly behind other sports for America's youth. In cities willing to spend like NYC, Boston, LA and even Philly, people of all ages show great emotion towards their MLB team. That includes storied midwest teams like STL and Detroit as well. San Diego and PHX have a transient population as others have confirmed and between that and just sitting through 3 hours of watching a substandard product you know in April is going to be selling players in July, hard to have a real emotionally vested interest.

Last edited by magnum0417; 03-03-2014 at 08:41 AM..
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Old 03-03-2014, 09:49 AM
 
Location: La Mesa Aka The Table
9,798 posts, read 11,471,586 times
Reputation: 11880
It's all going to depend on everybody staying healthy this year. They move the fences in last year so now we should see the reward's this year. Padres payroll is at 80 million plus, lets see what it gets us.
Is it possible the poor weather played a part in the poor showing in Peoria this week ?
For the first time in a while I am optimistic about this padre team.
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Old 03-03-2014, 10:13 AM
 
2,338 posts, read 4,694,817 times
Reputation: 2022
Quote:
Originally Posted by hitman619 View Post
It's all going to depend on everybody staying healthy this year. They move the fences in last year so now we should see the reward's this year. Padres payroll is at 80 million plus, lets see what it gets us.
Is it possible the poor weather played a part in the poor showing in Peoria this week ?
For the first time in a while I am optimistic about this padre team.
Friday night and saturday was the rain. Sunday was partly sunny and in the high 60s and the field was fine. Not all the Padres were in the line up at Peoria. Because of the Saturday rainouts, part of the team including skipper Bud Black were at the other facility playing the Dodgers yesterday. The one bright spot was pitcher Ross who did well the first 2 innings against Cincy's line up including Phillips, Votto and Bruce.

I don't hold your optimism Hitman. For me optimism is a playoff appearance and I do not see it at this point. Hope I am wrong but I see another 75-80 win campaign unfortunately in a very competitive division. I see the Giants rebounding and the Dodgers will likely win 90 some odd games with their huge payroll.
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