Timeout with Tambo
Some really don’t apply and we have professional sports to thank for that.
“Try your hardest.” “Do your best.” “Never give up.” “If you work hard good things will happen.”
Those who put the athletes on the field should try to give the athletes a fair chance to compete.
I have been paying more attention to the Padres this season than I have since a former player and friend of mine, Mark Lee, played on the team in the 1980s because Nick Vincent is on the team.
I am not a Padres fan as much as I am a baseball fan. I love the game. I love youth baseball, high school baseball, college baseball, minor league baseball and major league baseball. I never root against the Padres but it is hard to root for them. I get the impression that their current owners don’t care about them as much as the fans of San Diego and baseball do. I get the impression that the current owners don’t care much about the Padres fans.
There is nobody to blame but the owners for the Padres record. I have watched the Padres on TV (not mine because my provider doesn’t provide Padres Games) and I truly believe that their players are giving their all. I have the utmost respect for Bud Black and his staff. I coached against Dave Roberts when he was in high school and worked with him one summer at baseball camps and he is one of the finest human beings I have ever known. He gives it his all. Mention his name in Boston (I have) and in his brief stay there he became a local icon.
I know that the general manager and scouts are doing all in their power to put a quality product on the diamond. That takes money and support from the boss. Say anything you want about George
Steinbrenner but you can never say that he didn’t try to win. Everybody but the Yankees fans hate the Yankees because they are winners and are always tryingto find a way to win.
The Padres minor league system develops players and then the Padres trade them or sell them. With lame duck owners, all trades should be put on hold so that the present owners can’t strip the team of its talent.
Baseball is always crying about small market teams and saying that they cannot compete. Green Bay is a small market. Buffalo is a small market. New Orleans is a small market. Is the market only small in baseball? In football every team must spend a minimum amount of money on salaries. Baseball taxes teams that spend too much but doesn’t get on the teams that don’t spend enough to be competitive.
If the Chargers are not a small market team, I don’t want to hear that the Padres are. I spend a lot of time in Riverside County and the Chargers are their home team. However, the good people in Riverside County don’t get Padres games on the tube but they do get Angels and Dodgers games on the tube. The Pads have a minor league team in Lake Elsinore so they should be going after that market.
The Padres are not even going after the San Diego market. Only two providers televise the Padres games in San Diego. That is bad marketing and just plain stupid. The Padres could do something about that if they cared. Rumors have it that the O’Malley
family is the leading candidate for the purchase of the Pads. I grew up in Los Angeles and believe me, the O’Malley family will try to win and compete. That is why they moved to LA.
The Dodgers fans went through a similar ordeal when the Dodgers ownership was in limbo. As soon as an ownership group that wanted to win got the team, the Dodgers turned around almost overnight. Lame duck owners don’t work. They are bad for baseball and for baseball fans.
If schools don’t perform up to standards, the state takes control. Baseball can and does do that. They should do that more often.
The Padres have had an inordinate amount of injuries this season but the injuries have not hurt the team and its fans as much as the lame duck owners.