JustDave Emerges from Retirement

Scottie has been pestering me to write an article on the 2009 Padres season for a month now. So for the last few weeks or so, I have been researching how to write the perfect Padres article. The two of us came to the conclusion that the perfect Padres article has to be as follows: strong start, falls apart a little in the second paragraph, strong third paragraph, then the wheels rapidly fall off leading to an ultimately disappointing finish. Let me give that my best shot…

“Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough… the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! What the fuck happened to the Padres I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Dave, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Molina, he's a dead man! Utley, dead! The entire roster of the LA Doyers – dead.”

First of all, let me apologize for the extended vacation I have taken from writing. In all reality, it has to do with the Padres, and was ultimately my justification for coming out of retirement., as I will cover.

For the first month of the season I was in baseball heaven. Just absolutely and completely stoked. An undermanned and underpaid team of has-beens and never-was’s was putting together an incredibly exciting string of victories over far superior opponents. The swing through the NL East made me think we could actually contend this year.

Then, like clockwork, the bottom fell out. And when it fell out, it fell hard and fast. The Padres quickly lost 19 out of 23 games and had come back to earth, prompting a string of “told you so’s” from the talking heads at the four letter network… not to mention a certain Red Sox fan who also writes here.

The Padres were toast. It was 2008 all over again, and we were on our way back to 100 losses.

Then a funny thing happened. They started winning again.

For Padres fans reading this, you will understand how rare this is. But for you non-fans out there, let me really explain to you how incredibly rare this is. This most recent incarnation of the San Diego Padres is young and does NOT deal well with adversity. In 2007, the Padres were rolling on their way to the playoffs when Milton Bradley stepped on Mike Cameron’s thumb (and broke it), and Bud Black punished him by strangling him in to submission with his own ACL. The team could not rebound and missed the playoffs in the world famous “game 163” (in which I, like all other friar faithful, am still waiting for Matt Holliday to touch home plate…). In 2008 they started semi-promising (they were over .500 15 games in to the season, better than people remember) but then got punched in the mouth with a losing streak and fell apart faster than a house of cards in Hurricane Katrina.

But the Padres of 2009 didn’t collapse. They got punched in the mouth, and they punched back.

They rattled off a 10 game winning streak, including several late-inning come from behind victories. They did it against division and non-division opponents. And best for the fans, they did it at home.

I’m going out on a limb here. I’m going to make a bold prediction. I predict this team finishes above .500. I’m calling 82-80, missing the playoffs by a billion games because I think the Dodgers will win 95+. But it’s a promising foundation to build on for next year. We will have some more money to play with, and will have some young kids coming up that should provide some excitement for the next couple years.

Let’s go Friar, lets see what you got.

-JustDave