Belated Thoughts From A Sunny Afternoon Game Between The Padres and Pirates

I went to the Wednesday afternoon game against the Pirates with my Dad. The Pirates took a 7-0 lead and never really looked back. Amazingly the Padres kept chipping away and got it to 7-4 with a couple long balls in the 9th but alas it was not to be... the juggernaut out of Pittsburgh took the series. That line sounded funny.

Some Wednesday afternoon observations...

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An afternoon baseball game, where the game time temperature is in the 80s, is not dissimilar to a freshly baked pizza (or a few cold slices out of the 'fridge for that matter). Even when it's bad... it's still pretty good. Think about it. The Padres were out of this game pretty quickly. Clayton Richard is walking guys and then gives up a big bomb. It's 7-0. Things are bleak. But then you realize the sun is shining, the beer is cold... and Bin Laden is dead. That last part is attributed to my dad.

This analogy works for a few other items as well but on account of this being a family (?) blog I'll leave those metaphors to your creative minds.

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I saw a kid wearing a Padres shirt that I've never seen. It used the post-2004 Padres script and and color scheme and read as follows: 

Padres: Chicks Dig The Long Ball

All I could think was, "Boy, oh boy.... chicks must sure be disappointed to be San Diego Padres fans." Who was the savant who decided that tag line should be put on a Padres shirt? PETCO park laughs at you, silly t-shirt designer and wearer.

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I am angry with Jason Bartlett. On a dropped-ball third strike you run to 1st base... under any and all circumstances. But when it's a passed ball that hits the back stop on a third strike, and you are well aware of this fact, yet you make ZERO effort to get down the line a deserved boo is in order. I wish there had been more fans in attendance so the clamor would have been more pronounced.

Booing has been a hot topic ever since Orlando Hudson condemned booing fans as being slap dicks who couldn't cut it in high school. My position was and remains that fans pay their money so they're free to do what they want. Booing is not my cup of tea although on occasion I've been known to let out a boo if the occasion was egregious enough. So did I boo Bartlett? No. Instead I howled the following:

"Awwwwwwww, man!!! G*d damn! What the f*ck!"

Now, isn't that better than booing? I think the father of the teen-age daughter sitting behind me would disagree. One-thousand apologies. You shall be booed next time, Mr Bartlett.

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The Pirates have been terrible for the last 18 years. Nevertheless, Pittsburgh is a storied franchise with its share of championships (as recently as 1979) and great players (see Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Kent Tekulve).

I saw fans in attendance on Wednesday who wore their Roberto Clemente* replica jerseys with pride and I wondered to what degree the history of the Pirates trumps the terrible streak of losing over the past two decades. The Padres have never won a thing but over the last 18 years we've had some playoff appearances and some dramatic near misses. So we've got that going for us...

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Brad Hawpe's HR was a monster shot and he absolutely knew it was gone. I've been hard on Haw-pee, even dedicating entire blog posts to his futility as a batsman. I'm glad he had a good game on Wednesday.

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I saw Logan Forsythe's debut which was kind of cool. I was at Yankee Stadium when Chase Headley hit his first major league HR in 2008 and also saw Adam Eaton's debut back in 2000. That's all I've got in the "cool debut stories" department.

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In summation: It's never a bad thing when a baseball game is in the sun, the beer is ice cold, and Usama bin Laden is dead.

*I didn't understand the dearth of Joe Randa Pirates jerseys at Wednesday's game but who am I to judge Pittsburgh's fanbase.