19 Reasons: Corrupting Alexander Pope

The introduction to 19 Reasons can be read here. Here's reason One and reason Two. And Three. And Four. And Five. Officially, this is Reason Six.

In 1734 Alexander Pope penned the following line in his poem An Essay On Man:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

The words intended to convey a sense of optimism for mankind -- an attempt to offer a rationale for God's plan. Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau would later hold Pope's sentiments in high esteem.

It is on the shoulders of these giants, that baseball fans have stood, in trying to explain each April, how their teams surely could. 

Sorry . . .

In the circles of Major League Baseball, Alexander Pope's words have become cliche.

We have corrupted the work of Pope, as we all do each and every spring. We fans of the have-nots in Major League Baseball: the Kansas Citys, the Pitsburghs, the . . . San Diegos. It is our attempt to rationalize following a team who has little chance to reach the heights we dream for it. But we turn out anyways because, as Pope says, "hope springs eternal."

This sense that Pope spoke of accompanied every Padres fan to PETCO Park on April 5th, 2011. Arriving home after taking the opening series in St. Louis (2-1) the Padres opened to a sell-out crowd against the 2010 Champion San Francisco Giants.

With Adrian Gonzalez gone fans tried to convince themselves that this edition of the San Diego team was more balanced than the one that played meaningful games until the 162nd game of the 2010 season. An attempt to rationalize? Regardless, it was our collective hope as fans.

We witnessed valuable contributions by newcomers, Aaron Harang, Jorge Cantu, Jason Bartlett, and Orlando Hudson. And 2010 holdovers, Ryan Ludwick and Chase Headley, stole away Madison Bumgarner's hope when they worked the young Giant for back-to-back walks on 18 total pitches.

At the end of that 3rd inning the Padres would hold a 3-1 lead over the defending champions and as the game progressed Padres fans sensed that the score would continue to idle.

The familiar troika of Gregerson, Adams, and Bell would come in to close out the game for a 3-1 win and on this day a pervasive feeling of hope sustained Padres fans.

As we took in the festivities, the pomp of a Padres home opener, we all held hope that things would continue to go well for the team. We smiled, enjoying the atmosphere and a defeat of the Giants. And we did it amongst friends.

The Padres record, like the opening day score, stood at 3-1 --- .750 baseball. And fans would never see the likes of it again in 2011. Spring doesn't last forever.