Friday Afternoon Link Delight 8/7

The DELIGHT
Thigh of the week Bahara Golestani...nice find. [Sharapova's Thigh]
Additional recognition of the Sage via beach photos [Sharapova's Thigh]
Oregon State Beaver Alum Sara Jean Underwood [Gunaxin]

The VIDEO
With the Cromartie Twitter fine earlier this week it wouldn't be right to not look at more idiotic tweets courtesy of Tweet Boxx [Break Media]
The 50 most bad-ass moments in sports history [Hot Clicks]

The LOCAL
Bolts win their first Super Bowl [619 Sports-Ello]
Twitter and Sports [619 Sports]
Nick Hardwick is against speaking in the 3rd person. Avenging Jack Murphy concurs. [XX1090-Darren Smith]

The fellas at Gaslamp Ball have an enchanted evening with Padres' COO, Tom Garfinkle---he of the appropriately timed Austin Powers' quotes [Gaslamp Ball]

The END
There's a lot of other great stuff out there but I'm tired.

What Do You Want From The Padres? Let The Man (...or men) Know

I posted this same letter @ Gaslamp Ball this afternoon because it has become apparent that Padres' COO Tom Garfinkle, in addition to being able to expertly quote Austin Powers, also looks in on the comments at GLB. It is my recommendation that if you want your voice heard, follow this link, get a screen name with SB Nation, and sound off.

Dear Mr. Moorad and Mr. Garfinkle:

I originally intended on sending you a formal letter to discuss some ideas from a fan's perspective but now that I know Mr. Garfinkle is a Gaslamp Baller why not do it here where all Padre fans can give their two cents. Further impetus for this letter was fueled by a post at The Sacrifice Bunt this morning discussing some of their ideas. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Uniforms (In agreement w/ The Sacrifice Bunt):

This seems like a superficial and frivolous request as aesthetics should be secondary to winning but I think it goes much deeper than the surface. As a franchise that lacks a winning tradition and very few recognizable stars through its history there should be a constant, something that fans can hang their hat on as it relates to their fanhood. A Padre is brown and while not the coolest color in the rainbow......ok.....even the rainbow left brown out of the equation......the point is that brown is a unique color in MLB (as is sand) and we should accept it and embrace it. The uniforms aren't bad right now with the exception of the color scheme and you could always look to the '69s for a solid style. Everyone also seems to love the '84s although I would use those as a throwback. The point is that there are franchises out there that have only made the most minor of changes over time......they are also the teams with solid traditions (I need not name teams here). A Padre wears brown. Let's embrace our history rather than run from it.

The Seats minus the fans:

When watching a game on TV there is a message that is quite explicit being communicated over the airwaves: There is nothing going on here......stay away......save your money! The view from my living room shows empty seats all up and down the left field line so I recommend creating some buzz. Upgrade as many people as you can after the 1st inning so it creates the illusion that there are a lot of people there eagerly watching the young, up and coming Padres of the future. Create the illusion (in the short term) that Petco is the place to be. Too dishonest and costly of a ploy? OK....no upgrades. Give the Reserved Field Level tickets away for free during the week.

• Get more military guys down here, for free ( they'll take their fond memories around the world and if they leave SD at a time when the team is playing good baseball they may be lifetime fans---perhaps subscribers to a future cable television package?).
• Get more of the African-American community here, for free (Baseball is dying in inner cities. We have three young African-Americans on the roster in Blanks, Venable, Gwynn.....our #1 draft pick in Donavan Tate....and the Greatest Padre of them all, Mr. Gwynn. Get young kids in here for free and let them meet these guys----perhaps future fans who will look back in fondness and gladly pay as adults)
• Get more of the Latin community here, for free (I think you guys already do this but I thought I'd mention it considering the # of Venezuelans on the roster----let the town meet these guys)

This list could continue to go on with every demographic of people living San Diego but I think the point is that the seats are open (grossly open) so why not try something that will create life long fans.

Field Name

With all due respect The San Diego Padres have the worst park name in Major League Baseball. I'm not going to ask you to do the noble thing and shun corporate dollars that are thrown at you but I think giving a name to the field would make San Diego look slightly less stupid (Jack Murphy Field at Qualcom Stadium). Jack Murphy brought the Padres to San Diego so I don't see why we can't name it Jack Murphy Field at Petco Park.....that's just me....but anything would be an improvement over seeing only the name Petco in bright lights. How about something to do with Ted Williams, a PCL Padre? Something that gives a sense of history and tradition.

Draft Picks

You will take a giant step backwards if the 2009 group does not get signed. With Peavy gone, money is there: this is both perception and reality. Show that there is a commitment to drafting, developing, and playing dynamic young talent in San Diego. This must be done to show that there is a genuine commitment to building a World Series contender....not a competitive team.....a World Series contender. If you do that you will satisfy your fledgling fan base as well add all of the bandwagon types we saw in 1998. If you win they will come.

I could probably say a few more things but now it's time for my fellow Padre fans to have their say. I appreciate your acknowledgement of the fans here at Gaslamp Ball and hope that some of our ideas might help to give you a sense of what the fans in San Diego expect and hope for.

Respectfully

Avenger-In-Chief

Avenging Jack Murphy

A Padre Fan since 1986

A Proportional Response: The Prince Fielder Situation

Fielder caressed in the fat above his knee

Last night Prince Fielder was plunked by Dodgers reliever Guillermo Mota in retaliation for Manny Ramirez being hit innings earlier. The Mota response appeared appropriate in light of the fact that his teammate, Manny Ramirez had hit a home run earlier in the game and was later hit by the Brewers......unwritten rules and all: you hit our star we hit yours.

The game was also a laugher at the time Prince Fielder was hit just above the knee.....17-4 in favor of the Dodgers.

The issue however, will linger into tonight's game because Fielder went loony-toons and tried to break into the Dodger clubhouse to get after his old teammate, Mota. What to do?

I hate both Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers but this is a case where I am in support of the LaTrine.

Ordinarily I would suggest treading lightly when handling the emotions of a 260 lb man who has jail-house looking tattoos on his neck and is still white-knuckling a piece of lumber. This is a precarious position for any human being to be in let alone a thin framed hurler dutifully attempting to uphold the game's unwritten code. However, I would also contend that Prince Fielder, as one of the game's top stars, has too much to lose in an attempt at assault. It's additionally noteworthy that any pitcher who has to square off in a bare-knuckle affair with the burly Brewer will have the aid of catcher Russell Martin accosting said Brewer from behind. To that end.....

Go up the ladder tonight and bean that fat fuck right in the ribs!!!

I'm countin' on you LA.


(Link to Fielder @ LA Clubhouse doors video)

Pujols with the sacks full in 2009

Albert Pujols with the bases loaded in 2009:

1. 9 ABs
2. 7 Hits
3. 5 HRs
4. 24 RBI

Really? Shouldn't he be getting the free pass with the bases loaded? Unconventional to be sure but it's not without precedent....Barry used to get the IBB.

Those daring managers still in business?

Editor's Note:
As always, when discussing Albert Pujols, I'd be remiss if I did not mention that I saw him walking in the Gaslamp back in 2006.....he was carrying a Louis Vitton man purse.....the most dangerous hitter in the game.....man purse.

Mark Prior's Early Brilliance Recounted And Downfall Prophesied By Tony La Russa

On August 1st it was quietly reported that Mark Prior had been released by the Padres. His comeback from serious shoulder injuries thwarted at age 28.

This afternoon I delved back into a book I began reading a few weeks ago, Three Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger. This story recounts a series between the Cardinals and Cubs seen through both the eyes of the author and Tony La Russa courtesy of the unlimited access Bissinger was provided to the manager during the 2003 season. Today, I picked up in the bottom of the first inning of game 1 with Mark Prior on the hill during his breakout 18-6 season......(the whole excerpt is worth reading but I'll bold the most prophetic commentary)...

La Russa watches Prior with professional admiration. But in emotional terms, Prior gets under his skin. It isn't Prior personally that bothers him but what Prior represents: the young player with the big talent who instead of being circumspect his first few years in the league routinely rises to the media bait so prevalent today and gives answers to everything, when he hasn't been around long enough to have the answer to anything. He doesn't like the intemperate out-of-the-blue comments Prior makes about the Cardinals, how he hates them. He doesn't think he needs to make comments about Barry Bonds, how he isn't afraid of him, when this is Prior's first full year in the league and this is Bond's eighteenth. I think he needs to be doing this a while is the way La Russa thinks about it when he watches him pitch. It's an old-fashioned comment, said by a manager who believes in circumspection among young players because that's the way he came up: Your first couple of seasons, no matter how good you are, you should be in the corner, shutting up and soaking it in.

Prior can rank right up there with Schilling and Maddux and Johnson by the time he's through. With his rare mix of stuff and smarts, he is that dominant. But he's also that young. He has the swagger that is the hubris of youth, taking his invincibility for granted when nobody ever should, receiving too much early attention and slathering in it.

La Russa has seen a procession of pitchers over the years who have broken down and busted out because of arm problems and high expectation problems and personal problems and, perhaps most of all, problems making the distinction between being a thrower and being a pitcher. He has seen young pitchers done in by their need for speed.......

And even when you do make it -- even when the world seems sun-kissed, as Prior's world seems sun-kissed at this very moment as he mows down the Cardinals through two -- something can happen, something you don't expect or could ever imagine. And La Russa knows it vividly.

The commentary on Prior and his mortality as a pitcher is given in the context of the Rick Ankiel story (he of the yipps). It was three years before that La Russa had seen what he believed to be the second coming of Sandy Koufax.......and then Ankiel's pitching career collapsed.

Interesting to see La Russa point out the precarious nature of a pitcher's career, have it included in the book, and then to see the prophecy ring true just a few years later.

Man, Mark Prior was good. Going into game 6 of the NLCS in 2003 with Prior on the bump and Wood scheduled for game 7 if necessary, I'd have bet just about anything on the Cubs getting to the World Series. It's too bad Prior didn't catch on in his hometown.

Good Luck MP.

Editor's Note:
Three Nights in August is dope. You should buy it or I'll let you borrow.

Late To The New Media Blogging Party

Back in the day as a youngster, I would stay up late at night and watch 120 minutes on MTV. The good ol' days, when it was actually Music Television. I recall the personal discovery of a band that I had never heard of nor had any of my friends. Awesome! I could be the trailblazer introducing the finest that music had to offer. So I bought their TAPE, talked 'em up and shared with anyone that would listen. Not too many paid me any mind. In fact my taste was openly ridiculed by two people close to me. Whatever.

Within the year this band blew up to the nth degree and there was nary a soul not listening to the groundbreaking band charged with ending the days of glam-rock. Those that ridiculed me were on board proclaiming their love for this band........but I knew better. Many of these people were late to the game, a game that I had told them about, long before. I was the trailblazer that introduced Nirvana* to my group long before they were saturating every aspect of the music industry.

In the figurative sense: The Padres FO versus their fans

Ultimately it did not matter that I was at the forefront of this trend, it only mattering that people were in recognition of Big Hair-Glam Rock as a sort of Anti-Christ and that Nirvana was our musical salvation.....or our nirvana.

Now there is a reason that I share this piece of historical music awesomeness. Newspapers are dying, as those who are awake can attest, and it is through alternative sources of information that sports fans will be forced to sift. Some of us already recognize this and we have sought like minded people who can provide content and analysis......the kind that is sorely absent from the San Diego Union Tribune. For those who disagree with that statement I recommend clicking the following link to a UT article that gave virtually ZERO pertinent information regarding the players acquired from the White Sox in the Jake Peavy trade.

If you wanted information you needed to be visiting the San Diego blogs to satiate your Padre fix. That's a fact folks........a bunch of dudes who don't get paid a cent did all the leg work on the biggest Padre trade since 1993. (Bloggers were the content providers if you aren't quite catching my drift**).

So it is the blogs that are changing (and have been) the landscape of traditional media and we have many new and exciting choices in addition to the existing ones. It is the existing media however that must adapt; a choice of survival or extinction. But in the end it does not matter if your blog has been around for 5 years or if you are late to the party like me***. It only matters that there is a committed group of individuals at the forefront who can still passionately follow and research a Padre team that currently sits at 43-63, 22 games out of first. Only those with passion could do such a thing.....

Post Impetus
Former talk-show hosts embrace new media [UT-Posner]
Response to Posner's article [GLB]

* I happen to think that Nirvana is one of the most overrated things in the history of overrated things. It's three chord rock, with unintelligible lyrics, screamed not sung....c'mon? I mean I like 'em but they're not Deities.

** Look in the sidebar under "The Good The Bad & The Ugly" for a list of sites that you would be better served to consult when in need of real information.

*** If I were you, I wouldn't depend wholly on this blog for intelligent analysis and dutiful research. We're rarely David Spade's Richard from Tommy Boy (me and my fellow nerds shall return to our nerdery to crunch these numbers) and usually Chris Farley's Tommy (fat guy in a little coat/falls down and breaks table). But there are other solid non-table breaking blogs out there.

From Beer to Pitbull Summit

I was at a conference last week so I had little inclination to watch the news each day I returned home. As a result I had no knowledge that the little fracas the week before, where Obama's Harvard Professor friend was arrested, was going to culminate in a mediation on race relations, cleverly titled: Beer Summit.

When I finally heard, it was as a punchline (Obama's Michael Dukakis tank moment?) and in the context of beer producers being irked that theirs was not chosen. Anyways, here's a funny political cartoon that I saw at Kissing Suzy Kolber.