Stuff the Padres and I have acquired this winter

This Padres off-season has been a winter roller coaster.

The euphoria of acquiring a high ceiling talent like Cameron Maybin diminished when Adrian Gonzalez, the talented anchor of the infield, was shipped off to Boston for unknown quantities in the form of prospects.

Not one of these players is ready to contribute to a team that won 90 games in 2010.

"Allegedly" players like Casey Kelly and Anthony Rizzo will arrive sooner than later... this is soothing.

While Hope for 2011 took a backseat to it's bastard cousin Despair something quite rare happened in the last few weeks... Hope returned! Yes, hope reemerged when Jed Hoyer went and grabbed Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson to shore up the middle infield while simultaneously bolstering the top of the line-up card.

Now the only question that remains; who will Jed plug into first base before Kyle Blanks (injury) or Anthony Rizzo (youth) become viable options?

Derek Lee? Adam LaRoche? Troy Glaus? Joe Randa*?

I don't know the answer. I can't even say which player I prefer.  I can only speak to that which I have knowledge... and that's the stuff that I picked up this winter. 

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In 2005 I turned on the television to watch 60 Minutes. A segment on American soccer goalkeeper Tim Howard would explore his trials and tribulations as an athlete (both with Manchester United and the US National Team) living with Tourette's Syndrome. It was interesting and touching and.... now to my point.

Tim Howard was wearing this San Diego Padres track jacket by Majestic during his interview with Steve Croft:

I know; it's awesome.

I probably should have been looking for a way to contribute to a TS foundation but I was too overwhelmed by that jacket. Like so many things that are AWESOME, it overtook my will and would consume nearly the next 6 years of my life.

I looked everywhere for this jacket----The MLB Shop/On-line stores/Craig's List/ E-Bay.

I searched them all, finding variations of what I desired, but never the exact retro-track jacket I saw that evening on 60 Minutes. I began to ask myself if the jacket even existed. Was this a memory conjured up out of thin air? I searched for 60 Minutes footage of the Tim Howard interview and it was edited... showing nothing Padres of the sort.

I'm from New Jersey... why on earth would I be wearing a brown Padres Track Jacket, you ass-hat?

Time passed and on occasion I would see a fan at the park adorned with my white whale. The image would leave me frozen unable to muster the nerve to ask where they had purchased such beatific brown. The resulting debilitation also kept me from an attempted assault and burglary. The latter effect of my paralysis proved fortuitous....

For, in late November of 2010 I found my white whale on E-Bay for an absurdly low price of $14.99.

I would not fall like Ahab... this jacket would be mine!

The Missus, having witnessed my pain over the years, gave the green-light for an early Christmas present so I bid. And then I waited. For four days.

Nearly a month has passed and if you've seen a guy wearing that jacket around town, it was probably me. I wear it all the time. Inexplicably, I wear my "Brown-Majestic-Faux-Retro-Circa 2005- Padres Track-Jacket" even on occasions where my dress attire suggests that it's DEFINITELY NOT a day to present myself casually. I don't care. I won't apologize.

Go Padres.

*At this URL,  every question has a bold and definitive answer... it is delivered in the form of the human known as Joe Randa.

I am at Disneyland... and so is the Gartrell Johnson T-Shirt!

I'm up early for day two of the Disneyland weekend extravaganza and as a creature of habit I am rolling into form.

The restaurant across from me is about to serve me my coffee.

My clothes, you ask? Well it's a Sunday.... the Chargers play this afternoon... and the streak is on the line.

I am adorned in a golden Gartrell Johnson T-Shirt. It is wrinkled. It does not look sharp but i ma respecting the streak. Gartrell is about to push this streak to 5 for our San Diego Chargers. You Better Recognize!*

Thoughts on Disneyland
Positives: The representation of the San Diego Chargers is astounding! Lightning Bolts everywhere!
Negatives: The representation of the San Francisco Giants is disgusting! Nothing like a World Series to bring out the bandwagon. I've never felt such neutrality in the wake of Raider, and Dodger fandom as I have this weekend. The ubiquitous Giant fan amazingly out does them all!


Well... off to meet Jasmine! I'll try and get a picture!


*By "You Better Recognize" I mean to say you should know that Gartrell plays for the Falcons.... I think... I just know it's not the Giants... and obviously not the Chargers.

Chargers Got A Bit Of The Junkyard Dog In 'Em

I was never a big fan of JYD when I watched the WWF as a kid, I being more of a British Bulldogs/ Koko B. Ware sort of tyke. But it was the Junkyard Dog that I saw last night in observing the Chargers impose a physical brand of football on the Indianapolis Colts. They were nasty. They were scrappy... like dogs in a pound... like junkyard dogs!

Is it cool for the defense to score a couple of TDs? Sure!

Mike Tolbert busting out over 100 yards? Dope!

Going to Indy and defeating Peyton Manning on the turf where he nary knows defeat? Scrumtrilescent!

But I gotta tell ya, the thing I was most impressed with from last night's drubbing of the Colts was how the Chargers were finishing plays... on both sides of the ball.
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 When Mike Tolbert runs with the ball he's not just looking for yardage... he's looking for pain. He's looking to punish all would be tacklers as though each is an NFL General Manger who took a pass on him coming out of Coastal Carolina in 2008. God Bless The Chanticleers!


On defense Antonio Garay was just beating up the Colts line. Look at this picture!

Garay has abused his counterpart to such a degree that the 6' 5" Peyton Manning has disappeared. Good night sez Garay.

Every tackle by a Chargers defender seemed to have the following characteristics:

• A second defender rushing to the tackle to deliver a knockout blow... as in Stephen Cooper putting in a good hard tackle and then Dante Hughes coming in and blasting unnamed Colt to force a fumble. 'Twas beautiful! (see picture below).
• Tackles were not complete until a Charger defender gave a little bit of extra business to the vanquished as the play ended. 

 I am and always have been a proponent of giving your opposite a little bit extra so he knows exactly who's in charge. That little bit of nasty is what gives teams the edge needed to go the distance.

Are the Chargers going the distance? I don't know. But the junkyard dog I saw in them last night was even more impressive than the win on the road... which was pretty impressive in and of itself.

Giving Thanks...

AJM is thankful that the Padres made the season interesting all the way until game 162. It was a disappointing way for the year to end but the season was a heckuva lot of fun.

AJM is thankful that the Chargers have started to turn things around. Things were looking grim and the possibility of Philip Rivers' stellar play going for naught seemed like a painful reality. Now we have smiles and hope for the stretch run.

AJM is also thankful for...

... Jessica Alba realizing that, while it's fun to be a mommy, it's even better to be a hot lookin' mommy. Thanks for the reemergence.

 

Maybe we should also thank Elle magazine for posting pictures on the MSN Hotmail page.

Catching-Up: Part II

I wrote a couple of things for 619Sports.net during the month of October and... let's see... where are they?

Oh here we go: the first one was called "I'm not with stupid, I AM stupid!"

What's it about? It was a mish-mash of stuff including my viewing habits during Chargers games, Jimmy Carter/Norv Turner analogies, and a piece called "Cautionary Tales in Jersey Purchases". Incidentally, I've stopped wearing my jerseys and have switched to something else. I'm superstitious.

The second piece at 619 was called "Good Morning. I Hate You!"

This was a "getting back to your roots" piece where we re-examined our hate for the New England Patriots. It was written before the Chargers played the Patriots on October 24th, 2010.

I went to the game that afternoon and it was one of the worst played games I've ever attended or watched for that matter. The Chargers and the Pats both sucked it up and at halftime I thought there was a very real possibility that I would be leaving the game early. The 4th quarter however turned for the better. The ending not so much.

Go read it and reflect on your hatred.

Catching-Up: Part I

One of the things that's been holding me up in terms of writing anything original is the back-log of items that need to be posted. In examining this "extensive back-log" it has been found to be not so extensive... a mere three items.

I shall begin chronologically and time dictates that I begin with RJs Fro and their regular installment of  Beers with Bob. I was invited by SDPads1 and Beautown to "be a part of" an interview with former Padres announcer Bob Chandler... and by, "to be a part of", I mean to say that I held the video camera. Check out the steady hand...
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This was such an awesome experience.

The video was a short ten minutes but before filming we spent over an hour talking baseball and drinking beers with Bob Chandler, a guy who has seen it ALL close up and personal. From the famine of the early '70s to the epic game 1 clash in Yankee Stadium back in 1998*, Bob has been there as a witness. Bob Chandler was a reporter but he's also two parts fan of the San Diego Padres.

This video was filmed in August before the Padres went on their 10 game losing streak so the content is pretty rosy, fully outfitted with references to a playoff edition of Beers With Bob. The talk about the 2010 season was exciting especially when Bob made comparisons to past teams. I also had the opportunity to pop in a couple of questions about this blog's name sake, Jack Murphy, and in the process learned some interesting historical perspective. Bob mentioned the power that, as sports editor, Murphy wielded and also made mention of how Murphy was a person you didn't want to cross. I failed to get clarification on this last statement but perhaps in the future it is one I can explore further if given the chance with the legendary Bob Chandler**.

If you're a fan of the Padres you need to know your history and I can think of no better place to begin than with Bob Chandler and the guys over at RJ's Fro. Take a moment to click the following links and then explore The Fro... they'll put you on another level.

Beers With Bob: Volume 1 (click)
Beers With Bob: Volume 2 (click)

Stay tuned for Beers With Bob: Volume 4. Unfortunately I missed the filming but I know that the footage is in the editing process.

*The answer to your question is YES; Mr. Chandler still laments the non-strike call that Mark Langston threw to Tino Martinez which ultimately led to an extended life and a soul crushing grand slam on the next pitch.
** Bob has written a book called Bob Chandler's Tales From The San Diego Padres which I recommend highly. My copy is now autographed. Go buy it!

Uh...Hey!

So, so, close to writing something substantive.

Unfortunately I got hung up with Tesla videos on YouTube and then I watched Tupac get shot on ESPN's 30 for 30.

I was in Las Vegas when Tupac finally succumbed to his wounds back in '96. It's kind of amazing how prolific he was as an artist considering he was only 25 when he died.

Baby steps. Baby steps.