At this point you might think that just about all is lost on the Chargers stadium front, what with the Chula Vista option closing and the new potential site in Oceanside being rife with likely insurmountable problems. But that assessment of the situation would be wrong. There's some very good news here, actually.
I spoke Friday with Mark Fabiani, the Chargers point man on the stadium search, and a spokesman for the city of San Diego, and lo and behold, the Bolts and San Diego are talking again. I wrote a story for my employer that you can find on Web sites of various local television stations.
Fabiani cautioned that nothing really substantive is in the works, but he did say the team and city have spoken more in the past four months than they did in the four years when Mike Aguirre -- an opponent of Chargers hopes for a new facility -- was city attorney. The city spokesman confirmed "informal" discussions.
According to Fabiani, there's even been discussions of potential sites: a plot of land just east of Petco Park and maybe part of the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal again. That strikes me as being a little more substantive than not.
What really struck me was the tone of his voice. My original question to him was whether, with other hopes fading, there was any microscopic grain of possibility that America's Finest City might re-enter the picture? He proceeded to give me the information I'm sharing here, but he sounded genuinely excited about the prospect. Not only that, it sounded like he was home washing dishes, judging by some clanking noises in the background. What guy sounds excited when he's doing dishes? So he had to be happy about the Chargers and San Diego talking again.
After probing the topic a little deeper with him, it turns out that certain conditions are favoring San Diego's return to the game:
1. Fabiani claims the city is losing millions of dollars annually at Qualcomm Stadium, and city officials recently learned the extent of the problem. I have no independent confirmation of this myself, but its true that we have an aging concrete stadium sitting empty except for about 20 football games a year and a remarkably few special events.
2. The economy has dragged down the local real estate market, so any land purchases the Spanos family has to make will be less expensive than they would have been a few years ago. That's particularly important for downtown property.
3. No one is getting financing for large projects right now, so the Spanoses have time to extend their site search and get their ducks in a row before hitting the financial markets.
4. The financial picture for the city of San Diego has cleared dramatically in recent years. The city's problems are all about the larger economy -- they're battling the same deficits all the other governments are. But the fix they were in with with SEC has been resolved. When the time comes, the city should be ready to move, and the city spokesman said Mayor Jerry Sanders is committed to getting the Chargers a stadium somewhere in the region.
Again, excitement needs to be tempered with reality, but this is the first sign of progress between the NFL franchise and the city of San Diego in many years. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Glover Retires
The signing of La'Roi Glover ushered in a new era at San Diego State, where the fierce defensive players would come from high schools, not junior colleges or four-year college transfers. Glover is the second athlete of his surname to make news on this Monday as he retired from the Saint Louis Rams following 13 NFL seasons.
Glover recorded 83 and a half sacks in his career, which also included stints with the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. His best years were in the Big Easy, where he led the league with 17 sacks in 2000, and had 10 sacks two seasons prior.
At Point Loma High School, Glover was a man among teenage boys, throwing opposing linemen out of the way so he could make a tackle. He was going to be a star wherever he went, so when wherever turned out to be San Diego State, it was something of a surprise. For years, SDSU struggled to keep elite high school players at home. They finally scored some breakthroughs in the 1980s, bringing in Helix QB Jim Plum, Lincoln WR Patrick Rowe and, in 1990, Kearny WR Darnay Scott.
Glover was different. He was a defensive player, and in 1992 the Aztecs under head coach Al Luginbill were desperate for defense. They were just beginning the Marshall Faulk hysteria. One of the reasons why Faulk scored so many touchdowns is the Aztecs needed every single one of them -- sometimes more. Bringing in Glover was a coup.
He was everything he was advertised to be. He started all four seasons, clogging the middle and chasing opposing passers. He still ranks third in SDSU history in career tackles for loss and fourth with 18 and a half sacks. While the defense worsened in terms of yardage allowed, it improved by a touchdown in points allowed per game over the Glover-era.
Glover toiled in anonymity at State, never winning All-American status and gaining first-team All-WAC only once. This for a guy who consistently held up his end. Might be the most overlooked player I can remember. He'd have had far greater acclaim if he'd gone to a Pac-10 school, but instead he chose to stay home and help build up SDSU football.
It nearly worked. Luginbill was an awesome recruiter and brought in a number of other top- flight defenders such as S Robert Griffith and CB Ricky Parker, and successor Ted Tollner's staff showed they could make good use of the bounty with a pair of 8-win seasons once Glover had gone pro.
The era of elite defenders flocking to Montezuma Mesa was short-circuited when the "haves" of college football took it upon themselves to cut off the "have nots" by forming what eventually became the BCS, and elite recruits of all positions no longer considered attending SDSU nor other WAC schools. Under those conditions, there is no way Glover would have stayed home. A little illustration of the travesty the BCS has been for college football.
---
What would the odds have been before spring training that here in late-June Kevin Correia would be the Padres best starting pitcher? Yes, of course, if Jake Peavy and Chris Young are on the disabled list as they are. But Correia is doing this legitmately -- he's dealing. Over the past three weeks, he's been by far the Padres best starter. In his last four outings, he's won three times with a 2.02 ERA and has allowed just 12 hits in 26-plus innings. Three of those starts were in the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco, though he won the other with a superb performance in LA.
Glover recorded 83 and a half sacks in his career, which also included stints with the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. His best years were in the Big Easy, where he led the league with 17 sacks in 2000, and had 10 sacks two seasons prior.
At Point Loma High School, Glover was a man among teenage boys, throwing opposing linemen out of the way so he could make a tackle. He was going to be a star wherever he went, so when wherever turned out to be San Diego State, it was something of a surprise. For years, SDSU struggled to keep elite high school players at home. They finally scored some breakthroughs in the 1980s, bringing in Helix QB Jim Plum, Lincoln WR Patrick Rowe and, in 1990, Kearny WR Darnay Scott.
Glover was different. He was a defensive player, and in 1992 the Aztecs under head coach Al Luginbill were desperate for defense. They were just beginning the Marshall Faulk hysteria. One of the reasons why Faulk scored so many touchdowns is the Aztecs needed every single one of them -- sometimes more. Bringing in Glover was a coup.
He was everything he was advertised to be. He started all four seasons, clogging the middle and chasing opposing passers. He still ranks third in SDSU history in career tackles for loss and fourth with 18 and a half sacks. While the defense worsened in terms of yardage allowed, it improved by a touchdown in points allowed per game over the Glover-era.
Glover toiled in anonymity at State, never winning All-American status and gaining first-team All-WAC only once. This for a guy who consistently held up his end. Might be the most overlooked player I can remember. He'd have had far greater acclaim if he'd gone to a Pac-10 school, but instead he chose to stay home and help build up SDSU football.
It nearly worked. Luginbill was an awesome recruiter and brought in a number of other top- flight defenders such as S Robert Griffith and CB Ricky Parker, and successor Ted Tollner's staff showed they could make good use of the bounty with a pair of 8-win seasons once Glover had gone pro.
The era of elite defenders flocking to Montezuma Mesa was short-circuited when the "haves" of college football took it upon themselves to cut off the "have nots" by forming what eventually became the BCS, and elite recruits of all positions no longer considered attending SDSU nor other WAC schools. Under those conditions, there is no way Glover would have stayed home. A little illustration of the travesty the BCS has been for college football.
---
What would the odds have been before spring training that here in late-June Kevin Correia would be the Padres best starting pitcher? Yes, of course, if Jake Peavy and Chris Young are on the disabled list as they are. But Correia is doing this legitmately -- he's dealing. Over the past three weeks, he's been by far the Padres best starter. In his last four outings, he's won three times with a 2.02 ERA and has allowed just 12 hits in 26-plus innings. Three of those starts were in the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco, though he won the other with a superb performance in LA.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
O'Sullivan
Sean O'Sullivan carried that "can't miss" label through his years of baseball at Valhalla High. Now, after a call up to the Angels, the former San Diego County Player of the Year is a "didn't miss."
In my five years of operating Sandiegosportstown.com, I came across a lot of really good high school baseball players, including some who made it to the big leagues, like Junior from Poway, Wes Littleton from Vista and Adrian Gonzalez of Eastlake. None were quite the sure thing as O'Sullivan.
Baseball, as we all know, is a humbling game. There are people who insist that Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter they ever saw, steroids or no, and look at how he struggled so badly in the postseason with the Pirates and Giants. Same to some extent for A-Rod. It's something they carry with them. For O'Sullivan, as a senior he carried the Norsemen into the CIF final at SDSU and got crushed by El Capitan. He had a few shaky starts that year. He won awards when pitching at Grossmont College but my increasingly feeble memory makes me think he wasn't quite himself there, either.
His initial rise in the Angels organization was typical, not the swift sort of jump through the lower rungs that you expect from phenoms. He was in the Pioneer League before a year at Cedar Rapids in what's described as "low-A" ball. He spent 2008 in "high-A" at Rancho Cucamonga, where he was 16-8 but with an ERA of 4.73 and a stat line that showed more hits than innings pitched and too many BBs.
Then there was this year, where he went 1-2 in three starts at AA Arkansas. He rose to Salt Lake City in AAA and went 5-2. His ERA was 6.02 but the Pacific Coast League, filled with small stadiums at high altitudes, is notoriously rough on pitching stats.
The next thing you knew, Angels starter Ervin Santana was hurt and manager Mike Scioscia needed a pitcher. O'Sullivan got the call, allowing just one run in seven innings, giving up just five hits and a walk and striking out five. That's dealing. He also singled and scored in the Halos 8-1 win in San Francisco, close enough for the family to travel.
O'Sullivan's rapid rise turned out to be through the high end of the minors, making him a rare commodity indeed.
Alas, Santana is due back for his next start and, as I wrote this, O'Sullivan was returned to Salt Lake City. That's baseball for you -- a humbling game. But Sean O'Sullivan didn't miss and, if his first major league start is any indication, he'll be back for more.
---
You can never really tell who'll be the next local kid to make The Show. So much is dependent on injuries and teams that suddenly go into an early-summer tailspin. You can be batting .350 in AAA but if your major league club is solid, you might be stuck.
One of the SD Sports Town faves, former USD and Grossmont High infielder Mike McCoy, has made AAA look easy in the Rockies organization. As of today, he's hitting .338 with an outstanding .445 on-base percentage and has 21 steals while playing third base. Of course, he needs Garret Atkins to get hurt or traded. Fat chance.
Braves infielder Brooks Conrad has been playing well at AAA Gwinnett. He's a longtime minor leaguer who has been on the cusp for years.
Otherwise, there aren't too many local kids who look ready to make the jump, that I can see.
---
Speaking of Junior, it seems like Major League Baseball came to him, not the other way around. Anthony couldn't make the Brewers fulltime because they were still looking for big boppers to go with Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, while discounting whether any runners would be on base ahead of them. So bringing Gwynn to San Diego where his speed and ability to draw walks and make contact will be huge assets at the top of the batting order -- along with his defense on the field -- made sense.
But the Brewers, while moderately successful, in recent years, are playing yesterday's game. Baseball is thankfully bringing speed, defense and contact hitting back into the fold after a 10-year-plus absense. That will only benefit Gwynn The Younger even more. And I still can't get over how much he sounds like his father.
In my five years of operating Sandiegosportstown.com, I came across a lot of really good high school baseball players, including some who made it to the big leagues, like Junior from Poway, Wes Littleton from Vista and Adrian Gonzalez of Eastlake. None were quite the sure thing as O'Sullivan.
Baseball, as we all know, is a humbling game. There are people who insist that Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter they ever saw, steroids or no, and look at how he struggled so badly in the postseason with the Pirates and Giants. Same to some extent for A-Rod. It's something they carry with them. For O'Sullivan, as a senior he carried the Norsemen into the CIF final at SDSU and got crushed by El Capitan. He had a few shaky starts that year. He won awards when pitching at Grossmont College but my increasingly feeble memory makes me think he wasn't quite himself there, either.
His initial rise in the Angels organization was typical, not the swift sort of jump through the lower rungs that you expect from phenoms. He was in the Pioneer League before a year at Cedar Rapids in what's described as "low-A" ball. He spent 2008 in "high-A" at Rancho Cucamonga, where he was 16-8 but with an ERA of 4.73 and a stat line that showed more hits than innings pitched and too many BBs.
Then there was this year, where he went 1-2 in three starts at AA Arkansas. He rose to Salt Lake City in AAA and went 5-2. His ERA was 6.02 but the Pacific Coast League, filled with small stadiums at high altitudes, is notoriously rough on pitching stats.
The next thing you knew, Angels starter Ervin Santana was hurt and manager Mike Scioscia needed a pitcher. O'Sullivan got the call, allowing just one run in seven innings, giving up just five hits and a walk and striking out five. That's dealing. He also singled and scored in the Halos 8-1 win in San Francisco, close enough for the family to travel.
O'Sullivan's rapid rise turned out to be through the high end of the minors, making him a rare commodity indeed.
Alas, Santana is due back for his next start and, as I wrote this, O'Sullivan was returned to Salt Lake City. That's baseball for you -- a humbling game. But Sean O'Sullivan didn't miss and, if his first major league start is any indication, he'll be back for more.
---
You can never really tell who'll be the next local kid to make The Show. So much is dependent on injuries and teams that suddenly go into an early-summer tailspin. You can be batting .350 in AAA but if your major league club is solid, you might be stuck.
One of the SD Sports Town faves, former USD and Grossmont High infielder Mike McCoy, has made AAA look easy in the Rockies organization. As of today, he's hitting .338 with an outstanding .445 on-base percentage and has 21 steals while playing third base. Of course, he needs Garret Atkins to get hurt or traded. Fat chance.
Braves infielder Brooks Conrad has been playing well at AAA Gwinnett. He's a longtime minor leaguer who has been on the cusp for years.
Otherwise, there aren't too many local kids who look ready to make the jump, that I can see.
---
Speaking of Junior, it seems like Major League Baseball came to him, not the other way around. Anthony couldn't make the Brewers fulltime because they were still looking for big boppers to go with Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, while discounting whether any runners would be on base ahead of them. So bringing Gwynn to San Diego where his speed and ability to draw walks and make contact will be huge assets at the top of the batting order -- along with his defense on the field -- made sense.
But the Brewers, while moderately successful, in recent years, are playing yesterday's game. Baseball is thankfully bringing speed, defense and contact hitting back into the fold after a 10-year-plus absense. That will only benefit Gwynn The Younger even more. And I still can't get over how much he sounds like his father.
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