Don Coryell epitomized nostalgia in San Diego. The legendary football coach, who died Thursday at 85, took both San Diego State and the Chargers to great heights that, years later, left fans crying out for a return to the good old days.
Chargers fans had two waits of about a decade each, from Coryell's glory years of the beginning of the 1980s to coach Bobby Ross' Super Bowl season, and then again until coaches Marty Schottenheimer and Norv Turner along with GM AJ Smith, brought about the relative success of recent seasons. Both waits through seasons of 1-15, 4-12 and 5-11, were extraordinarily frustrating.
It's been even worse for the remaining few SDSU fans who can remember undefeated seasons in the 1960s. Coryell turned over the reigns of the Aztecs in 1972 to Claude Gilbert, who mostly continued his predecessor's methods and took the program to arguably greater heights against far superior competition. But after SDSU football turned south in 1980, the nostalgia has gone mostly unrequited, save for a few bowl games and the Marshall Faulk excitement. SDSU frequently capitalized on Coryell's popularity by having him make special appearances at football games. If you can't win, bring back the coach who could, at least to say hello.
At both places, Coryell set the bar high, and his successors will always be measured against him. It is a blessing the Chargers are back at such levels. I worry that SDSU fans will sit on their hands and make coach Brady Hoke prove the Aztecs are back before they'll start coming to games again. I feel that way myself, even though I attend the home contests.
Now that he truly is Saint Don, we should all be thankful that he gave us such high standards to aspire to.
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The Padres will have more than one member on the National League All-Star team. Who deserves to go?
1B Adrian Gonzalez is a no-brainer pick for manager Charlie Manuel. But the Phillies' boss' selection of Padres skipper Bud Black as a coach could be a signal that a couple other players are under consideration.
If I were Manuel, my picks would be 2B David Eckstein and P Luke Gregerson.
Eckstein is simply the heart and soul of the roster that claims first place in the National League West and the best record in the senior circuit. Throw out his pedestrian numbers. He's the guy who makes this team go. It doesn't hurt that he's played 68 games at second base and has not made an error. Defense is a big reason why the Friars have been successful so far in 2010.
Gregerson's statistics are mind-boggling. He has thrown in 37 games as of this writing, allowing 16 hits in 39-plus innings, mostly the seventh. The ratio for hits to innings pitched for most pitchers is usually in the neighborhood of 1-to-1. Gregerson's is less than half. Another stunning ratio is 51 strikeouts to four walks. That's four (4)! Needless to say, batters are hitting .121 against Gregerson, who has compiled an ERA of 1.60.
The numbers of eighth inning regular Mike Adams are nearly as good, although I have to admit whenever he comes in when I'm watching, he gets popped. Closer Heath Bell has also done well and is certainly the most nationally-recognizable GAB member, but he might be responsible for too many gray hairs.
I would also consider Mat Latos, he of the sterling 8-4 record and 2.85 ERA, but in this Year of the Pitcher, Manuel won't have any shortage of starters to choose from.
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I had a couple of other items to throw in here today, but nothing else seems worthy all of a sudden, you know? Enjoy your July 4 weekend.
Showing posts with label marshall faulk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marshall faulk. Show all posts
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Padres Proving Theories
On a fairly regular basis this season, in a newspaper account of a midweek Padres game, there has been a phrase similar to: "in front of the third-smallest crowd in the history of Petco Park" or "witnessed by the second-smallest crowd of the season."
The Padres of 2010 have gone a long way to prove out two of my pet theories.
1. Petco Park is in a terribly inconvenient location for most baseball fans, so those 8-10 visits to Qualcomm Stadium per season for many people are dropping to three or four.
2. The generally held theory of San Diego sports fans only supporting a winner is not valid.
I've already harped on the inconvenience of Petco Park's location already this year (check San Diego's Best Sports Values by clicking on April under "Blog Archives" to the right). When I did traffic reporting years ago, the traffic flow patterns before and after Padres games showed the fan base was in the North County. If you live there, you're not going downtown any more than you have to. The transportation, walking, ticket prices, dinner in the Gaslamp, all make a Padres game a major event. People don't do major events 8-10 times a year. Maybe three or four, and they'll wait until summer when it's more convenient.
On supporting a winner, I've always responded that what San Diegans will support is a quality product. It might seem like semantics, but there is a difference. Is watching the team fun? Is there hope that the team will become a contender? Remember those really dull teams that won the NL West a few years ago? That's when the attendance began to dip. People around here are either sitting on their hands waiting for GM Jed Hoyer to acquire a hitter or waiting for the roof to cave in. Padres games aren't a lot of fun this year. I'm actually partial to well-pitched, low-scoring baseball games, but not because I know they can't hit. The joy of great pitching is that they're shutting down big bats. I can't admire someone striking out Will Venable because I know half the high schools in town have hurlers who can K the guy.
Some of San Diego State's biggest football attendance years came when they were mostly hovering around .500, because there were star attractions in Marshall Faulk and, to a lesser extent, Dan McGwire and Darnay Scott. Then they started fiddling around and losing in strange ways, and when coach Ted Tollner picked up the pieces and fielded teams that won 8 games and challenged for the WAC championship, the attendance was generally smaller. The Chargers have had little trouble selling out games whether in last year's 13-3 or 2008's 8-8 mark because they're fun to watch.
I think the Padres attendance will pick up markedly in the next homestand, which is at the end of this month. School will be out, so fans will come based on their own convenience. Someone will report that the locals are starting to believe in this team. Nice.
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Local prep product P Sergio Mitre was quietly putting together a big year as a reliever --mainly -- for the Yankees before going on the disabled list this week with an oblique strain. He was 0-1 with a 2.88 ERA with just 16 hits allowed in 25 innings.
Monte Vista HS's Brooks Conrad is still performing heroically for the Braves, winning a game recently with a bunt single. He's at .275-3-12 in 51 at-bats, which is pretty good in this year of the pitcher.
Speaking of the Braves, Carlsbad HS's Troy Glaus is tied for second in the NL with 49 RBI and tied for eighth with 13 HR.
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Not a local kid, but what will baseball be like without Conrad's and Glaus' teammate, Chipper Jones? He'll leave a void.
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Note to Hoyer: the Diamondback's trade of disappointing OF Conor Jackson to the A's may have signaled the beginning of trade season.
The Padres of 2010 have gone a long way to prove out two of my pet theories.
1. Petco Park is in a terribly inconvenient location for most baseball fans, so those 8-10 visits to Qualcomm Stadium per season for many people are dropping to three or four.
2. The generally held theory of San Diego sports fans only supporting a winner is not valid.
I've already harped on the inconvenience of Petco Park's location already this year (check San Diego's Best Sports Values by clicking on April under "Blog Archives" to the right). When I did traffic reporting years ago, the traffic flow patterns before and after Padres games showed the fan base was in the North County. If you live there, you're not going downtown any more than you have to. The transportation, walking, ticket prices, dinner in the Gaslamp, all make a Padres game a major event. People don't do major events 8-10 times a year. Maybe three or four, and they'll wait until summer when it's more convenient.
On supporting a winner, I've always responded that what San Diegans will support is a quality product. It might seem like semantics, but there is a difference. Is watching the team fun? Is there hope that the team will become a contender? Remember those really dull teams that won the NL West a few years ago? That's when the attendance began to dip. People around here are either sitting on their hands waiting for GM Jed Hoyer to acquire a hitter or waiting for the roof to cave in. Padres games aren't a lot of fun this year. I'm actually partial to well-pitched, low-scoring baseball games, but not because I know they can't hit. The joy of great pitching is that they're shutting down big bats. I can't admire someone striking out Will Venable because I know half the high schools in town have hurlers who can K the guy.
Some of San Diego State's biggest football attendance years came when they were mostly hovering around .500, because there were star attractions in Marshall Faulk and, to a lesser extent, Dan McGwire and Darnay Scott. Then they started fiddling around and losing in strange ways, and when coach Ted Tollner picked up the pieces and fielded teams that won 8 games and challenged for the WAC championship, the attendance was generally smaller. The Chargers have had little trouble selling out games whether in last year's 13-3 or 2008's 8-8 mark because they're fun to watch.
I think the Padres attendance will pick up markedly in the next homestand, which is at the end of this month. School will be out, so fans will come based on their own convenience. Someone will report that the locals are starting to believe in this team. Nice.
---
Local prep product P Sergio Mitre was quietly putting together a big year as a reliever --mainly -- for the Yankees before going on the disabled list this week with an oblique strain. He was 0-1 with a 2.88 ERA with just 16 hits allowed in 25 innings.
Monte Vista HS's Brooks Conrad is still performing heroically for the Braves, winning a game recently with a bunt single. He's at .275-3-12 in 51 at-bats, which is pretty good in this year of the pitcher.
Speaking of the Braves, Carlsbad HS's Troy Glaus is tied for second in the NL with 49 RBI and tied for eighth with 13 HR.
---
Not a local kid, but what will baseball be like without Conrad's and Glaus' teammate, Chipper Jones? He'll leave a void.
---
Note to Hoyer: the Diamondback's trade of disappointing OF Conor Jackson to the A's may have signaled the beginning of trade season.
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