Breaking up with the Padres

I’m not the only one calling the Padres out on their crap. Check out what their best player, Jake Peavy had to say about the organization last weekend to the U-T (the day after Carlos Zambrano, a pitcher Peavy compares favorably to, signed a $90 million deal with the Cubs):

“I'm not optimistic about staying here as much as I'd like to remain a Padre. I hope it's not the case, but I think it's inevitable that I'll wind up somewhere else. I am not looking to break the bank. I'm not saying I want a huge payday. I'm going to ask for what's fair. And although I hope it happens here, I just don't see the Padres spending that much on a player. And if they're not thinking in that direction, they might decide to trade me before it comes to the point of free agency.

“It's not in my hands, as much as I wish it was. And when you look at (Padres CEO) Sandy (Alderson's) stance on long-term contracts, well, he's not been keen on them.”

“All I've heard from friends today are questions about Zambrano. Obviously with the Padres' track record, they're not going there, nor would I expect them to.”

“I'm more concerned about the team making a conscious effort to win a world championship. At times, I don't know if they've gone out on a limb to make it happen. I believe the big philosophy is right. But the first question I'd ask is, 'Can you give me your word that we're going to make an effort to win the World Series?'

“Honestly, they've done a phenomenal job with what they've spent. But we're being asked at a $58 million payroll to compete against the Dodgers and Giants . . . and we're doing it. But if we had made a little bit more of a financial commitment to winning, I think we could have already won a World Series.”

When you’re in the middle of a pennant race and your best player questions your desire to win a championship, I think that pretty much qualifies as a slap in the face.

For the record, I’m pretty much done with the Padres. They don’t care about winning the World Series (Alderson has admitted as much multiple times on the radio by saying their goal is to win the division) and I don’t care to invest my time and money into following a team whose goal isn’t to win a championship. Isn’t that the whole purpose of following a sports team? Fans invest hours watching their team, even more hours reading about them in the paper and trolling through the internet, listening to sports talk radio. We spend tons of time analyzing each game, each player and every transaction in hopes of the ultimate payoff: That eventually, the team that we’ve lived and died with wins a championship. I mean isn’t this the reason most of us know more about Trevor Hoffman than we do some of our own family members?

The Padres, unfortunately, feel that signing a bunch or retreads and halfheartedly competing year in and year out is enough for their fans. For some fans it may be enough, but it’s not enough for me and I’m done with the Padres.

To be honest with you I haven’t watched more than a couple minutes of a Padre game for over three weeks now and I feel perfectly fine. I check the paper to see how they did the night before but that’s it. The way I see it, I get home from work around 5:30 every night and go to bed around 11:00. That gives me about 5 hours of free time each night. I’m sure as hell not going to spend half that time watching a team full of marginal, untalented, boring players struggle each night to score two runs on five hits. Or as my sister The K’ster puts it: “It’s like bad news every day.”

So there you have it. Until they make this team exciting again, I’m done following the Padres. I’m done going to games. I’m done watching them on TV. If they somehow happen to sneak into the playoffs I may sit through a couple of games, but the days of following them day-in and day-out are over. As Peavy implied, the Padres don’t have a financial commitment to winning. They have a commitment to putting people in the stands and a commitment to making money. The Padres will do nothing but the absolute minimum as long as fans keep showing up and supporting their marginal product. Like a kid halfheartedly cleaning his room to placate his parents, the Padres will continue to acquire the Jose Cruz’s and Marcus Giles’ out there as long fans keep showing up to PetCo.

I on the other hand am done. And reading message boards and postings out there I know I’m not the only one that’s reached a tipping point with this organization. We gave them a new stadium. We made John Moores, who was already a multimillionaire, a multi-multi-multimillionaire. Couldn’t we have still signed Vinny Castilla and Doug Mirabelli playing at Qualcom?

In most relationships it’s give and take. For the Padres, it’s take and take some more. You can only be in a bad relationship and blame the other person for so long. Eventually, it’s your fault that you’re still with the person. Well, I’m at that point with the Padres. I’m not caring about a team that doesn’t care about me.