San Diego Chargers's San Diego Chargers friend's fan blogs

Woohoo! Lovin' my Pads these days!  After taking three out of four games against the Pirates to win their fourth consecutive series, the Padres are headed to Colorado to hopefully continue their role as spoiler in the NL West.  What a difference from last season, when the Padres were hard-pressed to come back in a game, any time they were down by two or more runs.  This season, how many times have they been down by four, five, even six runs, and they fight back to win a game. I love it! 

 I am so proud of this 2009 San Diego team.  They started off strong at the beginning of the season, in spite of having several inexperienced youngsters on the team  They hit a long rough patch when they were suddenly inundated with injuries prior to the All-Star break, losing some key veteran players, and suddenly the San Diego Padres were more like the "San Diego Rookies."  But man, have these young players stepped up! I mean, obviously they are going to be eager to prove themselves, and I think they have done just that.  Cabrera, Venable, Headly, Blanks, Gwynn - they have been impressive.  And of course our remaining veterans have done no less - Gonzalez, Eckstein, Kouzmanoff.  Is Brian Giles still

Continue reading "San Diego Padres - Lookin' Good!"

Here on the eve of kickoff for the San Diego Chargers 2009 opener, I will take my annual stab at predicting the Bolts win-loss record.

In Las Vegas the Over/Under total for the club has been about 9.5 wins. I said it last year, and will say it with greater emphasis this time around, but this season has got to be the greatest odds for a division title that the Chargers have ever seen. And it's no stretch to say they will probably be favored in all six divisional contests.

9/14 at Oakland (WIN) - Chargers currently have franchise-record 11 game win-streak vs. the Raiders. No reason to think it stops now.

9/20 BALTIMORE (WIN) - This should be a very tough game, and perhaps low scoring. I'll take San Diego at home but wouldn't be surprised if they drop this one, knowing the slow-start history under Norv Turner.

Continue reading "Predicting the Chargers record in 2009"

Wow! It was another nail-biter last night between the Padres and Rockies. It was definitely a pitching duel, with Padres pitcher Tim Stauffer going up against the Rockies' rookie pitcher Esmil Rogers, in Rogers' major league debut. Rogers, who used to be a shortstop with the Rockies organization, faltered through his first two innings, allowing two San Diego runs, but went on to pitch three scoreless frames showing an ability to handle himself well.  Stauffer had another strong outing, carrying a shutout into the sixth inning before Troy Tulowitzki hammered a solo home run to get the Rockies on the board.

Top of the ninth, the score is 2-1 Padres - enter Heath Bell. Brad Hawpe reached base on a jam shot and then that dang Torrealba struck again, hitting a ground ball up the middle to tie the game.  Second blown save in as many nights for Bell, after being perfect in all 19 chances at home before this.  Heading to extra innings, Jim Tracy decides to send in the big guns, Rockies' closer Franklin Morales, in an effort to hold the Padres.  Will Venable hit a single off Morales and Luis Rodriguez followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Venable into scoring position. Morales then walked the next two batters - one intentionally - to quickly load the bases. Coming off the bench to pinch hit was Nick Hundley, who showed great patience at the plate, which still seems to be hard for this young catcher to do sometimes.  But he hung in there, didn't try too hard to be the hero, and managed to pull off the walk-off walk to win the game for the Padres, putting the Colorado Rockies three games back from the first place Dodgers. Just keep on spoilin' Padres!    

Continue reading "San Diego Padres Break The Rockies 8-Game Winning Streak"

Woohoo! Taking the series against the Dodgers, taking the series against the Giants - the Padres are playing their role of spoiler very well. And now it's up to Heath Bell to save the Padres lead tonight of 1-0 over the Rockies. Nice solid start tonight by Edward Mujica. What do you think? Will we see Mujica in the starting rotation next season? He's done well as a long reliever, but I think he could definitely make the transformation to starter. 

Overall San Diego as a team, has been hitting 22 points higher since the All-Star break. It may be coincidence, but this young team seemed to really get fired up, offensively and defensively around the same time David Eckstein came off the DL and the Padres replaced their hitting coach. As a talented, veteran player, Eckstein has provided a lot of leadership and motivation for the youngsters on this team.

Continue reading "San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies"

Well the Giants hit the Pads hard today, taking the series opener by a score of 9-4.  No doubt the Giants really wanted to win today, not just to keep pace with the second place Colorado Rockies, but maybe to soothe the sting of yesterday's loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in the 12th inning, on a Prince Fielder home run.  Whatever the prevailing reason, their offensive performance was hot today, and they certainly seemed to have Padres pitcher, Clayton Richard's number.  Maybe because it was one of those pesky day games.  Richard's ERA for day games is sitting around 7.59, while his ERA for night games is only 3.99.  Overall though, Richard has already proven himself to be an asset to the Padres club.  Jake who?

 On a more positive note, the Padres are making a last-ditch effort to spread the word about Kevin Kouzmanoff's outstanding defensive play at third base this season.  The Padres overnighted a DVD highlighting some of Kouz's plays at third base, to the other 15 National League managers.  The team also included a note supporting the team's push for Kevin to win the Gold Glove Award.   Kouz has the highest fielding percentage of any third baseman in the Major Leagues right now (.990).  He really does deserve this award.  There's not much that gets by Kouz and only three errors in 296 chances is pretty much unheard of.  Good luck Kouz, I voted for you and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Continue reading "Tough Series Opener For The San Diego Padres Against Third Place San Francisco Giants"

It's a great day when the Padres beat the Dodgers.  That's something I always enjoy seeing!  What about Tim Stauffer tonight - allowing only one earned run on 7 hits?  It was a notable evening for the Padre offense tonight as well, with Gonzalez hitting his 35th homerun and Kouzmanoff driving in 3 runs for his 81st - 83rd RBIs.

Luke Gregerson - I love watching this guy pitch!  I predict that he will eventually be one of the best closers in the game.  He definitely has the makings of a closing pitcher, and coming in as Heath Bell's set-up guy right now (with Adams out), what a one-two punch combination for the Pads against opposing teams!  With that nasty slider, Gregerson usually makes quick work of the opposing batters.  I think we'll be hearing the name Luke Gregerson a lot in the future, hopefully as part of the San Diego Padre organization.

Continue reading "Great Series Finale Tonight Between The San Diego Padres and The Los Angeles Dodgers"

I know these 3 clips have nothing to do with sports, but I thought that it would be entertaining because all you need to do is laugh sometimes.  I will probably post 3 videos every so often so stay tuned, I guess:

THEY GET BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT GETS EVEN BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continue reading "Funny non-sport related videos!!!!!"

I was listening to ESPN radio when one of the guys, Steve Mason, spoke about a video on the internet that had him rollin'.  I was pretty interested in finding the video and when I did I was shocked, but I had to laugh also.  The tv show Family Guy did its portrayal of Michael Vick and his crime in a short clip from the show.  I am going to stop talking and just show the video:

The video is only 16 seconds long but it says a lot.  What do you people think? Is it too soon or not?

Devin

Continue reading "Family Guy's take on the Philadelphia Eagle's Michael Vick!!!"

College football kicked off last night with offensive powerhouse Boise State going up against an equally dangerous offensive team in Oregon.  Everybody expected this game to be in the high 20's or maybe the low 30's; however, the game transformed into a defensive battle making it less entertaining.  The game featured only 27 points combined with the final score being Oregon 8 and Boise State 19.  The real "entertainment", I use that term loosely, came at the end of the game when Oregon RB, LeGarrette Blount punched Boise State's Byron Hout in the face after Hout allegedly taunted him.  You can see the punch below at this address:

http://msn.foxsports.com/video/CFB?vid=41ebaafe-d619-4cb8-bea5-ba79870d2176

All the guy did was tap Blount on the shoulder pad and he catches five knuckles in the chin.  I think Blount should be kicked off of the team.  I understand that he was frustrated because of the loss and probably because of his stat-line: 8 rushes for -5 yards.  He is a senior and he acts like this after a loss, that is ridiculous. This guy needs to be kicked of the team and possibly criminally charged!!!!

Continue reading "The Punch seen 'round the world: #16 Oregon vs. #14 Boise State"

Celine Dion and Ron Artest go together like cereal and mayonnaise yet somehow the self proclaimed "thug", Artest, makes it work.  The guy is known for his wild antics such as going into the crowd and beating up a fan, but it seems that Artest is beginning to display a softer side.  As a Laker fan I love that we are bringing a little crazy on our team because a team can always use a little crazy, right? Although he can't carry a tune and the video is clearly irritating you get a sense that he means what he is singing which makes is somewhat enjoyable to watch.  I am going to stop talking about it and just let you watch it:

Continue reading "It's official, Lakers' Ron Artest is a Celine Dion fan!!!!!!!!!!!"