Going For Broke

I somehow missed the news until I saw him make mention of it himself via twitter. Yep, Broke decided to hang 'em up.

I was never Doug Brocail's biggest fan nor did I dislike him as I have many pitchers of Padres past; he always seemed to fly under my radar even during his stints with the Friar. In retrospect, that seems like a point in his favor; he just went out and put in a solid effort without memorable meltdowns ala Linebrink.

I don't know what his post-retirement plans are but I wish him the very best. As someone who's dealt with his and someone else's share of injuries and surgeries and who was, by all accounts, a leader and a great teammate, he certainly deserves it.

Mike Cameron

I was pretty apathetic toward Mike Cameron during his stint with the Padres. Decent numbers, but the most inopportune, infuriating strikeouts. That said, I still have a Mike Cameron mock-jersey that I got at The PET for applying for a credit card with a fake name (not Luke Gregerson).

This Has Nothing To Do With Edgar Gonzalez; It's All About Me

Even though it was inevitable and a no-brainer baseball decision, it still sucked for me when the Pads let Edgar go. Sure, he was pretty much impossible to dislike and the novelty of having two hometown brothers on the team can make for a feel-good story (may not apply when regarding Gileses), but the thing I hated most was that I had to get a new username on Gaslamp Ball.

I started out as The Third Giles in '07 when we had Brian and Marcus. I had just gotten out of the shower and was watching the game wearing nothing but a Padres hat. My then-wife (side note: I'm finally divorced now! How cool is that?) asked "Who do you think you are, the third Giles or something?" After M'iles left, we picked up Edgar and I just became The Third Gonzalez. That lasted for two seasons and I was dreading replacing it. I thought of all different sorts of things that "TTG" could stand for but they all sucked so I went with the one that seemed to suck the least: The Thin Gwynn. Hey, it's better than Terrance Trent Garvey, I guess.

The card shown is an '09 UD Series 2. The picture's from August- I remember because I took it at the same time as the one for the David Wells post.

Fried Chicken And A Puddle

Well, I guess it's obvious now that sometimes when I say "tomorrow", what I really mean is "a few days from now". The Tony Gwynn story I have is more of a Tony Gwynn story tucked inside a John Kruk story but oh, well. Old school Gaslamp Ballers may remember it from when I posted it back in the dark days pre-SBN2.0 when FanPosts were still called Diaries. I'll repeat it here but you should go read the comments on that post because other people's stories are better than mine.

So, apparently back in the late '80s on the rare occasion of rain at The Murph, Tony and Kruk would get a bucket of chicken and take BP, competing over not who could hit the most home runs like most players would, but over who could drop the most singles into the puddle that formed behind the 5.5 hole.

The card shown in the craptabulously blurry photo is a 1990 Starline, No. 4 of 40, that I found a few days ago amongst my little brother's old cards. Yoink!

WTF HOF

Okay, I know I'm late for the party when it comes to pounding out outraged blog posts about how Roberto Alomar should be in the Hall Of Fame, but I just found this card yesterday so that's what's happening.

Actually, eff that. It's tired and I'm tired. Besides, I'm not going to sum it up any better than Jim Caple did.

Jeez, I think this has been the laziest phoned in sack of crap I've ever posted here. I'll have something of actual substance tomorrow, either my favorite Tony Gwynn story (told to me by John Kruk) or how a home run hit by Joey Cora got my mother and I on speaking terms fourteen years later. That, my friends, is how you keep your two readers captivated.

The Second Hairston

As soon as the Pads sent Kouz to Oakland to make room for The Savior and got Shrek back, I started searching for this card because I knew- knew!- that Jerry, Jr. would be our next pickup. There were rumors that we'd sign him before the trade happened and that just sealed the deal- that's just something the Padres do and will always do regardless of regime. Between Alomars and Venables, Gwynns and Gonzali, Hoffmans and womanbeaters, the whole touchy-feely family reunion routine is a Friar tradition- one almost as deeply rooted as the Friar himself and one that I hope carries on long after breakfast on the warning track is successfully laughed out of town. Pancakes at PETCO? Nah, Bro-B-I's are the only syrupy shiz I need at the ol' ballgame.