Fives For The Fifth

Of ten players to wear 5 for the Padres, Jose Arcia was the first; he wore it in 1969 and '70. Gene Locklear was the second, in '73 and '74, followed by Bill Almon in '74 and '75. Fred Kendall donned it in '79 and '80, succeeded by Randy Bass, who had it from 1980 through part of '82. Ron Tingley wore it for eight games, also in '82. Randy Ready rocked it from '86 until being traded in '89 and Joey Cora switched over from 4 in 1990. No player wore number five in the blue-and-orange era as seventeen years lapsed before it was issued to Kevin Kouzmanoff, Patron Saint of Grounding Into Double Plays. Kouz kept it until he was traded to Oakland after the '09 season. Alexi Amarista has worn it since being called up from Tucson this season.

Kooooouz!

Sorry for the hiatus, everybody (and by 'everybody', I mean 'both of you'). It's been a couple of weeks but I'm getting back in the swing of things. I've got a slew of Joey Cora posts lined up but first, this...

I never understood why Kouz was such a polarizing figure in his time with the Pads. I guess this might go back to the whole expectations thing- after all, when you hit the first Major League pitch thrown to you for a grand slam, people are bound to have high hopes of you- but still...

His production was neither particularly good nor bad- he even made MLB Network's By The Numbers's "All Average Team" due to this. People seemed to either love him for his looks (doesn't do much for me) or hate him because he was blocking Headley (doesn't do much for me).

Me? Eh, I liked the guy- still do- but I wasn't particularly broken-hearted when he went to Oaktown. Actually, I was pretty stoked but that had everything to do with getting Shrek back so it's neither here nor there. I hope he has a great season and a great career but I'm not gonna be naming my son after him or anything.

Koooooouz!!!

I thought that how SD fans supported Kouz through his slow start in his rookie season was classy and respectable. The backlash he's receiving now seems to negate that. Kevin established himself with a strong rookie campaign despite the aforementioned poor exit from the gate. His sophomore season was derailed by injury and nearly everybody I've heard utter his name as of recent is ready to write him off barely a month into this season. As for me, well, I'm not quite ready to lump him with Joe Charboneau just yet...