April Review & May Preview

Last month was the most prolific in FoC history with 33 posts over 30 days, beating May of 2010 which featured 31 posts in 31 days- and that month's total was admittedly padded by several on Tony's birthday. I made a decent amount of headway on the ongoing Friars By The Numbers project which will continue later today with the guys who have worn 1 for the Padres. I wrote it up a few weeks ago but it seemed like it made sense to hold it off until today. Other things to expect in the month to come are beards, more beards and then some additional beards to go along with those beards. If you're capable of growing anything even closely resembling a beard, you are expected to join in on the festivities for the next 31 days; otherwise any and everyone is not only free to but encouraged to blame you and you alone for any Padres losses that may occur during that time.

Mustache Monday: Winfield, Whitson, Hoyt & The Other 31s

I wrote this intending to post it tomorrow. However, when I went to set it to autopost, I discovered that there are only 30 days in April. I didn't feel like sitting on it that long (TWSS!) and since all three of the principles are 'stached, it made sense to drop it today.
Seven players wore number 31 before Dave Winfield and seven others wore it after him. Leon Everitt, Frankie Libran, the original Dave Roberts and Rafael Robles all wore number 31 in the Padres' inaugural Major League season; Paul Doyle, Jerry Nyman and Roberto Rodriguez did so in 1970. Robles wore it again in '72. Winfield showed up in '73 and kept it through '80 when he headed to the Bronx. Ed Whitson donned the digits in '83 and '84 until he also headed to the Bronx. LaMarr Hoyt had it in '85 and '86. Whitson wore it once again when he returned from his unsuccessful stint in New York; this time he kept it from '87 through '91. Dave Staton, as we all know, wore it in '94. I have a card of him but I'm holding off on writing about it for obvious reasons. Billy Bean- not to be confused with Billy Beane- wore it in '95. I still haven't read Bean's book; it seems like it would be fascinating. The number was issued to Bob Tewksbury in '96 and Trey Beamon in '97. Matt Clement was the last to have it, from 1998 until it was announced in 2000 that it would be retired for in honor of Winfield.

Cards Of All 13 Of The 30s In Padres History

Thirteen different players have worn number 30 as a member of the San Diego Padres. For the first time in FoC history, I'm going to include cards of all of the players- the first time, that is, unless you count number 19 and I don't because that was only Gene Richards and Tony. Anyway, enough with the preliminaries; here they are: Mike Corkins led off, from 1969 through '71; Derrel Thomas was next, from '72 through '74 and again in '78. Hector Torres wore it in '75 and '76 and Tim Flannery had it for his rookie season in '79. Dave Cash donned it in '80, followed by Danny Boone in '81 and '82. Eric Show kept it from '82 through '90, succeeded by Kevin Ward in '91 and '92. Phil Clark rocked 30 in '93 through '95, as did Ryan Klesko from 2000 through '06. Heath Bell is credited by BR as wearing 30 in '07 in addition to 21. However, Greg Maddux was on the roster all of '07 and was back in '08. Eliezer Alfonzo had it last, for the '09 "We Ruin Everything" Padres.

Monday's Mat Latos

I wasn't glad to see Mat Latos go, but since he got traded and there's nothing I can do about it, I'm glad it was to Cincinnati. A lot of my friends are Reds fans and I've always watched and listened to a lot of their games over the years since they're the closest Major League team. I was talking to my friend Nic- a Reds fan- after the trade and said that I'd still watch his starts and be rooting for him. Nic asked who I'd root for when Mat faces the Padres. Of course I'd root for the Friars and said as much immediately. I thought for a second and added a caveat. In the wildest, most ridiculous best case scenario, I'd like him to throw a no-hitter and lose 1-0 on an unearned run. But, since that's pretty imfrigginprobable, I'd just like to see Latos perform well and take a no-decision in a Padres win. I realized I just set it up for some a-hole to make a snide remark about the Padres winning being pretty imfrigginprobable, so go for it; just know in advance that you're a terrible person.

Kotsay Comes Through Again For The First Time

Tonight, Mark Kotsay did exactly what he was brought on board to do this time around. Brought in as a pinch hitter down by a run with No-Dog and Childish Cambino on in the eighth, Kotsay smacked a dub to center, scoring both. These were the only runs the Padres would need as Huston Street came in and picked up his second save. Bro Hymn!

All 24 Of The 24s For The 24th

There have been 24 men who have worn number 24 for the Padres. Walt Hriniak was the first and Chris Krug also wore it in 1969. Jerry Nyman and Jim Williams had it in '70, followed by Leron Lee from '71 through '73. Joe McIntosh in '74 and Ken Reynolds in '76 were succeeded by Dave Wehrmeister from '76 through '78. Dan Briggs donned it in '79, as did Luis Salazar in '80 and '87. Dave Edwards had the 24 in '81 and '82, followed by Champ Summers in '84, Dave LaPoint in '86, and Jerald Clark from '88 through '92. Current hitting coach Phil Plantier wore it in '93 and '94. Roberto Petagine had it in '95 before Rickey Henderson in '96, '97 and again in '01. Mark Langston in '98, David Newhan in '99, and Joe Vitiello in 2000 wore it in Rickey's absence. San Diego-born Aztec alumnus Alex Palaez wore it for all three games of his career in '02, follwed by another San Diegan, Brian Giles from '03 through '09. Mike Baxter had it in '10 and Cam Maybin has held it down since we swiped him from the then-Florida Marlins. I hope to see it between Tony's 19 and Winfield's 31 in his honor fifteen or so years from now.

Mustache Monday: Eric Show

The late Show was a San Diego mainstay for ten years before spending his last season in Oakland. A prototypical reliable, middle of the road starter, the high point of his career, like many other Padres in his era, was the 1984 season. Not only did Show put up fifteen wins for that year's National League Champions, he also had his best year with the bat. He hit three of his four career home runs and finished with a .246 average and ten RBI, his only time in double digits.

.294 And Rising

.294 is a pretty good batting average as far as batting average goes. Everyone seemed pretty pleased with Spidercam's .294 mark last season, which happened to match Steve Garvey's career average. When it comes to team win percentage, though, .294 is a horse of another color. A very ugly color. We're talking about a baby poop green horse here. But you know what? It's better than .250, just the way .250 was better than .200 before that. What I'm trying to say is we're on the upswing. We'll be at Tony's career average before you know it, then his '94 average, and before you know it our winning percentage starts looking like good slugging percentages. Faith: keep it!

Andres Berumen & His Place In History

Andres Berumen was born in Tijuana on jodes's birthday in 1971 and drafted by the Royals out of Banning High in Wilmington, CA. The then-Florida Marlins selected him in the '92 Expansion Draft and traded him to San Diego months later along with Trevor in the Sheffield trade. Upon making his debut with the Padres on April 27, 1995, he became the first native of Tijuana to play in the Majors. He made it into 37 games that season and three the next. He didn't do much better in Las Vegas in '96 or the beginning of '97 and was traded to Seattle. He never suited up for the Mariners or, for that matter, any other Major League team again. He provided organizational depth- which is a polite way of saying "absorbed repeated poundings"- in Tacoma through the '98 season before leaving affiliated baseball altogether. He surfaced again in 2000 with Reynoso of the Mexican League, pitching only five games before walking away for good.

Fred Norman & The Indignity Of A 3-12 Record

Oh, man, the Padres are 3-12 now. The good news is that there is no way we're actually this bad; the bad news is that it looks like we're not going to be all that much better. Two other teams in franchise history have started 3-12; the '87 squad finished 65-97 and the '94 Friars ended 47-70 in the strike-shortened season, their win percentage only .008 higher than Tony's BA. As for Fred Norman, what's he doing here? He wasn't still playing in either of those seasons but he did manage to compile a 3-12 record in 1971, his first season with the Padres. It was a deceptive 3-12, as most pitchers' W-L records are, however, as he posted a 3.32 ERA and a dead-even ERA+ of 100. He went 9-11 the next year and began 1973 with a 1-7 record before being traded to the budding Big Red Machine, going 12-6 for Cincinnati the rest of the season and staying there through the '79 season. Norman retired after spending 1980 with the Expos with a career Major League win-loss record of 104-103.

Four 20s For 4/20

Of the seventeen in team history, Ivan Murrell was the first to wear 20 for the Friars, from 1969 through '72.The first Dave Roberts wore it from '72 through '75. George Hendrick had it in early '77 and Jerry Turner kept it from '77 through '83. Bobby Brown was next, from '83 through '85, followed by Gary Green in '86 and '89. Tim Teufel donned the deuce-doughnut from '91 through '93, as did Ray McDavid '94 and '95 as well as Chris Jones in '97 and Greg Myers in '98 and '99. Greg LaRocca and Al Martin both wore it in 2000, succeeded by Rick Wilkins in '01 and the duo of Kevin Barker and Brett Tomko in '02. Miguel Ojeda was the penultimate player with 20 on his back, from '03 through '05; Manny Alexander was the last in '05 and '06. Manager Bud (quite the appropriate name for today's post) Black has worn it to varying levels of success- or lack thereof- since 2007.

Friday's Fingers

I guess it's only appropriate that today falls on a Friday. Man, what a classic movie. I saw part of the second one and it was the worst thing I'd ever seen. Probably because I didn't bother watching the third one...