For the few people who are actually going to Petco to see our Padres play or flipping the channel between football games and the U.S. Open to catch the score, the boys have actually been playing pretty well. Too bad the only fight they are in is with Arizona to keep from ending up in NL West cellar (again). At least this season we don't have to suffer the embarrassment of 99 loses. In fact, the Pads have won 11 of their past 14 series. Promise for next season? I think so, but there is still a lot of work to do, to get back to contending for the NL West championship. I'll wait until the end of the season before I voice my hopes and thoughts for improvements to the roster next year. In the mean time, even though we are all focused on the Chargers right now, maybe we could dedicate a few minutes to see if the Pads can end this year on a positive note. A quick comment to the Padres sales staff, the Milwaukee Brewers have their $1 upper deck seats. Give it a thought. The average attendance at Petco has been around 18K. Not good. The Angels and Dodgers (and yes I know they are in the playoff hunt) are more than doubling that on a Tuesday night. The Padres had 18K sold (much less than that in the Stadium) this past Friday vs. a division foe.
A quick follow up from last week's blog on the discussion of Shawne Merriman and that girl that accused him of something (I don't remember her name). Anyway, charges have been dropped and "Lights Out" will be dropping Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell to the turf all night, tonight.
Prediction for tonight's game, Chargers vs. Raiders…Chargers will win by 14 which is kind of a bummer because the game will not be competitive (nor will the Bills and New England game which precedes it). If not for an amazing finish to the Bronco's game yesterday – head's up Brandon Stokley – the rest of the division would have been 0-1, aiding in the Chargers smooth ride to the AFC West Title. There will be a few bumpy games, but not too much to stress about until the Playoffs. Regardless, beat down Al's boys tonight. Another prediction, 3 ints for the Charger's secondary in this game.
Since this is the SD Sports report, I opened with San Diego topics, but what a weekend in sports in other parts of the country! I have to begin with Serena Williams. I am a huge tennis fan. I spent the last three summers working in the front office of the Newport Beach Breakers of World TeamTennis and have met both Serena and Venus Williams. Even if you don't follow tennis, you heard about Serena's incredible melt down on Saturday night. If not, let me paint the picture for you. It's match point, Serena has been playing pretty poorly against the resurgent, Kim Clijsters, but as she's done so many times in the past, Serena looked as if she could have begun an epic come back. Yet, on match point, she was called for her second foot fault of the match (previously in the match she had smashed her racquet and received a code of conduct violation) and she lost it on the poor, little old lines lady. To paraphrase the rant, Serena threatened to shove a tennis ball down the lines lady's throat while wielding her racquet and dropping a number of f-bombs. Needless to say, Serena received a second code violation which cost her a point and the loss of that point; cost her the match, sending Clijsters to final (which she won). Serena has since been fined and the matter is being investigated. Remember, we are talking about tennis here, not the NFL. If you haven't seen it, check it out on YouTube. Williams joked about it last night on the VMA's. Even though she lost her cool, she apparently has not lost her sense of humor.
The Favre revenge tour got off to a great start yesterday as the Vikings dominated the Cleveland Browns. Whereas, Favre's numbers were not overly impressive, he did what he came to Minnesota to do, hand the ball to Adrian Peterson. Favre did toss his first Vikings TD to rookie WR, Percy Harvin (who is young enough to be Brett's son). Look for the wins to continue as next week Favre and the Vikes face Detroit (who, for the most part held their own yesterday against the Saints) and the following game against the 49'ers. Then, it is time for the Packers to come to town. I will be watching this one closely, but it'll be four weeks after this initial contest, in which the master plan will reach it's pinnacle, as Favre returns to Green Bay (hopefully to a chorus of boos – like Kayne West last night at the VMA's).
By the way, as I announced here last week, there will be a second heir apparent to the Brady thrown. When I had published my blog last week, Tom and his Giselle had not made the announcement. Well, not two days after posting, they did. I might just be starting out with this thing, but I've already got one breaking story under my belt.
Another Prediction: Roger Federer wins Grand Slam number 16 tonight (I know, bold prediction, right?).
Finally, a "Not Cool" shout out to Fox NFL Analyst, Chris Myers for his comment yesterday during the Detroit – New Orleans game. Myers was giving the line up for the Detroit defense and when he came to line backer Larry Foote, formally of the Steelers, he noted, "Going from two Super Bowls in Pittsburgh to the winless Detroit team -- that's like going from dating Beyonce
to Whoopi Goldberg."
That's it for this week. As always, please leave me comments about the report and let me know what you think. Are there any other sports topics you think I should be discussing? Also, I will be signing my new book, San Diego's Finest Athletes: Five Exceptional Lives, at the Borders in Chula Vista on October 10th from 6 pm – 8 pm. I hope you can make it.
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