The guys haven’t had a whole lot to smile about.
As I write this post, my beloved—but maddening—San Diego Padres have reached the halfway point of a 162-game season with a record of 37-44. I’ll say that again: 37-44! How in the name of Zeus’s butthole did that happen? Many pundits and talking heads made preseason predictions that the Pads would go to the World Series, and some even thought they would win it all. Now, we can only thank the Colorado Rockies for keeping them out of the National League West cellar.
A quarter of a billion (that’s with a “b”) dollar payroll. Superstars galore. Best defensive club in the entire league. Solid starters and relievers. And yet we enter the second half of the season on a five-game losing streak—to two of the worst teams in baseball! I suppose that can happen when you bat sub-.200 with runners in scoring position (RISP) for nearly the entire season.
But loyal, long-suffering fan that I am, I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that the Pads are going to turn it around in the second half. Their record? Let’s shoot for 50-31. It is likely that 87 wins will get them into the postseason, and once you punch a ticket to the dance, who knows where you can go from there?
Okay, I know this prediction comes more from the heart than the head. But as my alter-ego, Jack Miller, says in my comedy/science fiction novel, Back on the Bike Path: “I am resolved to live till the day that the San Diego Padres win the World Series. That might make me the oldest man on Earth, but by the magic shillelagh of Tony Gwynn, I will be here!”