Hektik

People say Winfield shouldn't be in as Padre, but if you look at his career you can make a good case for him going in as a Padre. He spent the majority of his career playing for the Padres and the Yankees. He has just as many at bats in San Diego as he does with New York. San Diego drafted him and put him right on the major league team, he never played a game in the minors. He left the Yankees on very bad terms. George Steinbrenner would insult him and hired a private investigator to gather dirt on him. If it comes down to equal time on two different teams then the player should be able to choose. The Padres could not have been that desperate since they know Tony will be in soon enough.

It was just reported here in San Diego that Phil Nevin has rejected the deal. Padres GM Kevin Towers just confirmed that on the radio.

Back in 2003/2004, Eddy was the closest thing the WWE had to a "draw." House show numbers increased when he was on the card and he had some of the highest rated segments on Smackdown. This is really the main reason he got a shot at being the champion.

From the Observer: [email protected] UPN sent word today to WWE after all the negative media publicity stemming from last week's show that they didn't want the Muhammad Hassan character on this week's show. WWE had planned a storyline change for Hassan tonight in Worcester after the storyline involving terrorists from last week backfired.

A couple of local TV stations here in San Diego are reporting that the Padres have traded Darrell May and Tim Redding to the Yankees for Paul Quantrill. It's a trash for trash deal but it frees up some money for the Padres.

The Iron Shiek was Iranian. If I'm not mistaken, Iranians are Persian not arab. I remember hearing that the two were very different.

I read almost every article on the NL West during the offseason. The majority of them picked the Giants to win followed by the Padres. Most articles had the Dodgers finishing third.

The Cardinals new uniforms

San Diego Chargers Schedule 9/11 Dallas Cowboys 9/18 @ Denver Broncos 9/25 New York Giants ESPN Sunday Night 10/2 @ New England Patriots 10/10 Pittsburgh Steelers ABC Monday Night 10/16 @ Oakland Raiders 10/23 @ Philadelphia Eagles 10/30 Kansas City Chiefs 11/6 @ New York Jets BYE 11/20 Buffalo Bills 11/27 @ Washington Redskins 12/4 Oakland Raiders ESPN Sunday Night 12/11 Miami Dolphins 12/18 @ Indianapolis Colts 12/24 @ Kansas City Chiefs 12/31 Denver Broncos There are a lot of good games on their schedule. I'm really looking forward to the Sunday night game against Eli Manning. Even AJ Smith (Chargers GM) is looking forward to it. He had this to say yesterday: "We had been singled out," Smith recalls. "The most amazing thing was when he (Eli) said he wouldn't play for the San Diego Chargers. He shouldn't have said anything, but when he said that, it's a heavy thing to say, something he will have to carry throughout his career. He'll have to live with it. Maybe Steve Foley and Randall Godfrey (Chargers linebackers) will remember him."

They are not going to move the fences in. Management has said that it would not be a good move to change the ballpark just for this team. The problem has been that the Padres power hitters (Giles, Nevin, and Klesko), all have power to right center. Unfortunately for them that is the deepest part of the ballpark. The ideal power hitter for Petco is a batter with power to left field aiming for the Western Metal Building. This is just a case of management building a team without taking the new ballpark into consideration. Looking beyond the ballpark, the Padres have many positives but also have the same question marks as they did at the end of last year. Centerfield - Dave Roberts is not an improvement over Jay Payton. The only real positive I can think of is that he will take over as leadoff hitter allowing Sean Burroughs to drop down in the order. Look at these numbers Roberts career: OBP 335 SLG .344 AVG .259 Payton career: OBP 335 SLG .443 AVG .285 Now remember that the Padres traded Jay Payton, Ramon Vasquez, a minor leaguer, and 2.65 million to Boston just because Roberts is fast. The Padres had a hole in Centerfield last year when the D Backs wouldn’t trade Steve Finley to them and they will have one again this year when Roberts goes down with a hamstring injury. 5th Starter - Last year the Padres traded their 5th starter Isamael Valdez to the Marlins at the trading deadline (a move I was happy about). The problem was they didn’t get a win from their 5th starter the rest of the year. They tried Sterling Hitchcock, Dennis Tankersly, and Justin Germano but they all failed. This year they were going to use Darell May but he has just been horrible this spring training. He may have just pitched himself out of a starting spot yesterday. The alternative is giving Justin Germano another shot or rushing Tim Stauffer up. Despite those problems, the Padres have a lot of positives going for them. Mark Lorretta is still one of the best hitters in the league and Khalil Greene is still an exciting shortstop and Baseball America’s 2004 Rookie of the Year. I expect Brian Giles to have a big bounce back year (it is his contract year), as well as Ryan Klesko. Last year Klesko only hit 9 homeruns. This was due to his shoulder surgery a year before. He could not lift weights during the off season and lost his power. He started regaining it in the 2nd half and has since gone back to his regular off season routine. The Padres improved their bench by making Xavier Nady the 4th outfielder and adding Eric Young. Their bullpen is one of the best in league and they improved it by adding Chris Hammond to go along with Scott Linebrink, Akinori Otsuka, and Trevor Hoffman. Despite the 5th spot they have a solid 1 through 4 starting rotation headed up by Jake Peavy. He is a future Cy Young winner and was already the NL ERA Champion last year. I am cautiously excited about this team. They made great strides last year after having 5 straight losing seasons. They came so close last year that I will be disappointed if they don’t win the West this year. Either way I look forward to what should be a fun season.

He said this to defend this country. Churchill was saying the people in the WTC helped hurt people and Maher said no. Turning a blind eye to the world does not make you responsible for their problems. No, he's flat-out saying they DESERVED what they got. When Maher's horrible show on ABC got turfed because nobody watched it, the man lost his mind. He has never said the DESRVED what they got and has never defended the 9/11 attacks. In the interview you can see that he is sympathetic to him throughout segment. "why they hate us" is something Maher came up with over two years ago. It was in his book When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden and later made it into a segment in his stand up act. That is where he goes into detail about it. You can tell if someone is loves their country or not? That is not true. His "New Rules" last year on the protesters at the RNC was the funniest thing I've seen on TV in a long time.

What do you think "Dixie chicked" means? America does not have blood on its hands? He never said if it was right or wrong, he just said America has blood on its hands. He said this to defend this country. Churchill was saying the people in the WTC helped hurt people and Maher said no. Turning a blind eye to the world does not make you responsible for their problems. That was asked as a valid question. Why shouldn't there be museums looking at every angle of why 9/11 happened. Asking "Why they hate us" does not make you anti-American. It is taking a honest look in the mirror. How can Bill Maher be Anti-American when he has said he will "defend western civilization" because he belives it is "better than anything else in the world."

Did you catch his show with Ward Churchill? Nice to see Maher become openly anti-America. -=Mike ...If Maher hates us, we must be good... How is Maher Anti-American? He said he didn't agree with Churchill's statement because you can't blame the citizens of this country for bad things the government has done in the past.

Does anybody else think the original 10 amendments in the bill of rights would be much more appropriate to display on government property?

So the current hip hop beef is 50 Cent having beef with Game, Fat Joe, Nas, Jadakiss, Ja Rule and Shyne on his song "Piggy Bank." 50 on Fat Joe: That fat nigga thought 'Lean Back' was 'In Da Club' My shit sold 11 mil, his shit was a dud Fat Joe response: Fat Joe says 50 Cent is the real "Wanksta." Joe called in to his good friend "The Drama King" Kay Slay on New York radio station Hot 97 Thursday night...Joe called Fif "a coward" that was "scared of his own shadow." "Them steroids is getting to him," Joe said. "He ain't built like that. These dudes is hilarious to me." Joey Crack also said that he wouldn't be surprised if 50 came out dissing Eminem because 50 is just that disrespectful. "That dude ain't the truth," Joe fumed. "His name should be Vince McMahon because he likes to create hype." 50 on Nas: Kelis says her milkshake bring all the boys to the yard Then Nas went and tattooed the bitch on his arm Nas's comments on if he will respond: "I need a good opponent to go after, then it's all good," Nas said with a smile on Friday in New York. "The game is looking terrible. It's a lot of guys out here, 'CB4' gangstas, making the rap game look bad. Fourteen-year-olds might be believing in these guys, and a lot of these guys that are here are walking train wrecks and they're miserable. I pray for the upliftment of hip-hop. 50 on Jadakiss: Jada, don't fuck with me if you want to eat 'Cause I'll do your little ass like Jay did Mobb Deep Yea homie in New York, niggas like ya vocals but thats only in New York dog, yo ass is local

Tom Brennaman was on a local radio show here in SD a while back and Explained the D backs situation. Most of their debt is not players salary but instead Ballpark construction debt. Because it is mostly construction debt they can hold off on paying for it, at least for the immediate future. He also said that even with all the moves the D backs have made, their payroll is only around 60 million. He said the D backs wanted to have their payroll at 71 million dollars for opening day. This was before they traded for Cruz Jr. so I don't know how close they ended up to 71 million.

What do you think about the 2005 Padres? How do you think they will match up with the rest of the NL West?

Yeah, it was Jack Wilson. Let me just say that Wilson has a very creepy smile in that picture.

I guess he was. Apparently it was worse when Kendall and Brian Giles were still together. Although the only story I saw was Kendall and Giles really making fun of teammate with bad teeth.

Touch me, tease me, kiss me, please me I give it to ya just how you like it, girl

Drew Brees did have a good season this year, but he needs to do it again to really prove himself. This past year could have been fluke or it could have been his breakout year. There are many scouts who think that Philip Rivers will go on to be a much better QB than Drew Brees. The Chargers won't make a decision this year, they will give the job to Brees and tell him to do it again. No, I still think it was because he and daddy were jackasses.

Well, if you believe Peter King, he says the Saints are the front runners to move to LA. I guess it could work, maybe have the Saints and Rams switch divisions.

Yeah they are. The vote will be in 2006. The stadium would be built on the northeast section of the Qualcomm lot.

You forgot San Diego

Wow, I think SD's farm system is ranked way too low. Including Barfield, they also have a major league ready catcher in Humberto Quintero and Freddy Guzman, who will be the Padres centerfielder (either in 06 or when Roberts goes down). They also have Xavier Nady and John Knott. I would also rank SP Tim Stauffer as their top prospect.