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Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
Don said: "Won't they be called the City of Industry Chargers?" Not if that team that plays in Anaheim is any indication.— March 18, 2010 6:07 p.m.
Scott Kessler works with FBI investigating Marco Li Mandri
Don, What I don't understand is why the democrat AG also has no interest in prosecuting the mostly republican power players in San Diego. As you said, now even though a democrat appointed the US Attorney (and the FBI is investigating), there is still not much chance of anything happening here. My best guess is that it runs deep on both sides and they have no interest in turning over rocks. You could smell the fear every time Aguirre turned over a rock. In fact, Aguirre found so much under so many rocks that people stopped believing him and started listening to his critics because they were tired of the message.— March 18, 2010 6:53 a.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
pascal said: "Surf Puppy-- I'm tempted to remove my tongue from my cheek and accept your $20 wager, but I'm afraid we'd both be long-deceased before a winner could be declared!" I'm not so sure about that. The LA Chargers are going to have to field a winning team the first couple of years to build their fan base and justify their new stadium.— March 17, 2010 10:19 p.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
Response to Don #48: I'm afraid that with the state of ethics in this country (any country?) right now that whether you bet or buy stocks the question is not whether the game is fixed, but which way is it fixed so that I can make some money too. I think it dovetails with your greater fool theory.— March 17, 2010 10:34 a.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
RFG said: "Good sports journalism is officially dead" Isn't that some sort of oxymoron? I had not heard about Steeg until I saw your post, so thanks for the heads up. His press release and the Chargers comments were just hysterical. From the UT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The man who organized every Super Bowl from 1980-2004 said later that he might pursue an avenue in college athletics, has always wanted to get into minor-league baseball or could do “something totally weird.” Always candid and self-deprecating, Steeg said he hoped it was possible making his intentions public might attract interest — “or maybe it won’t, and I’ll find out I’m totally undesirable.” He also didn’t think it was right to be looking for employment elsewhere while still employed. “I have decided that there are further challenges that I would like the opportunity to pursue during my professional career,” Steeg said in the statement. “Given my goals and aspirations, I did not think it was fair to Dean (Spanos) and the organization to begin the process of pursuing other career options while in my current position.” Steeg will not be replaced. His duties — including overseeing gameday planning, sponsorships and stadium issues — will be spread out among current members of management. Team Executive Vice President and Executive Officer A.G. Spanos, son of President Dean Spanos, already overlaps with Steeg on many duties. <<<<<<<<<< Soooo, he is leaving the team to pursue other career options, but he has no idea even what field he will pursue or whether there is any interest in him, but he is doing it abruptly (because time is of the essence?) and he is so valuable in his role with the Chargers that he will not be replaced. He is so sure of what he wants to pursue next that he makes an open plea for job offers to anybody that might be interested, hoping it might attract some attention. Makes perfect sense to me! Steeg worked in football for 30 years before he came to the Chargers (4 years for the Dolphins and 26 years with the league), but after 5 years with the Chargers he wants to leave football. Good job, Team Spanos!— March 17, 2010 9:55 a.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
RFG said: "He'll impress me when he can run some of that quantitative analysis and figure out how the Mets won the '69 World Series." I think Don has already told us the answer that. When I was an impressionable young pup, my older brothers would give me a hard time when I would listen to the Dodgers. They would tell me baseball was no different than professional wrestling and that the players were all just acting out the script. I didn't believe them then and I don't believe it now, but maybe I am the deluded one and Don and my brothers have it correct.— March 17, 2010 9:36 a.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
RefriedGringo, What I know about betting on horse racing is just enough to know that I don't know what I am doing and I shouldn't be doing it! I went to Del Mar last year for the first time in years for a company outing. I lost almost every bet I placed (probably a whopping $20 total, big bettor that I am), while my twin 7 year old daughters picking the prettiest horsies hit two trifectas. That about sums up my expertise with the ponies! I definitely defer to your knowledge of the track.— March 15, 2010 11:17 p.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
Don said: "Response to post #22: Your thesis is quite interesting until you posit that most sports are relatively clean. Sorry." Don, it is definitely relative, but I honestly think that most of the major sports are reasonably clean today (yeah, I know, lots of qualifiers). There is no altruistic reason for sports to be cleaner now than they were in the old days, the simple fact is there is too much money to be made running a clean game to risk it by cheating. You have to admit that the incidents of game fixing in the last few decades have been very few and far between (don't talk to me about boxing, I am talking strictly NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA basketball and football). How much cheating do you feel goes on today at major casinos in Las Vegas? I would again posit that there is not much, because the games are already so lucrative that there is no reason to take the risk. Note that the opposite is true on Wall Street, where the major players routinely game the system to wring out their obscene profits. I find major sports infinitely more virtuous than Wall Street, and lest I not make myself clear I don't find much virtue in major sports.— March 15, 2010 11:08 p.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
refriedgringo, Betting lines are crafted solely to convince half the bettors to bet on one side and half the bettors to bet on the other. The book could care less on the actual outcome, as long as they guess right on the sentiment of the betting public. They live off the vigorish. There is no "bait" on a 50-50 proposition on something like the over-under for number of Padres wins. If the book takes in too high a percentage on one side or the other, the odds-maker will be out of a job. It doesn't do Caliente any good to draw an excess of bets on one side or the other, unless you somehow see that as a loss leader to get people into the book. The reason that I DON'T bet the ponies is because it is an insiders game and I am not an insider. Most major sports are relatively clean and I know my odds when I bet. The reason that I do bet sports is that there is so much sentiment tied into the betting that it fairly often gets out of whack. For me it is a lot easier to predict how over-enthusiastic the sentiment is for a certain popular team than it is to know what the trainer just shot into his two year old. The money to be made in sports betting comes from correctly reading when public sentiment is out of whack with reality. In that regard it is not entirely unlike the stock market.— March 15, 2010 3:48 p.m.
Padres Have Zero Chance to Make Playoffs?
FYI: The MLB average salary on opening day in 1998 was $1.44 million. The MLB average salary on opening day in 2009 was $3.26 million. Even WITH Peavey, the Padres payroll was less than half the league average in 2009. After the Peavey trade, they were off the bottom of the charts. In 1998 the Padres payroll was slightly above the league average. Attendance was also lower in 2009 at Petco than it was for each of the last 8 (count em, EIGHT!) years at the Q. Of course technically speaking the attendance last year at Petco was lower than every single year at the Q ever, but that is taking into account the fact that they played in Jack Murphy Stadium until 1996!— March 15, 2010 12:58 p.m.