All of the righteous indignation over the Yankees (and Mets) scoring the coveted prime time slots is much ado about nothing to me. Because of the Fox Network’s ongoing fellatio of the five boroughs, I was able to leave work before lunch and attend yesterday’s Padres-Cardinals game under sunny skies and 70 degrees.
And, leave it to the local nine to excrete all the excitement out of playoff baseball.
Back in 1998, I attended NLDS, NLCS and World Series games at Qualcomm Stadium, which was the home of the Padres until 2003. The Pads went 1-2 in the games I was there for, but packed more than 60,000 fans into the ballpark for all their games during that magical, albeit futile, October run.
There are hundreds of words that are grossly overused in sports, but, really, there was no other way to describe those crowds than “electric”. The stereotypically laid-back Padre fans screamed in ear-piercing unison for a curtain call from Jim Leyritz after his late-inning home run put San Diego up for good in Game 3 of the ’98 Division Series. From the back row of the upper deck, I felt the ground under my feet hum with seismic activity as fans chanted, soccer-style, for 30 minutes before the start of Game 4 of that year’s NLCS. Then, despite being down 0-3, Padre fans lit into the hated Yankees and stayed until the end, just so they could classily salute both teams for a great season.
Yesterday, 43,000 San Diegans strolled into sterile, antiseptic Petco Park to watch Game #1 of the NLDS. Aside from the 17,000 fans who were missing (since we all know that smaller crowds = “intimate” and “intimate” = charming, old-time baseball) there was an abject lack of “buzz” (yeah, another one of those overused words).
Most experts have actually picked the Padres to topple the perennial National League power from St. Louis, with some going so far as to already put the Pads in the World Series. But, from my steep, overpriced third-deck seat, the crowd gave off a strong “just another game in July” vibe.
The pre-game cheering was loud, but not lusty.
The National Anthem was met with more apathy than passion.
Hell, even the Blue Angels flyover (which is a staple at EVERY major San Diego sporting event) didn’t get the gratuitous cheap pop that it usually does.
As for the game, the Padres pretty much spent nine innings shoveling dirt on the corpses who paid to watch that debacle.
Cardinals 1B/god Albert Pujols hit a 2-run HR early and the Cards never looked back. And, thanks to the molasses-slow work of starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Carpenter, this was one of those National League games that lumbered along like an American League game.
Except, without the lumber of an American League game.
San Diego’s sports somnambulance is mostly a myth, made up by chalky, chunky East Coast fans who can’t leave their homes from November to May for fear of Old Man Winter (to say nothing of Sweet Lady Humidity from June to September). But, for one day, anyway, “Joey from Staten Island” just might be right.
