Once again, the swirling whispers have returned in San Diego regarding the overall dimensions of Petco Park and how the ocean climate affects the flight of the baseball. Over the course of nine years as a season ticket holder, I’ve witnessed many visiting team players rake the ball out of the ballpark. This past Monday, on a night that was heavily influenced by the ocean’s climate, Brewers’ LF Rick Braun homered not ONCE, not TWICE but THREE times. This only reconfirms to me, there are players out there who can consistently hit the ball out of the ballpark. The key component is they can put the ball in play (i.e. put the wood on the ball) vice strike-out looking. So if at all, Petco Park field dimensions only require a slight modification, otherwise I would hate to see SOFTBALL games at San Diego.

If you analyze the field dimensions of Petco Park, you will see from right field to right center is the most crucial areas that will need some slight modification. A good proposal would to bring in the fences from right field to center field at 10 feet. This of course will have an impact on several things as well, I would do the following:

• Move the visiting bullpen from the right field foul territory to behind right field fence.
• Move the out of town scoreboard from the right field fence to the Upper Deck Budweiser billboard.

Now, with these slight modifications to the field dimension, there shouldn’t be any negative whispers about not being able to reach the stands for both righties and lefties.

In accordance to the changes of the field dimensions, a radical change to the Scouting department is required as well. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how to acquire the right personnel for your work environment. Many people in the corporate environment can do this very well and hire the right personnel for many different projects. This can be applied to baseball as well. where the scouts should draft the right personnel with the required skill sets for the ballpark. It has been since 2004 the Padres have been in Petco Park. Absolutely by now the scouting department should have produced more than two handfuls of good players with a few impact ones. Sadly enough, this isn’t the case with the carousel of the Front Office and General Managers as well. Many opposition players have made Petco Park look rather small from Shawn Green, Andre Either, Matt Kemp, Troy Glaus, Adam Dunn, Albert Pujols, Ramon Hernandez, and so forth.

Change the name of the Park as well when new ownership arrives…..

I think it’s time to dump the name of Petco Park when the new ownership takes over the Padres. Why ? because literally with a sharp drop of attendance and the Triple AAA roster this has become Litter Park. A name that would be most reflective to the San Diego community would be “Sempra Energy Field”. I am sure Sempra Energy would like to get involved with the new ownership to inject synergy to the franchise. Remember, when the O’Malleys owned the Dodgers at that time their prime sponsorship was Unocal 76. A major oil company back in the 70’s and we all know where Oil & Gas is headed for these days. Perhaps, in correlation to the field dimension changes there will be more power in terms of homers and exciting baseball to be had in San Diego with good players as well. Hey ! It does not hurt to dream, once in awhile dreams do come true.

Lowlights of the Padres continues……

Nothing new here to report as usual, just basic same old news another Padres loss and more history being made against the Padres. This time it’s Brewers’ LF Ryan Braun slugging 3 homers and a triple on Monday of this week. As a long time season ticketholder, I can only wait out this bottoming of Padres inept baseball just like the astute investors in the gold, silver, oil and uranium commodities. Sooner or later, the bottoming will come and from there on out, it’s all positive baby ! The real question is which will hit 60 first ? The spot price of silver ? OR Padres Wins ? If I was a betting man, I would say the Silver.

As the Padres finished the month of April with a 7-17 record, the season is slipping away. Here is a blues music video featuring Monterey’s  John “Broadway” Tucker song titled “Slips Away”. Hang in there loyal Padres fans. I know this is brutally tough on the mind but we are inside the tunnel and there is a light at the end. That light is no longer an oncoming train but rather the end of the tunnel where a new owner stands to meet us.