The start of the baseball season tomorrow got me in the mood to update my blog. I have obviously changed the url and title of this blog (It will stay sports exclusive) and I now have a separate blog for my other thoughts which will have its first post coming up. When it is up I will post the url for that blog.
San Diego has the reputation of being a bad sports city, and this definitely has a lot of truth to it. Now I'm not saying that San Diego has no hardcore fans, because they do, I'm saying that the overall support for their local professional and college teams is wishy washy at best.
Why is this? The two rationalizations that I commonly hear is that there is always something to do in San Diego, and that San Diego is filled with transplants from all over the country that already have teams that they support. Again there are elements of truth to both of these observations, but everything is not that black and white. I am not going to try and solve this issue because I am not sure if it can be fixed.
The truth is that San Diego is an event city. The casual fan will not shell out their money to support a bad or mediocre team. In some cases such as the 2010 Padres, the team can be competitive and the fans will not come and support their team. But when their is a sports event going on in town, people will flock out to come and watch. One example of this event atmosphere is the '98 Padres that won 98 games, where there was amazing support from the community. Yeah of course there was a bump in support because of the team winning but there was a sense of pride in being a fan that year, it was fun to watch, and San Diegans enjoyed being part of that amazing run. More evidence of this is the correlation of how the Chargers perform from year to year and how many tv blackouts their are, and the sudden upswing of support for the SDSU basketball team because they were good for the first time ever. San Diego will never be a great sports town if these trends continue (There is no reason to believe they won't), but at least with baseball I can see some hope.
I believe under the current leadership a team can be built that fans will want to come out and watch. In '98 the team was all about power with Greg Vaughn and Ken Caminiti, and power is always a huge draw of casual fans. Home runs have and always will be the glamor play of baseball, but another play that always gets people to stand up and cheer is the stolen base. This regime that is in charge of the Padres knows that they can't build a powerhouse lineup and succeed at Petco Park, so they are going to outrun everyone and build through the farm system. I will elaborate more on the Padres blueprint in a future post.
In closing it is difficult for a big fan like myself to admit that their might never be a great following of the San Diego professional teams, and this same lack of passion is what leads people to believe that San Diego could not support an NBA team. Also the problem is not just limited to San Diego, it is more of a Southern California issue (I'm talking to you LA). There is a reason the NFL hasn't been successful there, because LA doesn't support losing teams. The Lakers have been winners for a long time but they haven't always been a draw (Between dynasties, not the best example haha), but the Clippers haven't been a draw until recently and the Dodgers don't draw as well as they did in their semi-dynasty years. The difference between LA and San Diego sports wise is that LA will not tolerate a loser, and in that media market teams can't get away with mediocrity and lack of stars on their teams, teams in San Diego can.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Long time no blog.
I really need to keep up on this thing. I have decided to blog about anything I want instead of just confining myself to sports. Most of my posts will be focused on one of the following areas: Stuff with my close friends, stuff by myself or with some not so close friends, my social theories and ramblings, or my sports thoughts.
Sorry to make this short but it is late, I just wanted to make sure I did this so I would be more inclined to blog when I have something to blog about. Until next time...
Mitch (Glen)
Sorry to make this short but it is late, I just wanted to make sure I did this so I would be more inclined to blog when I have something to blog about. Until next time...
Mitch (Glen)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
AJ Smith
I was originally going to post about teams beating themselves after a dispute with a friend of mine, but I realized that it is more a matter of perspective. After another dispute with the same person I have decided to give my thoughts on the general manager of the chargers, AJ Smith.
I have a friend who loves AJ and a friend who hates him. I support him because he runs the team that I support, I don't always agree with the way he runs the team. He definitely has flaws which have become more noticeable recently but lets first focus on the positives AJ brings to the team:
Positives: AJ has proven he knows how to find talent in the past (Bad first round picks recently). He has proven he can find this talent late in the draft and in the undrafted free agent crop especially. He doesn't get pushed around by other GM's and just give players away for nothing (Just lets them walk in free agency for nothing). The thing that has made me kinda like AJ is that he says the job of a GM is to give their team enough talent to go to the playoffs every year, after that it's up to the players and coaches to get the job done. I agree with this and he has given San Diego a team that has gotten into the postseason the last 4 years, so he has done his job.
Negatives: AJ is a dictator, he always has been. He routinely demonstrates that things are run "my way or the highway" and unless he is flawless in replacing people he is going to be hated because he lets go of talent that has built a fan base here in San Diego (like LT). I don't necessarily disagree with his decision to let certain people go, he has a manner of doing it that alienates the fan base. These situations always seem so ugly, recent ugly situations include Donnie Edwards, Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie, Shawne Merriman, Marty Schottenheimer, Vincent Jackson, Marcus McNeill and Antonio Gates. The last two issues listed got sorted out but the point is it seems like he can't deal with a big name without incident aside from Philip Rivers, it reflects on the organization poorly. He likes to build through the draft but he doesn't try to get anything for people that he knows aren't in future plans, Michael Turner and now Vincent Jackson come to mind.
Expanding on AJ as a dictator, I believe that this is the worst thing about AJ. All the continually successful teams in the NFL are identified by their head coach and not their GM like San Diego is. New England, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis (Dungy before he retired, now just carried by Manning) are continually successful teams and a common theme is a head coach who is the unquestioned leader of the franchise. I realize that San Diego may not be quite in this class of franchise because 3 of these teams have won a super bowl recently and Philly went to 4 straight conference championships and appeared in a super bowl, but San Diego has been to the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years and that is continued success. Difference is now we are more AJ Smith's team, not Norv Turner's and I believe that has an affect on the players knowing Norv isn't in complete control. Rather than comparing the chargers in their current state to the Patriots like people have tried to do in the past, I compare them as an organization similar to the Dallas Cowboys because Jerry Jones is another dictator who hired a "yes man" as a head coach just like AJ did with Norv. Now both have weak minded head coaches who can't get their teams out of an early season rut.
To conclude I am not calling for AJ's head like many fans out out there, but I believe to be more successful and to take that next jump to championship caliber he may need to swallow his ego, and surrender some control of the team to a new head coach that will do more than just say yes to everything AJ requests.
I have a friend who loves AJ and a friend who hates him. I support him because he runs the team that I support, I don't always agree with the way he runs the team. He definitely has flaws which have become more noticeable recently but lets first focus on the positives AJ brings to the team:
Positives: AJ has proven he knows how to find talent in the past (Bad first round picks recently). He has proven he can find this talent late in the draft and in the undrafted free agent crop especially. He doesn't get pushed around by other GM's and just give players away for nothing (Just lets them walk in free agency for nothing). The thing that has made me kinda like AJ is that he says the job of a GM is to give their team enough talent to go to the playoffs every year, after that it's up to the players and coaches to get the job done. I agree with this and he has given San Diego a team that has gotten into the postseason the last 4 years, so he has done his job.
Negatives: AJ is a dictator, he always has been. He routinely demonstrates that things are run "my way or the highway" and unless he is flawless in replacing people he is going to be hated because he lets go of talent that has built a fan base here in San Diego (like LT). I don't necessarily disagree with his decision to let certain people go, he has a manner of doing it that alienates the fan base. These situations always seem so ugly, recent ugly situations include Donnie Edwards, Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie, Shawne Merriman, Marty Schottenheimer, Vincent Jackson, Marcus McNeill and Antonio Gates. The last two issues listed got sorted out but the point is it seems like he can't deal with a big name without incident aside from Philip Rivers, it reflects on the organization poorly. He likes to build through the draft but he doesn't try to get anything for people that he knows aren't in future plans, Michael Turner and now Vincent Jackson come to mind.
Expanding on AJ as a dictator, I believe that this is the worst thing about AJ. All the continually successful teams in the NFL are identified by their head coach and not their GM like San Diego is. New England, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis (Dungy before he retired, now just carried by Manning) are continually successful teams and a common theme is a head coach who is the unquestioned leader of the franchise. I realize that San Diego may not be quite in this class of franchise because 3 of these teams have won a super bowl recently and Philly went to 4 straight conference championships and appeared in a super bowl, but San Diego has been to the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years and that is continued success. Difference is now we are more AJ Smith's team, not Norv Turner's and I believe that has an affect on the players knowing Norv isn't in complete control. Rather than comparing the chargers in their current state to the Patriots like people have tried to do in the past, I compare them as an organization similar to the Dallas Cowboys because Jerry Jones is another dictator who hired a "yes man" as a head coach just like AJ did with Norv. Now both have weak minded head coaches who can't get their teams out of an early season rut.
To conclude I am not calling for AJ's head like many fans out out there, but I believe to be more successful and to take that next jump to championship caliber he may need to swallow his ego, and surrender some control of the team to a new head coach that will do more than just say yes to everything AJ requests.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Sky is Falling...
San Diego, the sky is falling. The Chargers are 1-2 and are again off to a slow start. Both games they have lost this year they have gift wrapped them for their opponents with special teams blunders and turnovers. Now maybe we should have expected that despite the easy schedule early in the year we would once again come out flat and lose too many early season games, but why is this happening? In the past it has been our defense getting carved up by the passing game and they couldn't get off the field, now our defense is probably playing the strongest of any of the 3 units. As I stated earlier our problems lie in special teams and turnovers, I can't tell you exactly why we suck on special teams but it is giving teams free points. If we could get stops on returns our defense is playing well enough to stop the other team driving the score up, the Seahawks scored only 3 pts total off San Diego's 5 turnovers. Which brings us to our other problem: the turnovers, I'm willing to give Rivers a pass so far because of his 4 picks that I can remember 3 of them have been tipped by our receivers and the 4th was on 4th down at the end of the game, but we need to stop fumbling. I can see that sometimes fumbling can be unavoidable like when a helmet hits the ball directly but the Chargers fumbling has started to seem like more of a trend than a couple of unlucky plays. From memory the Chargers have fumbled 5 times in their first 3 games which along with Rivers 4 picks makes 9 turnovers (Not checking stats so that is off memory, I might be wrong) in 3 games: An average of 3 a game. If we do continue to turn the ball over at that obscene pace, we will not make the playoffs. These things need to be fixed.
I have to give props to Philip Rivers for setting a Charger record for passing yardage in a game. By all accounts he played well once the Chargers figured out how to move the ball in the 2nd half.
All the receivers played well except for a fumble by Legadu Naanee. Running attack wasn't bad save a fumble by Mike Tolbert (See a trend)
Catch of the Day: Antonio Gates- Throw behind him on a crossing route, Gates reaches back grabs it with his left hand and pins it against his leg for the catch.
2nd Guess of the Game: 7 minutes left Tolbert is rolling and it is 2nd and goal on the 2, instead of punching it up the gut with Tolbert again Rivers rolls out to the right and has to throw the ball away. The drive ended with a field goal after a delay of game penalty. Why not keep running Tolbert and try to punch it in.
Big Mac is Back: Marcus McNeill reported to the team and signed his tender. This is great news because we all just saw Brandyn Dombrowski's weakness was speed rushers and McNeill will instantly upgrade the pass protection which was ok at best today.
Random CRAZY Idea: Chargers trade Vincent Jackson to the Jaguars for Kassim Osgood and some draft pick. Keep in mind this will never happen but us fans are just desperate enough to want it to happen. Kassim would instantly upgrade our special teams and we aren't using V Jack at all, but we will have to find another way to contain other teams on returns.
Crazy week, I might have a better analysis of next weeks games because I may have tickets to the game but that is yet to be confirmed or denied. Comment if you have any other ideas to fix our teams flaws.
-Mitch
I have to give props to Philip Rivers for setting a Charger record for passing yardage in a game. By all accounts he played well once the Chargers figured out how to move the ball in the 2nd half.
All the receivers played well except for a fumble by Legadu Naanee. Running attack wasn't bad save a fumble by Mike Tolbert (See a trend)
Catch of the Day: Antonio Gates- Throw behind him on a crossing route, Gates reaches back grabs it with his left hand and pins it against his leg for the catch.
2nd Guess of the Game: 7 minutes left Tolbert is rolling and it is 2nd and goal on the 2, instead of punching it up the gut with Tolbert again Rivers rolls out to the right and has to throw the ball away. The drive ended with a field goal after a delay of game penalty. Why not keep running Tolbert and try to punch it in.
Big Mac is Back: Marcus McNeill reported to the team and signed his tender. This is great news because we all just saw Brandyn Dombrowski's weakness was speed rushers and McNeill will instantly upgrade the pass protection which was ok at best today.
Random CRAZY Idea: Chargers trade Vincent Jackson to the Jaguars for Kassim Osgood and some draft pick. Keep in mind this will never happen but us fans are just desperate enough to want it to happen. Kassim would instantly upgrade our special teams and we aren't using V Jack at all, but we will have to find another way to contain other teams on returns.
Crazy week, I might have a better analysis of next weeks games because I may have tickets to the game but that is yet to be confirmed or denied. Comment if you have any other ideas to fix our teams flaws.
-Mitch
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
V Jack deadline has passed...
I still don't know how I feel about this. Vincent Jackson's rights are still owned by the San Diego Chargers. For some reason I always had a feeling a trade would get done and we would add a 2nd rounder and maybe something else to our plethora of picks in next years draft, apparently I was wrong.
As i am trying to remain objective on all sides I can see that all parties are somewhat at fault. First V Jack's agents are at fault for advising their agent to hold out and not sign his 3.2 million dollar tender when his value is down for being arrested for 2 DUI's, Got arrested before the Jets playoff game, and because he lost his composure in that playoff game. V Jack is at fault too, he should have known if he wanted to get a long term deal, the best way to show this organization you are worth keeping around is to show up and put the work in, the Chargers extended Antonio Gates this year and he was in camp. Of course AJ Smith is at fault, I can respect him not negotiating with holdouts but he made a mistake when he lowered the tender to 800k or something close. Then he couldn't or wouldn't trade him today, can't really say much on this because I don't know how much of the reports about the compensation I believe but if I got offered a 2nd I pull the trigger.
The Chargers can still trade him until Oct. 19th but he will not be able to play until week 7 at the earliest. V Jack is saying he just wants to play football. If this is the case, suck up your pride, sign your tender, and earn your big money contract while helping your team try to win a superbowl this year.
MB
As i am trying to remain objective on all sides I can see that all parties are somewhat at fault. First V Jack's agents are at fault for advising their agent to hold out and not sign his 3.2 million dollar tender when his value is down for being arrested for 2 DUI's, Got arrested before the Jets playoff game, and because he lost his composure in that playoff game. V Jack is at fault too, he should have known if he wanted to get a long term deal, the best way to show this organization you are worth keeping around is to show up and put the work in, the Chargers extended Antonio Gates this year and he was in camp. Of course AJ Smith is at fault, I can respect him not negotiating with holdouts but he made a mistake when he lowered the tender to 800k or something close. Then he couldn't or wouldn't trade him today, can't really say much on this because I don't know how much of the reports about the compensation I believe but if I got offered a 2nd I pull the trigger.
The Chargers can still trade him until Oct. 19th but he will not be able to play until week 7 at the earliest. V Jack is saying he just wants to play football. If this is the case, suck up your pride, sign your tender, and earn your big money contract while helping your team try to win a superbowl this year.
MB
Week 2: San Diego Chargers vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Not going in depth analysis on this one because it is already Wednesday, and I have the Vincent Jackson stuff on my mind. Anyway onto the players I liked:
Obviously have to give props to Antoine Cason, forced 3 turnovers and he can tackle unlike Cromartie could.
Antonio Gates: Have to tip my cap because he found himself wide open at least twice.
There were others of course because of the 38-13 win but I won't go into all of that.
What I didn't like: I liked the defense but their lack of pressure on the QB still makes me uneasy for when we face better teams.
Sorry about the short post but I want to give my thoughts on V Jack while they are still fresh. Longer posts about each weeks games are forthcoming.
Mitch Brownshow
Obviously have to give props to Antoine Cason, forced 3 turnovers and he can tackle unlike Cromartie could.
Antonio Gates: Have to tip my cap because he found himself wide open at least twice.
There were others of course because of the 38-13 win but I won't go into all of that.
What I didn't like: I liked the defense but their lack of pressure on the QB still makes me uneasy for when we face better teams.
Sorry about the short post but I want to give my thoughts on V Jack while they are still fresh. Longer posts about each weeks games are forthcoming.
Mitch Brownshow
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Week 1: San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs
I have another post which has been placed on the back burner to be completed when I have more time but this game is going to eat me up if I don't vent about it right now.
As most of you know the the final score was 21-14 to the chiefs. Last year the Chargers went 13-3 and the Chiefs finished 4-12. Do we see why this game was a frustrating one for Chargers fans? Historically the Chargers are slow starters and by historically I mean under Norv Turner, just look at the team's record month by month under his tutelage:
September 5-7
October 5-4
November 8-5
December 13-0
Obviously we always start slow. So I want to let chargers fans know that the sky isn't falling and the sun will come up again. A friend and I were worried to begin with about this game because so many people were claiming this is going to be a crushing win for the chargers, most people claiming that are blind fans who don't understand sports on the same level as we do and that is why I will probably will post at some point about me and the new breed of fans but that's for another time. What I am trying to say is that this game had all the familiar symptoms of a trap game and that's what it turned out to be.
Unfortunately I don't possess a recording of the game so I am going off of what I remember but there were some things I liked:
I don't get the hating on the defense? They allowed 1 big run and they didn't get consistent pressure on the quarterback (this might be a problem in future games against better qb's but why complain when their passing game didn't beat you?) If you heard these defensive stats would you be alarmed about your defense? 10 of 22 for 62yds passing, with 197 total yds, and converting 1 for 11 on 3rd downs. Are you kidding me, that is a great game by the defense, granted they were probably helped by the sloppy conditions of the field but I would take that any time out.
The offense wasn't impressive but they showed that they could move the ball (When it wasn't raining sideways) without Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeill. Yeah, maybe we could have used V Jack on that final drive to take TRIPLE COVERAGE away from Gates but come on guys, if there is triple coverage on 1 guy I'm pretty sure that with a normal rush that means that everyone else is in man to man coverage, someone has to step up and get open. I think the slick field contributed to their inability to get open because they kept falling but thats why you should have the ability to change out their spikes for longer ones, I know it's possible it happens all the time and the Chiefs weren't sliding all over the field like we were.
Don't even get me started on special teams and if we miss Kassim Osgood. Mike Scifres had 2 touchbacks all of last season, He had 3 last night. Also can we hold our gaps on punt coverage please.
Individual performances that I liked:
Shaun Phillips: I thought he was the only linebacker making plays consistently, even though I don't like the guy as a person he was getting it done last night.
Ryan Mathews: First game not bad looked like he could actually stay up longer than 2 yards like the running back we had last year. The fumble was bad but the ball was slick so I will give him a pass. Also LT fumbled in his first and second game and I think he turned out pretty well.
Legadu Naanee: Only guy that was stepping up when they started rolling coverage towards Gates. Drop on 4th down wasn't pretty though.
Individual Performances I didn't like:
Philip Rivers: Stats look good, played well when it wasn't raining, and I don't have a problem with him yelling at his teammates and getting mad when they get delay of games like a lot of people do. At least he looks like he cares unlike some other qbs in the league. What I had a problem with was in the middle of the game he couldn't throw a wet ball. It seemed to always fall in front of the receiver, Philip has to make plays no matter what the condition on the field because it turned out we could have used a score in the middle of the game.
Darren Sproles: The dude did absolutely nothing. He danced around and went nowhere before being arm tackled every time he touched the ball. He is making 7 million dollars this year and he made 6 million last year, it seems he has lost some burst also which makes him useless. I hope he proves my comments wrong because I like the guy, but he just isn't earning his money right now.
So those are my thoughts on week 1's charger game, I may or may not post about the upcoming game beforehand to offer some keys to the game but I wouldn't bet on it. Until next time, be safe.
Mitch Brown
As most of you know the the final score was 21-14 to the chiefs. Last year the Chargers went 13-3 and the Chiefs finished 4-12. Do we see why this game was a frustrating one for Chargers fans? Historically the Chargers are slow starters and by historically I mean under Norv Turner, just look at the team's record month by month under his tutelage:
September 5-7
October 5-4
November 8-5
December 13-0
Obviously we always start slow. So I want to let chargers fans know that the sky isn't falling and the sun will come up again. A friend and I were worried to begin with about this game because so many people were claiming this is going to be a crushing win for the chargers, most people claiming that are blind fans who don't understand sports on the same level as we do and that is why I will probably will post at some point about me and the new breed of fans but that's for another time. What I am trying to say is that this game had all the familiar symptoms of a trap game and that's what it turned out to be.
Unfortunately I don't possess a recording of the game so I am going off of what I remember but there were some things I liked:
I don't get the hating on the defense? They allowed 1 big run and they didn't get consistent pressure on the quarterback (this might be a problem in future games against better qb's but why complain when their passing game didn't beat you?) If you heard these defensive stats would you be alarmed about your defense? 10 of 22 for 62yds passing, with 197 total yds, and converting 1 for 11 on 3rd downs. Are you kidding me, that is a great game by the defense, granted they were probably helped by the sloppy conditions of the field but I would take that any time out.
The offense wasn't impressive but they showed that they could move the ball (When it wasn't raining sideways) without Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeill. Yeah, maybe we could have used V Jack on that final drive to take TRIPLE COVERAGE away from Gates but come on guys, if there is triple coverage on 1 guy I'm pretty sure that with a normal rush that means that everyone else is in man to man coverage, someone has to step up and get open. I think the slick field contributed to their inability to get open because they kept falling but thats why you should have the ability to change out their spikes for longer ones, I know it's possible it happens all the time and the Chiefs weren't sliding all over the field like we were.
Don't even get me started on special teams and if we miss Kassim Osgood. Mike Scifres had 2 touchbacks all of last season, He had 3 last night. Also can we hold our gaps on punt coverage please.
Individual performances that I liked:
Shaun Phillips: I thought he was the only linebacker making plays consistently, even though I don't like the guy as a person he was getting it done last night.
Ryan Mathews: First game not bad looked like he could actually stay up longer than 2 yards like the running back we had last year. The fumble was bad but the ball was slick so I will give him a pass. Also LT fumbled in his first and second game and I think he turned out pretty well.
Legadu Naanee: Only guy that was stepping up when they started rolling coverage towards Gates. Drop on 4th down wasn't pretty though.
Individual Performances I didn't like:
Philip Rivers: Stats look good, played well when it wasn't raining, and I don't have a problem with him yelling at his teammates and getting mad when they get delay of games like a lot of people do. At least he looks like he cares unlike some other qbs in the league. What I had a problem with was in the middle of the game he couldn't throw a wet ball. It seemed to always fall in front of the receiver, Philip has to make plays no matter what the condition on the field because it turned out we could have used a score in the middle of the game.
Darren Sproles: The dude did absolutely nothing. He danced around and went nowhere before being arm tackled every time he touched the ball. He is making 7 million dollars this year and he made 6 million last year, it seems he has lost some burst also which makes him useless. I hope he proves my comments wrong because I like the guy, but he just isn't earning his money right now.
So those are my thoughts on week 1's charger game, I may or may not post about the upcoming game beforehand to offer some keys to the game but I wouldn't bet on it. Until next time, be safe.
Mitch Brown
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