"Don't let the ball hit you. Catch it or get out of the way. And if you get out of the way, that's when you have to stop playing." - Manny Machado
Surely, it takes a unique level of fortitude to be a Major League Baseball player, and there is a limited window of time in which any man can stand on that stage, no matter how talented or accomplished. One hundred sixty-two games in a regular season with little time off, traveling every week, always trying to show up to work and give your best... could we fans do it?
The San Diego Padres famously started this season with a bang, winning their first seven games and going nearly three weeks before fans at home saw a loss at Petco Park. We, the Friar Faithful, were ecstatic, yet guarded in our optimism. In years past I would boldly type in my friends' group text chat, "World Series Bound!" believing that one year I would be seen as prophetic. Yet, this year, I haven't dared, and at times, it seemed almost logical to believe we'd be playing well into October. By the trade deadline, we had acquired some talent in a move some thought was overly bold and short-sighted, but we certainly bulked up an already good team. Late August, we witnessed our Padres outscore our division rivals, Giants and Dodgers, 33-20 at home to win both series.
It is now September. We were supposed to have "the easiest remaining schedule in all of baseball," yet the Padres have been turning in one performance after another that can generously be described as lackluster. The fans are not happy.
Of course, the world of sports has no shortage of opinions from everyone from talking heads on television to random guys on the internet who haven't played since high school. We can speculate all we want, but we really don't know what the problem is. Teams are unique organisms, and championship teams need to have so much going right with all their parts to actually come out as the best in the end. As of writing this, the Padres do not look like a championship team. However, if you were to ask most of the 40,000-plus who show up to watch these guys play regularly at home, we're disappointed, but mostly because we know this team has the tools to re-engage like Maverick and win this whole damn thing.
Not to get too sportingly cliché, but this Padres fan believes that the only question is - does the team have the fortitude to live up to the hype they created in the first week of the season and be champions? Because it really doesn't matter what the rest of us think. Fans matter, but we don't decide.
We need our stars to decide. And never look back.
Let's Go, Padres.
