Keep the Faith
The Padres offense still looks lifeless, but I'm not buying it. I still believe in this roster and think that they'll wake up soon.
I’m playing an unfamiliar role today. One that’s unfamiliar to me, anyway.
I am the optimist!
Usually, I am a grump. In life, sure, but especially when it comes to following the sports teams that I root for. Nobody is harder on their favorite team than me, and I spend half the time talking about what idiots they are. Not just the Padres, all of the teams that I root for.
And yet, this Padres season, it’s just not in me. Despite the team being 4-11 in their last 15 games (including a pretty pathetic 3-2 loss to the terrible Colorado Rockies last night), I’m watching everyone freak out about the offense and the future of the club and my faith in them is unwavering.
A quick story from my childhood
I became a Padres fan in 1998. May of 1998, to be exact. That’s when I came to San Diego for the very first time, on spring break from middle school, to see my dad. He had already moved out here and the rest of the family would join him at the end of June.
He was bored, and we had never lived so close to a major league team, so he bought season tickets to the Padres and Chargers immediately.
My first full day in San Diego involved going to a Padres/Diamondbacks game that ended with a walk-off grand slam by Steve Finley. I was so excited afterwards that I ran, face-first, into our new sliding glass door. One of those mistakes that you make when you living in a house that’s not yet familiar.
Anyway, I was hooked. I wanted to go to every single game, and once I actually lived in San Diego, we did.
I remember seeing “Keep the Faith” as a slogan of the team, and I was just old enough to understand that it made sense because of the religious aspects of being padres. I knew what the friar was and what he was wearing. I never really thought of it much beyond that.
As years passed, I realized that coming up with and using the slogan “Keep the Faith” was one of the few times the Padres considered their fans. It’s a promise. If you stick it out with us, we’ll stick it out with you. It’s the best part of a relationship, summed up in three words.
There are times that “Keep the Faith” has been said just to be said, in the middle of really terrible seasons where the Padres were tanking, as a way to try and sell some tickets. I know that and it bothered me, although I know the whole reason the Padres exist is to sell tickets and make money.
And while I fully believe that it’s the right of the die hard fan to demand more from their team, and rip on them more than any casual fan or non fan, there are times when baseball doesn’t make sense and you have to believe that the team is on a good path, even when the results are shitty. Not just because they’re your favorite team, but because you honestly believe they’re good.
A little bit of perspective
Before last year’s short-season Padres, San Diego had fielded a squad that had played better-than-.500 baseball exactly once since 2007.
That’s not just 13 years of bad, it’s also a ton of years without a real star player. Trevor Hoffman and Jake Peavy played their last games with the Padres in 2008. Adrian Gonzalez was gone after 2010.
That’s 10 straight years without a reason to cheer. Without a reason to be proud of our team. 10 years of screw ups, embarrassments, and no hope.
The Padres have turned that around. Not only are they one of the most talented teams in the league, they got here in a way that nobody would’ve ever expected: They spent a lot of money, and they mostly spent that money intelligently.
Team owner Peter Seidler was mocked for spending this way. Why would anyone spend money in small market San Diego? You’ll never earn it back, they said.
Peter didn’t care what they said. He made that obvious. He wanted to win a championship, and he believed that putting that money into this team would come back to him. He is keeping the faith in San Diego Padres fans, to buy tickets and concessions and merchandise. He is keeping the faith that the Padres fans will show up, in good times and bad.
By signing Manny Machado to a $300 million deal, and trading for Yu Darvish’s big contract, and trading for Blake Snell’s big contract, and finally signing Fernando Tatis Jr. to a $340 million deal, Peter Seidler showed that his faith in this fanbase and market was unwavering.
That’s how you go from the bad times to the good. That’s how you go from a team that doesn’t deserve our faith to one that does.
I’m here
Even my co-host on Padres Hot Tub, Craig Elsten, said he thought I jumped the gun with my post on this here blog/newsletter yesterday. I see a good team here, that is struggling due to a rough schedule against difficult opponents (and some nagging injuries), and I’m sticking to that.
I’m not jumping off the bandwagon just because the results aren’t there right now, or because everyone else is freaking out.
Why? I don’t really have a good explanation except that I believe in it. I have faith in this team, even as it is currently constructed. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try and make moves, but I still believe that this roster is one of the very best in baseball.
Sometimes, because baseball is stupid, that means that the team is going to lose games in spite of itself. I’m not going to let that kill my faith. Not yet, anyway.
I’m keeping the faith.
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