The college baseball season is one week away from getting started, with San Diego State hosting Oklahoma and Indiana coming to play USD on February 19th. On Tuesday, Tony Gwynn and Rich Hill joined 619 Sports’ Craig Elsten on the stage for the Hall of Champions’ Sports at Lunch banquet.
Gwynn announced major changes for a pair of the Aztecs’ biggest stars. Junior closer Addison Reed, an All-American who saved 21 games in 21 chances last season, will be converted to a starting pitcher in 2010. Brandon Meredith, the slugging freshman first baseman, will be switched far up the defensive spectrum to center field.
Meanwhile, Rich Hill is just hoping to keep what looks like a loaded Toreros team healthy. With a rotation that will include A.J. Griffin (also making the switch from closer to starter), Kyle Blair and Sammy Solis, USD will have a full complement of arms every weekend.
Watch the Sports at Lunch Q&A with Gwynn and Hill after the jump: Continue Reading →
by Chris Ello on October 7, 2009
So the Padres closed out the 2009 baseball season this past weekend against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park. And, being as it was the final series of the year and all, they called it Fan Appreciation Weekend.
I understand the reasoning behind the whole thing. The idea, of course, being to thank the fans who supported this team throughout what really — when you add it all up – was another rather mediocre year.
Sure the Padres finished strongly, moved up into 4th-place in the standings, and denied the Dodgers last week the chance to celebrate the NL West title on their home turf.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that former GM Kevin Towers – fired prior to Game One of the weekend (celebration?) – felt much appreciation.
And…were there really any fans who appreciated another baseball season that was basically over by the end of May? To me, if you really want to show appreciation to your fans, how about doing some things between now and the beginning of 2010 that we can actually appreciate?
So now that you’re done shooting off a bunch of fireworks and handing out a bunch of really cool prizes, here are few moves for you to contemplate — moves that I know at least I’d appreciate.
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