Hot dog! Padres should lower ticket prices

So the Padres are offering $1 hot dogs and $1 regular size soft drinks – as well as $1 off beer – at all home games in July.

Hot dog! How about lowering the ticket prices at Petco Park while they’re at it?

The team’s home attendance is down more than 10 percent from last season.

You could blame it on our country’s weak economy. Or you could get real and blame it on the fact that the Padres have the second-worst record in Major League Baseball.

Let’s face it: You get what you pay for, and the Padres’ years of signing old veterans to contracts and getting lucky has finally run out on them.

Back to the hot dogs: Isn’t it ironic that the lower concession prices come in a month when the Padres have only nine home games; the fewest in any month this season?

Here is the team’s spin on the July concession prices:

“We are excited about this program, which is based in part on input from our fans,” CEO Sandy Alderson said. “We hope July Dollar Days will provide some relief to our fans from higher gas prices and the current overall economy.”

If the Padres really want to provide relief to fans, how about providing some relief in their bullpen (among other things) and a few more wins?

Padres have thrown in the towel

You think things can’t get any worse than the Padres?

Well, maybe they can.

This pathetic team has to play 45 of its last 79 games on the road, which may sound like a good thing after losing eight straight at home.

Then you consider the Padres are 11-25 on the road and start to wonder if they might be better off playing on neutral sites.

Let’s look at a couple of the bad numbers for a second:

Not only have the Padres lost eight straight on a homestand for the first time in 24 years, they also are second-worst than in more than a decade midway through the season.

Consider the team’s record the past 11 years when suffering its 50th loss:

1998: 90-50
1999: 49-50
2000: 39-50
2001: 44-50
2002: 34-50
2003: 23-50
2004: 58-50
2005: 50-50
2006: 55-50
2007: 56-50
2008: 32-50

Since CEO Sandy Alderson won’t fire himself, he may as well start by trading veterans such as Greg Maddux, Brian Giles and Randy Wolf for something.

As for 2008, the Chargers can’t start soon enough!