U.S. Open brings out frontrunners

Did you know the U.S. Open is in San Diego this week, lol?

It’s amazing how everybody, especially the media, comes out of the woodwork for this.

On TV, you see people who don’t know a birdie from a bogey all of a sudden become golf “experts.” Ditto for radio and newspaper divisions.

There is one refreshing thing about having the U.S. Open in town, even if it does bring out the frontrunners who don’t know Sergio Garcia from Sergio Mendes: Golf has replaced the police blotter as the lead story in town.

That’s very refreshing in these days of television sensationalism.

Padres can't catch a cold

When you look at the National League statistics, you will notice the Padres have the league’s top fielding percentage.

Go ahead and laugh.

Two “hits” that were mental errors and don’t show up in the fielding percentages were the Padres’ downfall in a 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.

With one out in the seventh inning, Delwyn Young hit a liner to right that Brian Giles said he lost in the Petco Park lights for a double.

Juan Pierre followed with a fly to left center that left fielder Justin Huber appeared to have all the way, then backed off and said he lost the ball in the lights for what was a single.

Hall of Fame broadcasters Jerry Coleman of the Padres and Vin Scully of the Dodgers both couldn’t emphasize enough that if those two fly balls were caught, the Dodgers would not have scored in the seventh.

But with the two bonuses, the Dodgers went on to score four runs in the seventh.

It figures this all happened in the seventh, because the Padres have been outscored 46-20 in that inning this season.

A couple other stats to chew on:

Khalil Greene is batting .159 with runners in scoring position.

The Padres have lost 21 games in which they led.

Perhaps their five-game winning streak before Tuesday was more a blip on the radar than a sign of things to come.

As injuries get worse, Padres get better

Remember not so long ago when the Padres had the worst record in Major League Baseball?

Then starting pitchers Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Shawn Estes were injured.

Catcher Josh Bard also went down; ditto with second baseman Tadahito Iguchi.

So, with this many people sidelined, what happens?

The Padres are on a five-game winning streak, their longest of the season.

With a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers this Tuesday-Thursday, the Padres could conceivably move into a tie for second place in the NL West.

How do you explain this?

You don’t.

It seems the more Padre players have fallen; the more the Padres make their opponents fall.

When everybody finally comes back (hopefully by the All-Star break), the Padres could be in contention because of their substitutes. More likely, they could have a very difficult time when they begin 15 games of interleague play Friday against the much stronger American League.

During a 162-game season, every team gets hot at some point. It’s interesting that the Padres’ hot streak has come when you would least expect it.

Jockey's son is real horse racing winner

Even if Big Brown had won horse racing’s Triple Crown on Saturday, he would not have been the real winner.

Nor would have the owner, trainer, jockey or anyone else but one young 9-year-old boy.

No matter what happened, the biggest hero at Belmont was Jacob Desormeaux, the son of Big Brown’s jockey Kent Desormeaux.

Check out this story about Kent Desormeaux on cbsnews.com:

His youngest son was born with a rare genetic disorder called Usher Syndrome. Now nine years old, Jacob Desormeaux is deaf and will probably be blind by adulthood.

But in the Desormeaux "circle of life," the child has taught his parents. "The little things we take for granted, he makes us stop and notice those things because he does it himself,'" mother Sonia Desormeaux said.

"Because of Jacob, I go out there and I give all I got. I give you my best," Kent Desormeaux said.

We can only hope and pray Jacob Desormeaux never loses his sight. In the horse racing circle, he is the biggest winner of all.

U-T helped Padres make Bush draft move

Does anybody else remember this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune on June 8, 2004?

By Bill Center

Kevin Towers couldn’t hide his delight.

"This is a great story," the Padres general manager said yesterday after introducing Mission Bay High shortstop/pitcher Matt Bush as the No. 1 pick of baseball's 2004 draft.

And the story started with a report in this newspaper Friday.

At the time, Padres director of scouting Bill Gayton was assessing the three collegiate frontrunners for the Padres' No. 1 pick in the draft – right-handed pitchers Jered Weaver of Long Beach State and Jeff Niemann of Rice and Florida State shortstop Stephen Drew. Gayton was asked about Matt Bush.

"We've talked about Bush," said Gayton. "We love him." When Bush read that quote Friday morning, a light went on. "I've always loved the Padres," said Bush. "If they love me . . . "

Bush put in a call to one of his advisers, Ken Felder. "I asked Ken that, off what I read in the newspaper, would it be OK if I called the Padres and told them I wanted to play for them," said Bush.

OK, so now we know why the Padres took Bush – instead of three players ranked way ahead of him – as the first pick in the 2004 Major League Baseball draft.It all comes back to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

They’re the culprits who started this whole mess with Bush! We all know how Bush got into an altercation soon after joining the Padres minor leaguers … and how he has been a monumental failure.

Who do we have to thank for this horrible failure? Sounds like “credit” is due to none other than the Union-Tribune!

Chicago Cubs just keep on pounding

How about those Chicago Cubs?

After watching the Cubs pound the Padres the last two nights, it’s obvious this is a team with legitimate high hopes in 2008.

The Cubs are flat-out beating the Padres; rather than having the Padres beat themselves as they do so often.

What’s most impressive about the Cubs is how they just seem to hit line drive after line drive after line drive.

Padres’ catcher Michael Barrett, who played for the Cubs until last June, is certainly aware of his former team’s offensive prowess.

“One thing that’s impressive about them is that they have such a high on base percentage,” Barrett told the Associated Press. “The biggest thing about that lineup is that they really forced us to come to them. You don't see them making too many quick outs.”

Speaking of, it’s hard to get quick outs when you don’t throw strikes.

Padres starting pitcher Wil Ledezma threw 100 pitches in 4 2/3 innings Tuesday night, including 61 to the last 12 batters he faced (averaging more than five pitches per batter.) Ledezma walked five and went to full counts on eight of 21 batters; a terribly high percentage.

But that’s the way the Cubs play, forcing pitchers to get behind in the count because they’re evidently afraid to throw strikes.

Of course, the Padres are an easy target this season. But considering the Cubs have won nine straight and boast the best record in baseball, don’t be surprised if/when they play deep into October this season.

Can Cubs win it all this year?

Go Cubs go,
Go Cubs go,
Hey Chicago, whaddya say,
The Cubs are gonna win today!

Back in 1984, that was the theme song for the best Chicago Cubs team in decades.

Of course, that team made it all the way to the National League Championship Series; only to win the first two games and lose three straight to the Padres … who went on to lose the World Series to Detroit.

As the Cubs begin a three-game series in San Diego tonight at Petco Park, this is arguably their best team in a century. And, yes, it has been a century since the Cubs won their last World Series in 1908.

It’s interesting that the Cubs have won seven straight games, all against the Weak Weak West of the NL (three vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers; four vs. the Colorado Rockies.)

Alfonso Soriano is certainly playing like a Most Valuable Player … but we can’t call him an MVP candidate since every player is technically a candidate for the award.

Derrek Lee is having a great year, Japanese import Kosuke Fukudome is off to a hot start, and Jim Edmonds is playing 10 times better than he did for the Padres.

The pitching staff is again led by Carlos Zambrano, who gets the start in the series opener vs. the Padres.

Are the Cubs good enough to win the World Series for the first time in 100 years?

We say “yes” from this vantage point.