So That's How It's Going to Be! - Kent Ninomiya

So that's how it's going to be... eh? It's not enough that the Padres break our hearts, they have to be oh so cruel. On paper the Pads seem to have what it takes. An overpowering pitching staff and adequate bats. They hang in there tight for those close low scoring games. Only a true fan can sit there cheering in the ninth inning of a 0-0 tie. Only a masochist is still cheering in the 22nd inning for the Padres to come back from a 2-1 deficit. San Diego wins enough to get fans hopes up then loses the tight ones that would give us satisfaction. After sitting through more than six hours of pretty boring baseball we deserve a win. Rockies fans might say they deserved it more but i'm ignoring them right now. I'm talking about the Padres and their habit of losing the games that make you happy you're a fan. You know... the knock down drag outs that you have to claw for with all you got. Losing those hurt so much more than the lopsided pounding. In this young season that seems to be all we're feeling.

Padres Heartbreak - Kent Ninomiya

I just finished watching the series between the Padres and the Giants in San Francisco. The Pads looked good going in. Pitching was strong as ever and their bats seemed to be coming alive early. Virtually the entire starting line up entered the series batting over .300. Despite all the nay sayers it looked as though the Padres could have another successful year and wipe clean the memory of last year's last minute collapse. SD walked away with the first game of the series making the hapless Giants look amateurish with a record of 1-6. The last two games of the series were low scoring drawn out battles. In the first the Padres came back from a 0-2 deficit to send the game into extra innings only to lose it in the bottom of the 11th on a Benjie Molina home run. In the second game there was no score going into the bottom of the 9th. It looked as though it would be another extra inning game but with two outs Daniel Ortmeier muscled in a run on a double over the head of Jim Edmonds to score Rajai Davis from second. It was two close walk off losses for the Padres in two days. Here's my question... is being a Padres fan all about the heartbreak? Yeah... I know it's early in the season... but I feel like we are being slow tortured. It's far more painful to lose the nail biters than the blow outs. Padres fans are not Cubs fans or old Red Sox fans. We don't like the pain. Would it be too much to ask to have the Padres win a few of these close ones? Please... at least until the sting of last season fades. Kent Ninomiya

Baseball's Big Lie - Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - The media circus surrounding Roger Clemens' congressional testimony isn't shedding much light on who is lying and who is telling the truth. However, it is exposing the crystal clear hypocricy of baseball. The surprising champion of truth in all this may end up ironically being Jose Canseco. Canseco cashed in on confessing his steroid use. He wasn't going to the hall of fame anyway so he might as well make some money off the scandal. While Canseco delighted in pointing his steroid inflated finger at big star after bigger star, he is coming to the defense of Clemens. Canseco insists Clemens was not at a 1998 party he hosted. Clemens' accuser, Brian McNamee says Clemens was there. Canseco calls McNamee a "dirty liar." Why would Canseco, a man who made a second career out of outing fellow MLB players, publically defend Clemens? On the other hand, why would Clemens' long time friend and training partner Andy Pettitte implicate Clemens? It's a huge mess getting bigger because Congress decided to sweep in with a holyer than thou condemnation. Jealous politicians, who I suspect once had fantacies about being a sports star like Clemens, take delight in tearing down this icon. It's the ultimate in player hating. I don't know if Clemens is lying or McNamee is lying. They may both be lying. The one thing that's certain is that steroid use in baseball was commonplace and condoned by MLB and lawmakers for decades. The joke about spring training is that it's a time to figure out the proper dosage. Lots of players took steroids and the league knew about it. Saying they're cleaning it up now is hypocritical. Remember, baseball was in big trouble after the 1994 strike. Fans were slow to return. The homerun contest of Mark McGwire and Sama Sosa, career homerun record of Barry Bonds and pitching heroics of Roger Clemens brought the fans back. Baseball now enjoys unprecidented prosperity thanks to these athletes. Now that the league is lining its pockets with the exploits, they are wagging their collective finger at the guys who did it for them. The true villians in all this are the owners and league officials who allowed it to happen. If they truely wanted performing enhancing drugs out of baseball they could have taken steps decades ago. They didn't. Looking the other way was paramount to condoning it. They do not have the right to act outraged now. Kent Ninomiya

Who's Next? - Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Let me get this straight. Roger Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee now says he injected Debbie Clemens with HGH. Roger Clemens' wife is now an alleged doping fiend? The story from McNamee seems to get stranger and stranger by the day. As far as I can tell it's just his word against everyone else. Unless, of course, those bloody syringes he supposedly hung on to for 7 years turn out to prove something. What I find off about the story is that it is trickling out. It's as if it is being made up along the way. First it's a legendary pitcher being accused, then his wife. Who's next? His kids, his dog, his ham sandwich? The unfortunate part of all this is that Clemens may never get a chance to clear his name. Meanwhile he is being smeared weekly with fresh stories about his alleged drug use. It's time for McNamee to put up or shut up. Every day this drags on make it more of a travesty of justice. If Clemens is guilty prosecute. If he is innocent then clear his name. Trial by media benefits no one. The guilty have justice delayed. The innocent are unjustly tormented. The media loses its soul and credibility. Kent Ninomiya

Bizzare Twist in Clemens Story - Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Lawyers for Brian McNamee, the trainer accusing Roger Clemens of steroid use, now say they gave prosecutors physical evidence that proves Clemens is guilty. They claim they handed over bloody syringes with Clemens' blood on them in early January. This prompted strong denials from Clemens' attornies who say anything like that would have to have been fabricated. Common sense suggests it is highly unlikely a trainer would keep used syringes with illegal substances in them for seven years. Why would he do that? It is unsanitary and implicates him in a crime. Also if he had these why did he wait until now to hand them over? Roger Clemens knows this is no joke. His team of lawyers must have told him the legal ramifications of perjury. Yet the seven-time Cy Young Award winner gave a five-hour sworn deposition Tuesday to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Afterward he again denied to reporters that he ever used performance-enchancing drugs. Clemens knows that if he's caught lying he could go to prison. That makes Clemens either completely innocent or increadibly stupid. This case gets more and more bizzare every day, but I still haven't seen any evidence that proves Clemens did anything wrong. His accuser is hardly credible and now suddenly there's physical evidence we didn't know about? There is something very wrong in all this. Clemens may need his day in court to get this all out in the open and clear his name. Unfortunately this will probably drag on for years and may never reach trial. If that's the case Clemens will have no where to go to get his reputation back. Kent Ninomiya

Greene Rakes In Green - Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Padres shortstop Khalil Greene rakes in a lot of green with a new two-year contract worth $11 million guaranteed. It's his reward for a monster 2007 season. Greene was the team's 2007 MVP after hitting .254 and setting career highs with 27 homers, 44 doubles and 97 RBIs. He also set a club record with a .984 fielding percentage over 690 chances. Greene is an important element of the Padres which is known more for its pitchers than its slugging infielders. He's also a popular humble guy who is popular with the fans. Good job Padres management for hanging on to this guy. Kent Ninomiya

ESPN Suspends Jacobson - Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Suspending TV talent for off hand remarks seems to be in vogue these days. Now it's ESPN's Dana Jacobson who is on the hot seat. The co-host of "First Take" on ESPN2 is reportedly serving a one-week suspension for comments made at a January 11 roast of ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. Jacobsen is said to have made vulgar comments about Notre Dame as a joke. Jacobson is a Michigan graduate who often kids Notre Dame alumnus Golic about the rivalry between the schools. Apparently it went too far. Jacobson reportedly made a number of apologies the next day to Greenberg and Golic, and issued a statement saying, "I am sorry. My remarks about Notre Dame were foolish and insensitive. I respect all religions and did not mean anything derogatory by my poorly chosen words. I also deeply regret the embarrassment I've caused ESPN and Mike and Mike." The apology wasn't good enough for ESPN.

The question I have is: would Jacobson have been suspended if the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman had not been disciplined for her comments about Tiger Woods recently. Then Golfweek ran a cover of a noose to exploit the controversy. Editor Dave Seanor got fired for approving it. It seems to be a feeding frenzy on TV talent.

I watch Dana Jacobson on a regular basis. She is a classy professional who presents herself well while doing hours of live television involving contentious debate. She was making jokes at a roast. Did she go to far? Maybe, but come on, it was a roast. A McCarthy style witch hunt is brewing in the broadcast industry where everyone is hypersensitive about what they say and intent is determined by public opinion days after the fact. We need to be careful not to lose our freedoms of expression and press by pandering to "pile on" outrage. They are just words. Let's not make them about something they're not. Kent Ninomiya