This and That

by Geoff Young on Sep 11, 2003

History is easy to forget, even when it’s just two years old. But it needs to be remembered. I took a moment to re-read my own words from that day, and they still resonate for me. Please take some time today to remember those who were lost in (and those who survived) the events of September 11, 2001. It really is the very least we can do for them.

Todd Sears

He made his Padre debut last night. Sort of. He was announced for Joe Roa in the eighth but was lifted for Miguel Ojeda when lefty Jason Christiansen came into the game.

More about Sears:

The Game

Khalil Greene and Xavier Nady got hits, Trevor Hoffman pitched a scoreless inning, and Phil Nevin homered and again looked very good playing first base. Aside from that, it was all Giants. And their fans. Ugh.

So instead of focusing on the negative, let’s look back to a better time. September 11, 1998. Dodger Stadium. Steve Finley leads off with a double against Brian Bohanon. Andy Sheets follows with a triple. Joey Hamilton does the rest, blanking the Dodgers on six hits over eight innings. Hoffman nails it down, earning his 48th save as the Pads improve their record to 93-55 and open up a 13 1/2 game lead over San Francisco with 14 to play (sure enough, the Friars would clinch the NL West the following day; the Giants lost to Colorado, 1-0, while San Diego came back from a 7-0 defecit to beat the Dodgers, 8-7). Odd footnote: Of the 19 players who participated in the game, only Hoffman is still with the same team.

Thanks to Retrosheet for that look back at a better time. If you’ve never been to Retrosheet, you owe it to yourself to visit and hang out there for a while. It’s well worth the trip.

In Other News

For those who still find the MLB playoffs to be a relevant topic, Christian Ruzich (Cub Reporter) has an interesting piece on playoff tiebreakers over at Baseball Prospectus. Discussion of the article may be found at Baseball Primer. Post #36 is particularly fascinating.

That’s all for now. Let’s see if the Pads can take one from the Giants tonight. Later…

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