In Part 4 of our chat with singer/songwriter/Padre fan Steve Poltz poltz.com, Steve talked about Steve Garvey’s homer in the NLCS in ’84, shagging fly balls while Tony Gwynn took batting practice, and more.
In our final segment, Steve discusses his meeting of Ken Caminiti, the heartbreak of watching USD alum Brady Clark struggle in Colorado, and his favorite baseball movies.
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Ducksnorts: How about the ’98 team?
Steve Poltz: Back in ’98, Kevin Brown did it all. He was such a gamer; I f***in’ loved that guy… [Ken] Caminiti, down in Mexico getting an IV… I have a memory of him driving on his motorcycle at Windansea — that was the year I knew the whole team pretty well. I remember him walking up to the deck at Windansea where I live, where I’ve lived for 19 years, and shaking my hand. Dude, that guy was larger than f***in’ life. He was badass.
[We ramble about Caminiti and Padres history.]
SP: I’ve been predicting the Rockies will get swept [in the World Series]. I’ve been saying, “I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. The Rockies are going to get to the World Series and remember, ‘Oh, wait, we’re the Colorado Rockies; we’re a fourth-place team that got hot.’” I told my friends that and they’re laughing; I’m hoping for a sweep so I can say, “I told you so.”
[Ed note: The Rockies were down to the Red Sox, 2-0, when this interview took place; they did get swept.]
I’ve seen that happen so many times, where a team gets hot — with the Padres against the Yankees [in '98], and in 1984 [against the Detroit Tigers]. Those were two of the greatest teams we lost to, those ’84 Tigers and ’98 Yankees.
DS: Both of those teams were unstoppable.
[Waitress stops by to check on us; Steve raves about his pork chop and orders us homemade ice cream sandwiches for dessert.]
DS: I hate to ask, but as a fellow USD grad, how painful was it to watch Brady Clark struggle in center field in that final game?
SP: It hurt so bad. I was at the game when we lost our left fielder and our center fielder. That was one of the weirdest things ever. I was saying [to my girlfriend], “That guy [Clark] went to USD, my alma mater; it’s okay, honey, we’ll still be all right.”
Brady Clark looked scared, and it broke my heart. They don’t want that to happen.
My favorite player this year was a guy that everybody would always rip on at Ducksnorts, [Geoff] Blum. I love that guy, and I was, like… everybody’s so harsh on him. What did they call him?
DS: “Silent L.”
SP: How come? What’s “L”? Is that for “Loser”?
DS: If you take the “l” out of “Blum,” you’re left with “bum.”
SP: Oh, wow; that’s genius… It’s so funny, I always thought that OG meant “Original Giles” and NOG meant “Non-Original Giles.” I laughed so hard when I saw “Orange Giles.”
I am such a fan of Ducksnorts. Next year I’m going to post. I’m going to get the courage up.
DS: Do it; you’re among friends.
SP: I’m so obsessed with the web site that after a game, in the morning, if I haven’t seen the game — I’m on the road, playing a show — I’ll read the comments of what people were saying during the game.
DS: Wow… Shifting gears, if you were GM for a day and you could make one move to help the club, what would it be?
SP: This would be selfish, because I love this player, but I’d do anything to get Eric Byrnes on the Padres. I love his hustle. He’s a freak. I want a guy with that kind of energy. I want gamers on my team. Do you like Eric Byrnes, or does he bug you?
DS: He bugs me when he plays the Padres, which means I like him. Dave Roberts used to do that to me before he came here.
SP: Yeah… Did you ever write on Ducksnorts about how they would call Dave Roberts “The Doctor” and what the song, “Dr. Roberts” is about? There’s a Beatles song, “Dr. Roberts,” about a guy who prescribes amphetamines.
[Ed note: This interview took place before Mike Cameron's suspension.]
DS: Final question. What is your favorite baseball movie?
SP: I love Bull Durham. It’s such an obvious answer. I really liked 61, the one that just came out. I love The Natural and A League of Their Own — that movie made me cry.
I’m a big fan of Bad News Bears — the original, with Walter Matthau. I like The Rookie, and I loved Major League… Field of Dreams was amazing.
The best baseball book I ever read — David James Duncan wrote this book called The Brothers K. He was a big fan of Dostoevsky, so it’s sort of an homage to The Brothers Karamazov. This is the best book I’ve ever read. [It] deals with religion, which has been a big theme in my life, baseball and war.
DS: Cool, I’ll have to check that out sometime.
Thanks again to Steve Poltz for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with us. Be sure to visit his web site at poltz.com to learn more about his new CDs, Traveling and Unraveling. And if you’re in town and looking for a good place to eat, drink, and otherwise hang out, give Starlite a shot. Tell ‘em Ducksnorts sent you.
Re; #47
Then again, Michael Barrett posted a whopping .235 OBP while with the Padres. At least Olivo got on base more than a quarter of the time.
Plus, he has that gun for an arm. Yow!
David Eckstein possesses one of the top three most annoying batting stances, along with Craig Counsell and Aaron Rowand. I don’t think I could have handled 500 AB’s worth of that crouch.
A lot of names on the list seem to be guys coming off major injuries which would explain why they’d use HGH at least. The biggest name other then Clemens and Pettitte is Brian Roberts who had that major elbow injury a few seasons ago.
39: Public shame is an effective deterrent to steroid use. Baseball shouldn’t stop there, but it would be imprudent not to use it as such
Hacksaw is going to have some splain’ to do about his man crush on steroid user LoDuca
#51: I trust 1900 PA of Olivo more than 140 PA of Barrrett.
52: Don’t forget Coco Crisp, or that annoying smirk that Andruw Jones gets on his face
Re: 57
It seems we passed on all of the right free-agents.
Re: 42 so Pujols is not mentioned?
59: Nope
I always new Eric Gagne wasn’t as good as he appeared when he was a Dog. I wonder how many “performance enhanced” saves he had against our team. He may have single handedly cost us a trip to the playoffs during our first year in Petco.
59: His name is not listed in the report the best I could tell.
Re: 60 & 62 that sucks that people randomly threw in his name!
53: Except there’s no evidence that HGH helps you heal, and it isn’t legal for it to be prescribed for that purpose.
I haven’t read the sordid details yet, but the report starts naming players on p. 197. What I can find:
Ex-Padres: Jack Cust, Rondell White, Ron Villone, Kevin Brown, Matt Herges, and Gary Bennett. Jerry Hairston (Scott’s brother) is named, as is USD alum and former Padre farmhand Bart Miadich.
Gary Bennett?!?!!?
Just think if he HADN’T of used HGH.
UGH!
Benito Santiago and Gary Sheffield are both named.
61: Further evidene of “WTF were the the Brewers thinking signing Gagne for $10mil?!?!?”
Barry Bonds suddenly has a lot of company.
I wonder when the probe on LSD, reds, and reefer users during the 60′s and 70′s will surface?
So Gagne does HGH and has an amazing season earning a Cy Young. But Trevor has essentially the same season in ’98 and gets shafted, even though he was clean. Trevor should have two Cy Youngs and would be an automatic lock 1st ballot guy. This sucks!
#67: Thanks, Dex; I skipped over that section. They are indeed mentioned on p. 162.
Re: 70
I’ll bet my pair of brown stirrups that Gagne kept an ever present supply of HGH in those athletic strap glasses he felt compelled to make a bizarre fashion statement with.
65: Ricky Bones, also
It is funny…So much venom towards Barry over the past couple of years (yes, I did my fair share of booing)…things like asterisk’s were talked about…Roger’s name comes up last year and people blow it off…now, it comes out again…I wonder if there will be the same talk about asterisk’s next to his record K’s/Cy’s…
As a Rocket fan, I am just wondering…
69: It’ll probably surface the same time there’s evidence that indicates those substances enhance an athlete’s performance
re 73: pg 140
Man the Media kills me some times, they are saying that Jeff Kent (who I dont like) is on the list of players in the report… well here is what it says about Jeff Kent:
From PageSR-4
“Plainly, baseball needs to do more to effectively address this problem. I have never met or talked with Jeff Kent of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he appears to have understood this when he said in September, as reported in several newspapers: “Major League Baseball is trying to investigate the past so they can fix the future.â€
I wonder how many of the names we are hearing are just blind searches that people did without even reading the text.
74: I’m completely torn. I’d love to see Rocket thrown under the bus, a la Bonds. I completely think that everyone that did steroid’s deserves to be called out. That being said, I think that I’d like to see baseball move on.
78: Agreed, but you’ve got to get the skeletons out of the closet before you can clean it
Wow, Nook Logan?
How about Bonds for Left Field?
I’m serious, btw.
70: Gagne’s drug use aside, Hoffman didn’t deserve the Cy Young in either year he was a real candidate. He wasn’t the best pitcher on the Padres in 98 (Brown, who himself wasn’t as good as Maddux) and he wasn’t as good as Webb, Harang, Carpenter, or Oswalt in 2006.
81: I wouldn’t mind. He couldn’t play LF full-time, but he’s a tremendous weapon.
Re: 81
Are you seriously questioning Ryan Klesko’s man-love toward Barry?
Is Ryno’s judgment correct, leaving us, the harsh critics at Ducksnorts, in the wrong?
Oh wait, I’m sorry, I thought you said you would cancel your season tickets.
I would love a Hairston/Bonds platoon.
81: I am pretty sure he wont be playing next year since he got indicted.
85: It’s all presupposed on him either arranging for a plea deal that keeps him free for the regular season or the trial being set for later than November 2008. I couldn’t guess how likely either would be.
Re: 85
There is a big difference between indictment and conviction.
A good lawyer. Ha Ha.
Off the top of my head, names like Logan and Donnelly being non-tendered just before being named; Tejada being moved just before being named; Bigbie signing in Japan just before the release of the report containing him naming names. It looks like there was a lot of knowledge going around of the pending results in the report. I feel so naive.
86: Which is what would deter anyone from signing him. I’d rather see Bonds just leave the game.
87: That’s true, but the Feds have a remarkable conviction rate. It’s not because they’re so much better than their opponents, but because they don’t bring cases they’re not almost entirely sure of winning.
He’d have a better chance of probation if it wasn’t perjury. The justice system treats that more seriously than assault.
Re: 88
Or Logan and Donnelly just outright suck.
David Justice was named as well.
87: There is still alot of time that goes into it. It will probably drag on for a while and there wont be time for him to play baseball.
88: Well, Bigbie knew he’d talked. Probably wanted to get out of ton.
Logan was a non-tender candidate anyway, and Tejada has been a trade candidate since last year.
I’m sure teams had their own suspicions.
Re: 91
Haha! I guess that could be a major factor too.
89: Why should Bonds leave? He can still play and he wasn’t doing anything that a lot – a lot – of his peers weren’t doing.
95: He is a distraction, and I think if he stops using he wont be as valuable as he was. I think it would be better for the game if he just left. i wouldnt want him on the Padres, to me he wouldnt be worth the money.
Let the talk-show torch & pitchfork shenanigans begin.
Re: 95
Are you seriously questioning Ryan Klesko…
Wow, Selig is really disappointing. Namely, he specifically says that steroids have declined in highschools and he is very proud of MLB’s role in that decline. Um, commish – what about MLB’s role in its increase previously??
99: Personally, I can’t believe Selig would start out by touting how “good” baseball is when it comes to performance enhancing drugs. It only makes him look completely clueless when there’s a 400 page document talking about how badly baseball has failed.