I get all nostalgic and sappy this time of year. It’s a stupid thing to do, but I can’t help myself.

Live in the present, right? Okay, most of the time. Today, we’ll indulge a little and revisit the past:

• Age and Treachery Will Overcome Youth and Skill (March 21, 1998). “While I am willing to concede that some of the increased success of both [Tony] Gwynn and [Paul] Molitor is due to the factors mentioned above, I believe that in both cases they did in fact become much better at an advanced age.” Both men really enjoyed their thirties: Gwynn hit .344/.388/.476 (133 OPS+), while Molitor hit .320/.389/.477 (133 OPS+).
• Random Musings before Heading to Vegas (March 23, 2002). “I respect the heck out of the work Baseball America does but they missed the boat on the Padres. They’ve picked San Diego to finish fifth in the NL West. How they expect the Rockies to stay out of the cellar, I have no idea.” Let the record show that the Padres finished 66-96, a full seven games behind fourth place Colorado. BA 1, Ducksnorts 0.
• “Stars of the Future” Game (March 25, 2003). “Khalil Greene looked sluggish at the plate and in the field. He kept trying to pull [Jason] Jacome’s outside slop, with little success. Defensively, Greene made a weak effort on one less-than-stellar throw from the outfield, which allowed a runner to take an extra base. He also failed to go after a foul popup down the left-field line. In fairness, it ended up not being playable, but that didn’t stop Ben Risinger or Vince Faison from trying to chase it down. All in all, it was a pretty down day for Greene. I’ve seen him play much better than that, so I don’t place a lot of stock in what he did Sunday.”
• Mailbag (March 31, 2004). “No offense to [Ichiro] Suzuki, who really is a great player (as Prospectus points out), but his best season so far in North America would match Gwynn’s 11th best season. There really is no shame in that. But to insinuate that Suzuki is a better player than (or even as good a player as) Gwynn was in his prime is silly.” Suzuki now has nine full big-league seasons under his belt. In 2004, he recorded his highest OPS+ (130). Gwynn beat that total nine times. In fact, his career OPS+ (132) is higher than Ichiro’s best.
• Projecting Greene (March 27, 2005). “John Sickels has posted his community projections for Khalil Greene. They peg him at .279/.352/.458. Sickels himself expects a slight decrease in power this year due to his home park and looks to 2006 for a breakout. My personal expectation is that Greene is going to shock some folks with numbers around .274/.345/.490.” Let the record show that Greene hit .273/.349/.446. Sickels 1, Ducksnorts 0.
• Barfield Takes Second (March 28, 2006). “Josh Barfield officially has won the starting second base job for the Padres thanks to a monster spring. Reminiscent of what Khalil Greene did in 2004, Barfield came out and took charge immediately, never letting up until there was no choice but to name him the starter.” Barfield, Greene, Adrian Gonzalez… what an exciting young infield the Padres were going to have. At least they still have Gonzalez; it’s not like he’s headed anywhere.
• Weekend in Peoria: Everything but the Games (March 29, 2007). “One of the pitchers shagging flies was ex-Padre Chris Oxspring. I have very fond memories of Oxspring from his time with the Lake Elsinore Storm back in ’02. When my wife and I visit the Diamond in Elsinore, we tend to sit directly behind home plate, with the scouts and, often, pitchers who are charting the game. We ran into Oxspring one time there and didn’t really talk to him (he had a job to do), but a couple of young kids did and we were impressed with the way Oxspring handled himself. He charted his pitches, and he also made sure to give his time — cheerfully — to these kids. This is one reason I’ve always wanted to see Oxspring succeed at the big-league level.” Oxspring last pitched in North America for Nashville in 2007. I believe he spent last season in Korea and pitched reasonably well (I don’t read the language, so I’m not sure about that last part).
• Sportswrappin’ (March 28, 2008). My second TV appearance… “I cited the continued development of Chase Headley as the most exciting item of the spring and said that we’d see him at some point during the season, but that the left field job probably was Scott Hairston’s for now (we taped this on March 15). I also noted that the Padres wouldn’t bring Headley up as a stopgap solution — an everyday job would need to open up for him, and given the age and injury concerns of Jim Edmonds and Brian Giles, this could happen sooner rather than later.” Let the record show that Headley did take over as starting left fielder in June 2008. Yes, I finally got one right!

There you go. Don’t we all feel old now…

Tagged as: adrian gonzalez, baseball america, chase headley, chris oxspring, i feel old, ichiro suzuki, john sickels, josh barfield, khalil greene, lake elsinore storm, paul molitor, scott hairston, tony gwynn