You may not know his name, but if you are a fan of the San Diego Padres and have an Internet connection, you almost certainly have read Tim Powers’ work. As a reporter for the SportsTicker wire service, Tim covers the vast majority of Padres home games, as well as other major sporting events in San Diego ― including the NFL Chargers, and SDSU football and basketball.
Tim’s work appears in a variety of outlets, including CNNSI.com and USAToday.com. He also provides team notes a few times each week for ESPN ― one for the Padres and one for whoever the visiting team is ― as well as the organizational report that appears each Sunday on the Padres page at ESPN.com. All of these are published under cover of the distant, sterile, and anonymous “wire reports.”
I am fortunate enough to work about 20 paces from Tim in my day job. Recently we sat down over lunch to discuss the Padres, baseball, and life in the sports media.
Preparing for the Day’s Game
Well before each Padres home game, Tim arrives at Petco Park to prepare for the day’s contest. From the press box, his first duty is to “call in the lineups to set up the GameCast stuff [at MLB.com].” Once that is done and the game is underway, Tim has to keep track of every pitch. Although he is not directly responsible for updating the GameCast, which is run by MLB.com, Tim serves as a backup in case their feed becomes unavailable for whatever reason. At any point during the game, someone might call him to find out what the last pitch was.
Obviously this requires a great deal of attention to detail. Fortunately, Tim has been following baseball closely since the ’80s, watching games with a critical eye and remembering key points long after the fact. I asked Tim what some of his favorite baseball memories were:
“I grew up in San Diego, so Tony Gwynn defined baseball when I was growing up,” Tim relates, echoing the experience of many Padres fans of his generation. As for specific moments, one of the great highlights of his fandom came in 1998, when the Padres reached their second World Series in franchise history: “I went to Game 4 of the World Series. They were swept by the Yankees, unfortunately, but a solid memory out of that was all the fans that stayed afterward” to cheer the Padres on their NL championship season.
Each Pitch Counts
Memories aside, Tim’s job in the press box is just getting started. During a typical game, in addition to recording each pitch, Tim also spends a good deal of time preparing for the post-game story, which includes looking up stats, taking notes, and generally “getting an idea of what way the story needs to go. About the eighth inning I call Bristol, Connecticut, where all the editors are. I talk to an editor, who is going to write what they call a ‘first run’ ― a four- or five-paragraph recap of what happened. That’s going to get posted while I’m down [in the locker rooms] getting quotes from the players.”
Ah yes, the players. The people who make the game happen. As someone who sees the Padres up close and personal on a daily basis throughout the season, Tim surely has a few juicy tidbits. For obvious reasons, his best material will have to wait for the memoirs; fortunately for us, he was able to share a few anecdotes.
Talking about the clubhouse itself, Tim notes that the players all have nice leather chairs that Phil Nevin bought for the team. Also, in addition to high-definition TVs and couches, there are “areas where players can go to retreat like the food room or the training room.” Tim adds that “they let [the players'] kids in after a win but not after a loss. Apparently this was a point of contention with Nevin. He would kind of bark at the kids that were in there after a loss.”
Speaking of players’ kids, Tim relates that “they’re always wandering through the hallways. When I’m trying to get back and forth between locker rooms, I’m dodging kids. One time, the Lake Elsinore mascot was there and saw me running. He started running behind me and made all the kids laugh.”
At least Thunder didn’t attack Tim with silly string. And what’s this business of running back and forth between locker rooms?
“As soon as the game ends I run downstairs. That’s the tricky part because I’m one guy having to cover two locker rooms, which from what I can tell, I’m the only one who has to do that. The hardest part, of course, is getting both managers. What I tend to do is leave a recorder in one office and then go to the other guy.”
Tim notes that Padres manager Bruce Bochy generally “will say what you need in the first five minutes or so. I can get him quickly, and then get over and get the other manager. Then it’s kind of a scramble back and forth between the locker rooms to get all the various players.”
It may sound like a bit of a circus, but Tim says that he’s “got it down to a science. After a while, you know when the starting pitcher is going to come out and who everyone wants to talk to.”
Breaking into the Business
It’s not the easiest job in the world, but then, Tim isn’t necessarily interested in getting somewhere the easy way. Consider how he got his start:
“That’s a question that everybody always asks. I started working for SanDiegoInsider.com. They sponsored the scoreboard that goes across the broadcast on Channel 4, so they needed somebody to physically be updating that on a computer. So I was out at Cox Communications headquarters in Santee and I would update that scoreboard every couple of innings.”
But in this industry, change is inevitable. Tim adapted.
“They lost the [scoreboard] sponsorship, but they had me as this intern and wanted me to do something. They still had a trivia contest where we’d give away an autographed Trevor Hoffman ball, so I administered that. And I managed to convince my boss that this was something I could do from the press box.”
Once Tim had gotten his foot in the door, or in this case, the press box, things began to pick up:
“Our seat was right next to SportsTicker so that’s how I got to know those guys. They kind of worked me in, because they knew I had some availability. Then SanDiegoInsider.com went out of business and I kept on with SportsTicker.” From there, he notes that “it’s just evolved into this writing gig.”
One aspect of the job that I was curious about concerned the old rule that there is no cheering in the press box. I thought this might be difficult for a lifelong Padres fan, especially when something really exciting happened, like Khalil Greene‘s ninth-inning grand slam against the Nationals last year, but Tim indicates otherwise:
“When I first started it was hard to curtail [my emotions]. But I started in 1999 so I’ve been doing it long enough that now what I get excited about is the story. It’s kind of shifted from watching as a fan and cheering, to having a job to do and getting the story.”
Nady for Cameron
Speaking of stories, I asked Tim if he could shed any light on Xavier Nady‘s lack of playing time in 2005, which left many Padres fans perplexed:
“I don’t have any particular insight but it was pretty clear that he had done something that upset Bochy ― whether it was an isolated incident or over a period of time. When they traded Nevin, [Nady] was in there supposedly full time and then before you knew it he was back in the platoon role. I heard rumors about a time when he was used as a pinch hitter and struck out, then got upset at Bochy for using him in that role. I don’t know how much truth there is to that but somehow he got into Bochy’s doghouse.”
Tim adds that, “I would hear other players support Nady. They were always excited when he had an opportunity.”
And naturally, any discussion of Nady this winter is intertwined with talk of the man he was traded for, Mike Cameron. So I asked Tim about his thoughts on the trade and what Cameron’s presence might mean for the Padres.
“When I first heard it, I thought it’s a shame to have to give up Nady to get Cameron. But the other side of the coin for the Mets was, how could they only get Nady for Cameron? I think Mike Cameron is going to be tremendous. He’s coming off injury so his value was down, and the Mets had to deal him because he didn’t want to play right field.”
We both agreed that Cameron is a significant upgrade over Dave Roberts defensively, who doesn’t have the arm or good first step to be a regular center fielder.
Great Expectations
Speaking of Roberts, Tim highlighted the former Red Sox post-season hero as one of his pleasant surprises of the 2005 season. Tim also identified Jake Peavy as a player who exceeded his expectations: “He became a dominant ace that you could throw out there against anybody ― the game against Roger Clemens was great.”
However, for the most part the Padres played below Tim’s expectations. “With all the young guys and the majority of the veterans returning, I was expecting them to get to 90 wins, if not more, and win the division ― which they did, despite themselves.”
We talked more about expectations, chemistry, and the difference between the current Padres, and some of the teams from just a few years ago that lost 90+ games a season.
“When you start off with the expectations of a team [to win] coming into the season, that breeds a totally different atmosphere. In 2004 and 2005, they came out of the gates wanting to win the division. I would even say 2005 was better because of guys like Mark Sweeney, Eric Young, and Robert Fick, too, who is underrated as a clubhouse guy.”
Young, of course, will be back in 2006, while Sweeney and Fick remain unsigned. We agreed that Fick’s toughness and versatility would make him a useful part of the Padres bench again next year.
Building for the Future
We discussed other free agent options as well, notably one man who has taken over from Gwynn as the player folks who don’t follow the Padres instantly recognize, Trevor Hoffman. Tim was guardedly optimistic that the longtime Padres closer would return.
“With Hoffman it’s going to come down to whether he wants to stay in San Diego, which I think he’s really compelled to do. His wife and three little kids come to every game, sitting right behind home plate. I see it as a really hard thing for him to leave. At the same time, with the kind of money that’s being thrown at [relievers], how can you leave that on the table? The Padres aren’t going to come close to matching the Braves or Indians, or… there are so many teams out there that need closers.”
From there we moved into more philosophical territory, discussing this winter’s weak free agent market, the Padres’ need to maximize available resources, and some of the other organizations whose blueprints they might follow to maintain a successful approach without a large payroll budget.
“I think they’re pretty reluctant to dive into the free agent market because there’s a lot of money out there, and not a lot of talent. As a Padres fan, I’m really not disappointed to see them stay out of that.”
But it’s not just this year’s free agents, it’s an entire mindset. Tim stressed the importance of good scouting and player development, and we agreed that the presence of Grady Fuson would help the organization a great deal on those fronts. Speaking of the Padres, Tim said, “I think they’re never going to be big players in the free agent market. They’ll need to go more along the lines of the Cleveland Indians model. Or the Braves ― they pick up free agents as they need but not really top level; they just keep replenishing their roster from within.”
Another advantage of the build-from-within approach, from Tim’s perspective, is that “it’s more fun to see because it’s more of a challenge and you’re putting all the puzzle pieces together. It’s fun to see them get the better end of a deal and pick up some prospects.” To Tim, this is more interesting than watching a team spend its way to a championship.
Of course, what we’d all really like to see is the Padres build from within and win a championship. And with the current management group, that seems now like more of a possibility than it has for a long time.
While we are waiting, keep reading Tim’s work and maybe say a little word of thanks for the effort he puts forth in bringing us all this great information. Even though there might not be a byline attached to the words, there is a real person working behind the scenes to make them appear on your video screen.
And now you know his name.
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