I wanted to do an in-depth analysis of the Padres' struggles in Pittsburgh this weekend, but then my 16-month-old son Beau started screaming, so I may have to keep this short. Bottom line...it sucked. I hated it. It actually ruined my Monday. As our dear friend and Padres superfan Ryan Cohen says: Life is better when the Padres win.
We as fans, want everything to work out. We want Kirby Yates to be perfect. We want Chris Paddack to throw 7 shutout innings with ten K's every time out. Unfortunately though, this game makes ZERO sense most of the time. Sometimes Manny Machado makes errors. Sometimes Fernando Tatis, Jr flails at a slider outside of the zone. It's just a weird game that is so hard to predict. I will say this though: It's the most fun I've had watching this team since I moved here in January of 2009.
As someone whose job it is to talk about the Padres, it's been up and down this year. Mostly up. Sometimes down. Much like life. I think that's why I've always loved the game so much. It's exactly like your life. It can be a grind. It can be a struggle. It can give you SUCH joy. Long and everlasting joy. Short, fleeting joy. It can rip your heart out and can give you hope. It can force you to plan ahead but also keep you right there in the moment.
There's no real point to my blog today other than to say that fandom, like in life, is about keeping the faith, giving it your all, and grinding it out. The payoff can be really, really sweet in the end.