dammit hacksaw

My return to San Diego has been pretty Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton free. That has now changed. He was on 1090 all week, and now he pens a column for SDNN. It is predictably awful.

Brian Giles has become a popular whipping boy.  His $9 million deal and the $2 million trade kicker has limited his ability to be shopped.  So has his no trade clause.  He did hit .309 last year, though he is batting in the .190s this year.  Why beat him up? 

Probably because he makes $9 million and is hitting in the .190's. And he (allegedly) beat his pregnant girlfriend. Why beat him up? Very sensitive, Hacksaw.

Darren Balsley is developing quite a reputation for curing pitchers woes.  Kevin Correia, a bust with the Giants, has gone 4-1 with a 2.41 ERA (39 Ks, 3 walks) in 33 innings. Chad Gaudin is 2-1 with a 2.14 ERA (28 Ks in 21 innings) in recent starts.  Not a bad job by Padres pitching coach Balsley, a former gas station attendant in Poway.  Wonder if other teams are taking notes.

Hmmm. I wonder. Let's see the Padres team ERA (4.63) ranks 25th in the league. Gaudin's "recent" ERA may be 2.14, but he is 4-6 with an actual ERA of 4.97. Correa's actual record is 5-6 with a 4.58 ERA. I'm sure other teams are beating a path to his door. FTR, I'm not saying Balsley sucks, it's just ridiculous to insinuate he's performing any miracles.

Phil Nevin, who resurrected his career with the Padres after failing as a first-round pick with the Angels, is managing the Orange County Flyers in the Golden League.  He’s hoping to learn quickly to start a second career.  He was a grinder with the Padres.  Wonder if he grinds on his players? 

Do you? Does the thought of Nevin grinding player's keep you up at night? Do you also wonder if Arci Cianfrocco gives lapdances?

LaDainian Tomlinson is no longer held in high regard by football people around the nation.  Four different injuries in four Chargers seasons.  He is not even rated in the top 50 players by CBS Sportsline.  They had DeAngelo Williams (Carolina), with two good seasons and Michael Turner (Atlanta) with one good season, ranked ahead of Tomlinson at running back.  Honorable mention status was given to Brian Westbrook (Eagles) and Steven Jackson (Rams), both productive.  Are any of those guys mentioned as Hall of Fame candidates?  Tomlinson has 17,000 all purpose yards and 141 TDs.  How dare they diss him?  What LT-BS. What garbage.

What does being a Hall of Fame player have to do with your value for the upcoming season? By Hacksaw's standard, if Brett Favre plays this year, he should be the number one quarterback.

Vincent Jackson may have a problem on his hands, a possible NFL suspension, for multiple DUI incidents.  Commissioner Roger Goodell will deal with him once he is done with guys like Vick-Plaxico-Stallworth.  VJ, good player, needs to grow up and not make any more mistakes.  Sitting for two games would solve that.  Right?

Of course it would. All the world's problems would be solved if we just benched more people I'm looking at you, Kim Jong Il. I'm shocked that they haven't considered this in prison.  Shank someone, bam - benched from the prison softball team for not one, but TWO games.

The Chargers will bounce back this year.  

Whew. It really sucked last year only making it to the AFC Championship game. What a nightmare.

Chuck Long is tied up in this struggle over money with San Diego State.  If he leaves to go somewhere else, he loses the remaining $1.4M on his deal.  State has given him a job at a desk but no one is quite sure what his project assignments are.  Be a man of your word SDSU, and let him look, and split the salary difference.  Of course there is this.  Why didn’t Long have a typical partial pay clause, that would allow State to get a discount on remaining money if he left?  He could coach, they would not be on the hook for all that cash.  Everyone looks like a loser in this don’t they?

Um, if he leaves to go somewhere else, I'm pretty sure "somewhere else" will be paying him. If he wants to coach somewhere else, go do it, just don't expect the State of California, which is currently issuing IOU's, too keep throwing money at him. If he doesn't want to coach, he gets paid more than I'll ever make to do nothing. I'm not going to cry too hard for Chuck Long.

UFL, the new semi-pro league, held its first draft and five ex-Aztecs were picked....  Who is going to watch the United Football League?

Apparently you, since you tracked the draft pretty closely.

LPGA golf, PBA bowling, WTA-ITF tennis.  Can someone explain to me in a market of 2.5M residents, why we are not regular stops on those tours too?

Are you fucking kidding me?

This trainwreck is gonna be a blast to follow. It's the perfect Larry King - Peter King love child.