Peter Gammons compares today’s Padres to the Indians of the early 1990s:
If you are a Padres fan, climb into your time machine and go back in time to the 1991 Indians, fenced in a 80-something thousand seat city-state known as “The Mistake on the Lake.” They lost 105 games, and cost John McNamara his managerial job. But McNamara had let two 24-year old college players, Charles Nagy and Albert Belle, establish themselves. By September, Sandy Alomar was catching, a 20-year old named Jim Thome came out of the minors, as did 22-year old Carlos Baerga, and a creative, energetic GM named John Hart worked 24/7 to build the organization and make traded.
Three years later, they were 66-47 when The Strike hit. In 1995, they won 100 games and lost the World Series to Atlanta and Tom Glavine’s unforgettable one-hitter. Dick Jacobs built The Jake, and they sold it out every night for years.
There was a very important element here:when Hart and Jacobs were building, the Browns had snuck out of town, the Cavaliers played in the suburbs and the beloved Barons were in Minnesota, half of the North Stars.
The Indians were the only show in town.
If Gammons is right, the Padres are in for a very long and successful ride.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2k0Ycc5
No comments:
Post a Comment