September 5, 2020 • 33 mins
Back for Round 2, Hacksaw returns with more ranting and raving, but this time it includes his San Diego Padres. One of the teams making huge splashes at the trade deadline, the Friars are catching a lot of attention around MLB. With Fernando Tatis Jr. and Co., the biggest question now is, what is their ceiling?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
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(00:41):
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Saturday podcast and another conversation podcast. Guest Gone Here is
an an old friend comes back to hang out on
(01:02):
the podcast. And this has been a weekend where yesterday
we had Leo Terrell on. Leo has been on the
podcast before he came back for his second appearance on
the on the show, and now we're having another person
on today that was on previously. Is this Are we
rinsing and repeating? Is that what we're doing right now?
I guess we've run out of friends that we have.
(01:23):
Is that's essentially it. We've run out of people that
we know that we can put on the podcast. And
so now we're going back and and these these are
guys that got big download numbers, right, Leo Terrell and
and Lee hacks Hamilton, who's on today, both got a
big numbers. Yeah, these are these are like the anti
Tom Looney's of the world. You know, these are ratings
(01:43):
driven bonanza. Now is that true? Is that Tom Looney?
Because I'm gonna let him know that. Yeah, low download
totals by Looney. Huh. Interesting. It was a brutal month
of August for everything outside of of what we did.
Tom Looney came him in extremely low bad showing by him. Wow,
(02:04):
bad job by by Looney. And Looney likes to brag
about how popular is. So that's that's all all right,
before we get into hacks All, We're gonna have hacksall
here hanging out with us. A cameo dot com cameo
dot com type my name in Ben mall you want
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(02:26):
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(02:47):
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(03:08):
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If you'd like to be part guests gun, you're available
on all those platforms except Facebook, yes, yes, yeah, divorced
Facebook and two thousand and eleven, thankfully. So so I
can take shots that you in Facebook and you'll never know. Well, yeah,
(03:29):
you can't tag me on there, so you can take
shots if you want, well you'll never see them. So
I can take gratuitous cheap shots at Giest Scott. Yeah,
but I mean, you don't want to be that big
of a pussy to you or you gotta like take shots.
And I'm not a radio What are you talking about?
Your You're such a more sugar that I have to
do this some time to time to keep you in
line because you're a narcissist west of the four oh
(03:49):
five talking about What am I talking about? I'm talking
about reality. I'm I'm a man of the people out here,
slaving away east of the four or five. You know badly,
my air conditioned dies. I run in there. I do
the show because I'm dedicated, and I'm languishing over here,
and you're high forlutin walking across the Pacific Ocean like aristocrat.
(04:10):
I'm floating on a gurney across the Pacific Ocean. Here
we go, Here we go. Let me get my little
violin out there. Let me get a little violin me
out of the infirmary into the network studio. Keep in mind, Guesstcon,
let me put something out. When I had my chest
sliced open, you ab all right? No, no, I I
(04:32):
have a bunch of scars all over my chest right now,
my beautiful chest. I have a bunch of scars. As
I was getting put under anesthesia. I'm getting f you.
Tweets that tweets text from Gascon. I'm in the hospital,
I'm about to go under. I don't know if I'm
gonna make it or not. And I've got Gascon who's
(04:55):
harassing me via text message? Well, I mean this is
something that you kicked down the you know, you kicked
the can down the road a bit, and this is
what happened to you. So I mean, had you not
neglected your own body, I wouldn't have been violently in text. Well,
I could say the same thing about you if you
were like a normal human being and the two would
have just left your body, you wouldn't have needed this.
(05:17):
But obviously you're such a you're such a meathead that
it can't even leave your body. It's a bad job
by you. Yeah, I'm a hoard or what can I say? Yeah?
There you go, you are you are a hoarder. That
is your future. Right, Let's get to it. You want
to get to it right now? Yes, all right, Well
I am very excited. As many of you know, I
got my start in radio at a college radio station
(05:37):
at Saddleback College. But I got an internship as I
was a college DJ at the mighty six ninety. This
a seventy seven thousand WAT blow torch from Baha to
the Canadian Rockies. In that phrase came from the man
that I learned radio from. I watched Bias Moses. I
(05:58):
learned from Hacksaw at Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's as he did
his show. He is the patriarch of West Coast Sports Talk,
the o G of San Diego sports Talk. He's seen
and done it all multiple radio stations at the very
popular Hasas Headlines. In fact, before we bring Leon, if
(06:18):
you were a big fan of Hasas Headlines, you can
still get his headlines. He updates them every day. He's
really meticulous. On Lee hack Saw Hamilton's dot com, his website,
He's on Twitter at hack Saw ten ninety. You can
find him on there. But those Hacksaw headlines. He pretty
much just puts the script up that he used for
(06:40):
his radio show, and there's a lot of good information
that is really what what Twitter has become. Hacks All
was the original Twitter. But anyway, all right enough buttering
the Biscuits of Lee has Hall with him. The reason
we're having Leon is because San Diego the focus of
the sporting world least in baseball trade deadline at the
beginning of this week, and the Podres going bronkers at
(07:05):
the trade deadline, wheeling and dealing. They made six trades
involving over fifteen players. They acquired ten new players, including
Mike Clevinger. They spent a lot of money. So leave
let's walking in on this one. I guess the question
is this is un This is unorthodox for the Padres.
(07:25):
They don't normally do these kind of things. Where did
this come from? Well, there's a memo that's going out
to the Dodgers and the Cubs. San Diego's coming coming
after you. October is going to be very interesting. Ben.
They've been planning to be competitive in they had gone
through more than a decade of losing baseball and not
been in the playoffs since two thousand and six, spent
(07:48):
any enormous amount of money UH in free agency, an
enormous amount of money in the Latin American free ation area,
and I've overpaid on a whole bunch of their real
high draft up the excess to get them locked down.
And as they were suffering all these ninety lost seasons
the last couple of years, you looked, you looked down
into the farm system and you saw kids having really
(08:11):
good seasons at every level. You know, that starts with
Fernando Tatis when they got at age seventeen. So we
knew they were building, and they kept dropping hands. They
hoped to be maybe on the periphery of the playoffs.
But now with the shortened season and the fact that
they made some offseason deals that really helped their pitching staff,
(08:34):
and they've been able to stay for the most part
free of any significant pitching injuries, and everybody else has
fallen apart significantly. The Dodgers, the Cubs, and the Potteries.
Right now the top three teams in the National League.
And who could have ever imagined would be talking about
Washington or Philadelphia or the St. Louis Cardinals just being
(08:56):
an utter chaos because of all the injuries that have
ripped their clubs up. They got to the trading deadline
and they thought, hey, we've got a chance to do something.
And what they did was they had stockpiled so much
in the farm system and they were facing the potential
loss of some of these kids in the Rule five
draft is coming near. Because you can't protect everybody. They
(09:16):
decided we were going to start shopping and we're gonna
put multiple kids into deals, so we're gonna try to
get the right right guys. And you know, turned out
to be a nine player deal with Cleveland to get
my club Inert, which was huge. The Seattle deal is
probably deliverable downroad. That's seven player transactions. So they think
right now, Ben that they've got excuse me, every component set.
(09:40):
They are deep in kitching, which is huge in the
best of three or best of five series. Right now,
they are red hot hitting the ball. You look, you
look at their lineup, starting about with the Loodolf guy
and then going through about six or seven in the
batting order, and they they're all hitting better because they're
all supporting each other. So they can't wait for October
(10:01):
to come and you know, is it possible they could
be a World Series team. I guess anything is possible.
Tampa Bay and Oakland could be World Series teams too,
but have to go through the Dodgers or go through
the Cubs to get there. But the way this thing
is built right now, and if you looked at their
rotation on paper, and you looked at the depth of
the bullpen on paper, and then you looked at that
(10:22):
batting order, as I said, one through six or one
through seven, that's pretty comparable to who the Dodgers are
and what the Cubs are right now. So I'm gonna
be a fascinating month of October and baseball for sure. Well,
and and Lee, as you taught me back in the day,
the baseball playoffs are such a crapshoot with the short
series and all that. But let's break that. Clevinger is good.
(10:43):
I'll give you Clevinger, but some of these other guys
I only reworked the bullpen the Dodgers had at the
time we're talking here, the top bullpen in baseball. Fact,
they have the top pitching staff in baseball. Like a
lot of some of these relief pitchers that the plotters got.
I to me, they don't really move the kneel. You
do you disagree with that? And you think these guys
are actually going to make some impact because I I'm
(11:05):
looking at you. You're raiding the Seattle Mariners bullpen and
the and the Royals. This doesn't excite me very much. Lee, Well,
they got role players. Granted, they lost Curby Yates with
the bone ship surgery, but but they've got Drew tom
Morans who's reinvented himself as a short reliever closer. And
(11:25):
they got Matt Strong, who has really pitched well since
he came from Kansas City more than a year ago.
And they've got Trevor Rosenthal who has rediscovered a hundred
mile an hour fastball and right now he's pitching like
he pitched four or five years ago before he had
the elbow problems in St. Louis. Uh And and they're
deep and set up guys, and they still got young
(11:46):
arms that they could call up and plug in. So
I think collectively, you know, if they were Rolaids reliefaced
guy in the pen, No, not at all, not even
a Kenley Jansen. But I'll tell you what. They go
to the bullpen in the fifth and said extending, they
got role players and get you to the ninth and
get you to whomever the new closer it's going to be.
So I just think collectively, there's a lot of strength there,
(12:09):
and they all throw the ball hard, so attempt Timmy.
It's intriguing. And you know, I know from the outside
looking in, you know people on Los Angeles, people in
New York, But say, who are these guys? What do
you think they're good? Well, we've sat here and watched
this thing, you know, and I said, I thought they
could go thirty five and this year, which we're getting
in the playoffs, they might have an outside shot of
(12:31):
winning forty games. Nobody would have ever expected that. So
at the front of the rotation, you've got Clevinger, and
you've got the kid Chris Paddock, and he set some
up to send some downs, but the kids vibrant. And
you've got Donelson Lamet, who might be the quietest number
one starter on anybody's staff. And they still got other
guys that they can plug in, and that does not
(12:52):
We've had no conversation whatsoever yet about Mackenzie Gore or
the really highly rated number one draft pick who's sitting
on this taxi squad and roster, and Luis Patino who's
found a role right now as a setup. So it's
they got numbers and that's good pitching beats good hitting,
especially in a scary short series. That's that's what really
(13:14):
intreates me. Yeah, and Lee, we mentioned you can't mention
the place you've mentioned for Nado t junior, but this
guy I was trying to the last time we've had
good young players in baseball over the years, and obviously
Mike Trout's great near in judge, but the Razzle dazzle
that for for Nato to these junior brings. Uh, you
might have to go back to a rod to find
(13:35):
a guy that brought that impact right away with the Razz.
But is this is he gonna be a Padre for
the next ten years? I know he can't be a
free agent, I think till he's gonna be in San Diego,
certainly over the next few years. But is this a
long term guy? Is he gonna have a career where
he stays with the Padres? You think, you know, going
down the line ten, twelve, thirteen years or is this
(13:57):
once he's a free agent he's out of their situation
now because this has become a really good place to play,
and they got an ownership that's put a lot of
money into this franchise and Petro Petco Park pretty good
stadium to play in. It's a pretty good baseball city.
If they win, they'll draw three million in that ballpark
next to the gas lamp quarter. Says a lot of
(14:18):
positives right now. And you know some of the guys
in the media are just running rampant, Well, how are
they going to resign them? Etceter with. These guys have
paid money. These who would ever thought these guys would
have paid Maddie Machado thirty million a year or paid
our Cosmo thirty million a year, or dold Off the
kind of contract they did to Willmeyer. So the ownership
(14:40):
is there, Is it Dodger Rich? Is it Yankee Crazy? No?
But it's it's pretty good. And in terms of Tatisa
tell you the reason this team is right now in
this funt to go deep into October is are these
nicknames El Nino Las Alsa and the Swiss Army Knife,
Elninios ct. He does everything. The only thing that scares
(15:03):
me about him is he plays so hard. He's going
to get himself hurt because he is reckless. Alas also
is Machado now that that put good people around him
in the batting order, is a very different ball player
than the one that kind of dragged through last season.
And and the Swiss Army knife is his kid. They
scouted from Tampa Bay. Why the Rays would ever give
(15:25):
up on him kind of stuns me. Jake Cronenworth, who
plays first, second, third, left, center, and right. And by
the way, dude is hitting three. So it's not like this.
This is a guy who showed up in April and
disappeared May. He's just he's hitting everybody and again red
hot batting order. Short season, here comes the playoffs up. Yeah,
(15:48):
it's it's just really intriguing considering all the bad baseball,
but fans in San Diego have had to live through
and tolerate. Now, all of a sudden, this thing has arrived.
I think the shame of it all then is if
if fans were allowed in the stadium and we played
a full season, they draw three million. Here. You know,
the first half of last season with the arrival of Machado,
(16:10):
and he hit early, he hit well, Myers said, well,
Eric Hosmer hit, well, they got to the All Star
break ATTT five and they punched the Dodgers in the
mouth right before the All Star break. I'll tell you
what the atmosphere a Petico Park was like going to
an NFL football playoff game. I mean it was he elected.
So the saddest part is no fans in the stands.
(16:31):
Otherwise they draw three million in this place. Had just
going crazy. Right now they're going crazy watching it on
TV because they can't go to the yard. I'm happy
is that I like the Dodgers. Actually, I'm happy for
the plagect. When I was interning for you that that
was around the time the Padres had that fire sale
back in the nineties and they traded away a bunch
of guys and they I would go to Jack Murphy
(16:52):
Stadium and I would get a ticket, the cheapest ticket,
and I would be sitting behind the dugout by the
second inning because no one, no one was there. Stadium
was empty when they got rid of all those guys.
But I guess gott this year as well, and he
wanted to yap away and he had some things he
wanted to say. Yes, guess count well I was kind
of curiously just because of you mentioned the organization and
the franchise and ownership group. Do you think they make
(17:14):
a move or any moves like this if we're playing
a hundred and sixty two games as opposed to something
condensed like this. Well, i's this. We're August thirty one
and it was the middle of a hundred sixty two
game drive and there are only four games out of
first place, and in the wild card situation, yeah, they
probably would have. But here they are and they're not
(17:37):
going anywhere in the final twenty three or twenty four
games that are left in this season. And that the
one thing that's different about Padre baseball now than we've
seen in a long time. It's not one or two
players man roster that contributes, and they are. They are
deep and starting pitching. And now they've got the plethora
of guys out of the bullpen, and they've got a
(17:58):
couple of kids sitting on the stack squad that a
champion of the bid for the next of their opportunity
to come be part of this. So now this is
this is the real deal. You know, you compare this too, sadly,
what's happened in Anaheim where they have Mike Trout and
they don't have an awful lot around him. That's what
pottery baseball used to be. One player out of the
farm system, you hope it's going to be a star,
but there never ever was enough around him. But this
(18:21):
is this is the electric and the fact that we're
looking at the at this makeup of the postseason. We're
best of three, and everybody plays the best of three,
and I don't care how good you are, you get
scared if you've got to match up with San Diego
in the best of three, first round of the best
of fives, and then and going from there. So now
this is the real deal. And this ownership has spent
(18:42):
a lot of money, They burned through a lot of money,
that made some mistakes on money, and yet they've gone
back and they've given this general manager of the green
light to do this. And so I mean, it's it's
really interesting to see how aggressive A. J. Prelor was
at the trade deadline, But the fact of the matter
was it signed an awful lot of players over about
(19:03):
a four year window. In the minor leagues. They had
a lot of bargaining ships and and the unique thing
to me is after making six trades right wrapped around
the deadline, and after moving out about fifteen total players,
they still have all the blue chips at the top
of the board in the farm system that are still
owned by San Diego. So it's kind of cool compared
(19:26):
to where we're then in the past summers for the
last decade plus. Do you proceed with any caution though,
because when you look at the divisions and how the
alignment is right now, you're obviously looking at the National
League West and outside the Dodgers, San Francisco is a
punching bag. Colorado is a punching bag, and the same
thing with Arizona. And then you look at the American
League East as well. You mentioned with Anaheim Oakland is
(19:50):
there Houston's teetering on five hundred, But outside of that,
it really is anyone's in one's game. So if ever
there was a year for San Diego to get fatten
off a mystic, why don't you agree that this is
the year? Well, yeah, because, like I said, they've been
building towards this and understand this four years ago when
they decided to go on this unbelievable spending spree. Uh,
(20:13):
to sign all these Latin American players. What they had
plotted out was the Yankees are over the luxury tax,
the Cubs have spent over the luxury tax, the Red
Sox are taxed out. They're not going to be players
for any of these players in Cuba or possibly out
of Mexico. Uh and a select odd one or two
in the Pacific Rim. And they said, this is the
(20:34):
year June one, four years ago, we're gonna go on
a spending spree and we're gonna sign all these guys.
And they signed all these Cubans. And now not all
of them have gotten there yet. They've used a couple
in his bargaining ships. But they had they had pre
planned because of the paralysis with the luxury tax and
the limits and signing pools for the Red Sox and
(20:57):
the Yankees and the Cubs and a few others, that
was the or they were going to do it. And
they did it, and they got them all signed, and
they overpaid for a couple of their draft picks to
convince these kids to leave college and and to sign
to sign a fodder contract. So you know, here, here's
where they are. Because now they've got good young players
in the system. They've used some as as assets to
make these six trades. Thought they executed, you know, and
(21:21):
they convince convince the free agents to come, so hey,
it's it's right there. And they think because Machado is
still young, Hosmer still got miles left on him, Trent
Grisham is young, Myers is at the midpoint of his
career and is having a nice first half of the season.
They think this is not a one time thing. They
think because of the numbers that the Puddlers having a system,
(21:44):
that they're going to be able to win and stay
competitive if they stay injury free on the pitching staff,
stay competitive for a bunch of years. Now. Whether or
not they're going to be able to go back into
the marketplace another summer from now and sign a whole
pile more of the next wave of free agents, that's
that's debatable. But they haven't made a lot of mistakes
(22:05):
on the kids that they've drafted high, and they've had
a lot of eye draft bricks because they haven't made
made any mistakes or have guys blow off their arms.
So strength of numbers and they seem to have them,
and they used some of them, and I still got
more coming. I want to get off the padres here
and Uh, you are the former voice of the San
Diego Chargers. Did a great job, wonderful NFL play by
(22:29):
play run there and it is amazingly. The Charges have
been in l A a a few years now and all
of San Diego has essentially turned their back on the Charges,
which I didn't think was having. I don't think the charge.
I talked to some of the people with the Chargers
lead and they they thought that a certain percentage of
San Diego fans We're gonna drive up and back when
(22:50):
fans were allowed to go to games and attend Charger games.
And it hasn't happened. It has been unreal. Uh, what
is the NFL fan in San Diego doing that? The
old Charger fans, if they have they picked a different team.
What's the pulse of the people there in San Diego
as far as NFL It's a it's a real viable question. Ben. Uh.
This is a melting pot of people from everywhere, and
(23:13):
I think that's the intangible thing to make San Diego
different from any place else is that you have fans
who have moved here who are Patriot fans, or Bear fans,
or Seahawk fans or Dallas Cowboy fans or whomever. So
they have a lot of rooting interest about the team
back home. And if this team here was good as
the old San Diego Chargers became in my era when
(23:36):
I was the voice of the Chargers, and then what
they became in the Marty Schottenheimer era. For a short
period of time, you could not buy a ticket to
a Charger game. Now when they got bad, and then
when the ownership made a lot of mistakes in terms
of running off the original successful coach, Bobby Ross and
then firing and running out Marty Schottenheimer, they turned on
(23:56):
the Spoutos family and then the team started fall apart.
Philip Rivers was the last linkage between Charger football and
San Diego and what is up there in Los Angeles.
He has gone and now the Chargers will not be
on anybody's radar at all. And I, you know, I
thought it was ridiculous for Spanos his people to keep
(24:20):
making these public pronouncement. So Charger fans will follow us, well,
the hell they will can compare to what they did
to this community. After fifty five years of loyalty, The
TV ratings were cut in half. Where they used to
get thirty shares on Sunday, they're getting fourteen shares now,
and out of that fourteen shares watching Charger football on
TV and San Diego's hate watching hoping they lose, hoping
(24:45):
their guys get hurt. I mean, is the anger here
has just never ever subsided. Uh. It is interesting to
me though that the Rams have made no inroads at
all in San Diego. And I thought the Rams might
try to do some marketing, considering how they got so
quickly gar A Golf, Sean McVeigh, etcetera. But it's like
they've they've kind of ignored the marketer, have not made
(25:08):
much of an effort. But the fans here watched the games,
they'll watch the Chargers, they watch all the other NFL
games on on Direct TV and Sunday Ticket and all that.
It's just it's just a very very different time. It's
a very empty feeling. There's still a lot of anger
in the community. Um, you know, I did sports talk
radio here, Ben, as you know, for twenty eight years,
(25:31):
and and NFL football on radio and conversations on talk shows,
and the Chargers and the Raiders just absolutely drove the
content of what we did on the air. A lot
of that has gone away. The sports stalk stations here
are really staggering and struggling because we've kind of become
a one franchise town. We've kind of become Jacksonville, will
(25:53):
kind of become Port Loan, And that's sad considering how
big San Diego County is. Uh. I will say this
going forward that as as hard as Tom Talasco has tried,
it just can't get a break. Uh. You know, now
now losing Derwin James, their heart and soul safety who's
just a big time, big time player, is going to
(26:15):
hurt that defense. And that defense was slated to have
to carry this team because I think the Chargers have
become a very pedestrian offensive football team. They said goodbye
to Philip Rivers. He said goodbye to them. I was
disappointing that this guy could not finish the season here.
This was not so much on Rivers as it was
the organizations. I think let that really great quarterback down.
(26:38):
And I know a segment of the media would talk
and write extensively about turnovers and interceptions, But when you
got a superstar quarterback, thrown for yards was having to
do it on a wing and a prayer because his
offensive line as a disaster, or he doesn't have enough receivers,
or everybody's hurt. Uh. Rivers did as much as when
(27:00):
human being could do. And I was hopeful that Philip
would finish up here, but they just elected not to
do it. But by doing what they did, now they've
got but they hoped would be a very good defense.
Now it's dinged up with Derwin James gone for the year,
UH at a very pedestrian offense. And you guys know,
I know everybody who's covered these teams on the West
(27:21):
Coast knows you need star power to draw fans in
Los Angeles. And I'll tell you Tyrod Taylor, who's not
star power and I need a kid is Austin necklar
As he's not star power. And now Mike Williams is hurt,
and Keenan Allen is a year away from free agency
where he could walk. Uh. And if you don't have
star power a k A Jared Golf or prior to that,
(27:42):
Todd Gurley, or you don't have star power Lebron and
a D and Kawai Leonard Uh you're in trouble in
terms of how you can draw. And I think this
this would be an utter embarrassment of a season if
if stadiums were open and the rams were drawn, there's
sixties six to seven or two thousand and the charges
were drawn twenty one, because that's what I think would
(28:05):
have happened had we not had the shutdown of most
of these stadiums around the NFL. So a long answer,
but there's a lot of bitterness and disappointment here because
the NFL ownership in rocher Gardell let that family take
this team out of the city after this city, in
this county had put together a massive financing plan to
build a shiny new stadium in a market in which
(28:26):
they were king and they owned, and now they've gone
to a market where they are on the utter outside
looking in, on the periphery. They're not going to win
this year, Yeah, they're not. And Lee, I I know
you're short, so we got one more. I got one
more for you. And you mentioned the fact and it's
it's got to be tough for the guys doing sports
talk now with only one team in San Diego, and
and you have mentioned and you got a great website.
(28:48):
Lee Hack saw Hamilton's dot com, the old headline segment
which you dominated radio with you. You update that thing
every day. It's it's really impressive the amount of work
you put in that website. But the chances of an
NBA or NHL team coming to San Diego, there's something
going on with an arena? Is that right? What's the
latest one that way? And we'll leave you on this note.
(29:11):
We've been plagued in San Diego ben by really poor
governmental leadership for decades. The prime example, the Podres a
decade ago, twelve years ago, decided they were going downtown
because San Diego's check Murphy Stadium, as it was known then,
(29:31):
who's falling down? And the Padres decided, we're going downtown
and we're gonna build in the old East Village downtown
where all these warehouses used to be near the shipping factories.
And they had to fight through twenty two lawsuits, but
they got Petco Park built, and Petco Park led to
the retuber nation of the gas Lamp Quarter. And I
(29:53):
saw you sitting in a bar drink and I know
because I was there too, And now we know how
vibrant that gas lamp quarter cat Go Park Convention Center
area is but it was a terrible fight to get
anything accomplished. They finally got it done. The Chargers had
an opportunity to to be co owners of the shiny
new stadium on the big parking lot air Qualcomm Stadium,
(30:15):
which was the ideal location because it's central to all
the highways, and they refused to negotiate and they walked
away in the league let them go to l A.
It's left behind San Diego State. San Diego State is
in the process that just turned the first shovel of
dirt last week in building a thirty five thousand seat
football soccer stadium on the Qualcom site. San Diego State
(30:36):
has purchased the entire tract of land and that's that's
gonna be at what they call an East Village campus
UH for expansion. That that's a thirty year project. The
stadium is the first thing that's going to be done
in two years now in the center of San Diego,
the Midway District, the Sports Arena district ban They have
(30:58):
just gotten city Council of approval and they've just picked
a developer to build a state of the art entertainment
district on the sports arena property in San Diego, and
that will include the sixteen thousand state of the art
arena in addition to entertainment venues, restaurants, office building, some housing, etcetera. Now,
(31:21):
I don't in all honesty, we needed a new arena
and I had chirped and written about it when I
was doing talk radio and writing on my website. You
gotta be progressive, You've gotta build a new sports arena
as part of this Midway district. Well, the mayor said, yes,
it has to be part of the package, and they
finally got it done. In fact, the people who built
(31:44):
Staples Center, l A Live, the London Arena in England,
the Kansas City Arena, the one in Berlin. This is
a e G subsidiary. They are going to build this
arena in San Diego now as part of the entertainment district. Now,
whether not it it leads us to an NBA franchise
or an NHL franchise, that might be a bit of
(32:05):
a reach, but you know what, sports changes, and as
markets explode and grow, you know this, this is the
eighth biggest city in America right now, so this thing
will continue to grow. Because of who we are and
where we are and by the way, what's the weather outside.
So so then I think down road anything is possible.
You could get franchises that want to relocate out of
where they are, and if you've got a shiny new
(32:27):
arena here, then that becomes a landing spot maybe for
an NBA or even an NHL team, because this is
a melting pot of people. The saddest part of this
whole thing is we have such a great city with
football tradition that the Spanels family turned its back on,
and we don't have a football stadium, and we don't
have the real estate now at the clocom site where
(32:49):
we could have built a stadium, or somebody from the
outside who want to move a franchise here could have
built a stadium. That real estate has gone. That's the
only negative that we've lost that entity. But we're going
to have a basketball, hockey and nan who knows what
that's going to go once they get it up. It's
not going to happen in fifteen minutes, but it's you know,
it's going to happen. Yeah. Awesomely, thank you for your time.
(33:10):
I appreciate what have you on again and have a
great day today. Good Ben, my pleasure. Always glad to
talk to you. Keep up the good work on the network.
Too nice to shout with you again. Guys, be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. If
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(00:21):
pill poppers in the Penthouse, the clearing House of hot takes,
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(00:41):
we are coast to coast, border to border and beyond.
This is a full filipbuster on the Fifth Hour with
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by David Gascony. Yes I'm still on furlough. This our
Saturday podcast and another conversation podcast. Guest Gone Here is
an an old friend comes back to hang out on
(01:02):
the podcast. And this has been a weekend where yesterday
we had Leo Terrell on. Leo has been on the
podcast before he came back for his second appearance on
the on the show, and now we're having another person
on today that was on previously. Is this Are we
rinsing and repeating? Is that what we're doing right now?
I guess we've run out of friends that we have.
(01:23):
Is that's essentially it. We've run out of people that
we know that we can put on the podcast. And
so now we're going back and and these these are
guys that got big download numbers, right, Leo Terrell and
and Lee hacks Hamilton, who's on today, both got a
big numbers. Yeah, these are these are like the anti
Tom Looney's of the world. You know, these are ratings
(01:43):
driven bonanza. Now is that true? Is that Tom Looney?
Because I'm gonna let him know that. Yeah, low download
totals by Looney. Huh. Interesting. It was a brutal month
of August for everything outside of of what we did.
Tom Looney came him in extremely low bad showing by him. Wow,
(02:04):
bad job by by Looney. And Looney likes to brag
about how popular is. So that's that's all all right,
before we get into hacks All, We're gonna have hacksall
here hanging out with us. A cameo dot com cameo
dot com type my name in Ben mall you want
a birthday shout out, you want some big life event,
you need a pep talk, I'll give you a mall
(02:26):
or pep talk, whatever you might need there. It's not flee,
but it's not that much. And so consider that a
lot of p ones have gone down that road and
you can do that as well. We are available on
Facebook that we use the Facebook show a lot. In fact,
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(02:47):
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I want my question being real, what's over that? Uh,
then go on Facebook Ben Maller Show, and then just wait.
Usually it's on Wednesday, but if we have a different
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this later in the week. Uh. And so that is
available to you there the Facebook page Ben Mallory Show
and Instagram Ben Mallard on Fox you can see the
(03:08):
most delicious spicy Popeye's chicken sandwich ever made in the
Mallard kitchen photographic evidence and on Twitter at Ben Mallard.
If you'd like to be part guests gun, you're available
on all those platforms except Facebook, yes, yes, yeah, divorced
Facebook and two thousand and eleven, thankfully. So so I
can take shots that you in Facebook and you'll never know. Well, yeah,
(03:29):
you can't tag me on there, so you can take
shots if you want, well you'll never see them. So
I can take gratuitous cheap shots at Giest Scott. Yeah,
but I mean, you don't want to be that big
of a pussy to you or you gotta like take shots.
And I'm not a radio What are you talking about?
Your You're such a more sugar that I have to
do this some time to time to keep you in
line because you're a narcissist west of the four oh
(03:49):
five talking about What am I talking about? I'm talking
about reality. I'm I'm a man of the people out here,
slaving away east of the four or five. You know badly,
my air conditioned dies. I run in there. I do
the show because I'm dedicated, and I'm languishing over here,
and you're high forlutin walking across the Pacific Ocean like aristocrat.
(04:10):
I'm floating on a gurney across the Pacific Ocean. Here
we go, Here we go. Let me get my little
violin out there. Let me get a little violin me
out of the infirmary into the network studio. Keep in mind, Guesstcon,
let me put something out. When I had my chest
sliced open, you ab all right? No, no, I I
(04:32):
have a bunch of scars all over my chest right now,
my beautiful chest. I have a bunch of scars. As
I was getting put under anesthesia. I'm getting f you.
Tweets that tweets text from Gascon. I'm in the hospital,
I'm about to go under. I don't know if I'm
gonna make it or not. And I've got Gascon who's
(04:55):
harassing me via text message? Well, I mean this is
something that you kicked down the you know, you kicked
the can down the road a bit, and this is
what happened to you. So I mean, had you not
neglected your own body, I wouldn't have been violently in text. Well,
I could say the same thing about you if you
were like a normal human being and the two would
have just left your body, you wouldn't have needed this.
(05:17):
But obviously you're such a you're such a meathead that
it can't even leave your body. It's a bad job
by you. Yeah, I'm a hoard or what can I say? Yeah?
There you go, you are you are a hoarder. That
is your future. Right, Let's get to it. You want
to get to it right now? Yes, all right, Well
I am very excited. As many of you know, I
got my start in radio at a college radio station
(05:37):
at Saddleback College. But I got an internship as I
was a college DJ at the mighty six ninety. This
a seventy seven thousand WAT blow torch from Baha to
the Canadian Rockies. In that phrase came from the man
that I learned radio from. I watched Bias Moses. I
(05:58):
learned from Hacksaw at Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's as he did
his show. He is the patriarch of West Coast Sports Talk,
the o G of San Diego sports Talk. He's seen
and done it all multiple radio stations at the very
popular Hasas Headlines. In fact, before we bring Leon, if
(06:18):
you were a big fan of Hasas Headlines, you can
still get his headlines. He updates them every day. He's
really meticulous. On Lee hack Saw Hamilton's dot com, his website,
He's on Twitter at hack Saw ten ninety. You can
find him on there. But those Hacksaw headlines. He pretty
much just puts the script up that he used for
(06:40):
his radio show, and there's a lot of good information
that is really what what Twitter has become. Hacks All
was the original Twitter. But anyway, all right enough buttering
the Biscuits of Lee has Hall with him. The reason
we're having Leon is because San Diego the focus of
the sporting world least in baseball trade deadline at the
beginning of this week, and the Podres going bronkers at
(07:05):
the trade deadline, wheeling and dealing. They made six trades
involving over fifteen players. They acquired ten new players, including
Mike Clevinger. They spent a lot of money. So leave
let's walking in on this one. I guess the question
is this is un This is unorthodox for the Padres.
(07:25):
They don't normally do these kind of things. Where did
this come from? Well, there's a memo that's going out
to the Dodgers and the Cubs. San Diego's coming coming
after you. October is going to be very interesting. Ben.
They've been planning to be competitive in they had gone
through more than a decade of losing baseball and not
been in the playoffs since two thousand and six, spent
(07:48):
any enormous amount of money UH in free agency, an
enormous amount of money in the Latin American free ation area,
and I've overpaid on a whole bunch of their real
high draft up the excess to get them locked down.
And as they were suffering all these ninety lost seasons
the last couple of years, you looked, you looked down
into the farm system and you saw kids having really
(08:11):
good seasons at every level. You know, that starts with
Fernando Tatis when they got at age seventeen. So we
knew they were building, and they kept dropping hands. They
hoped to be maybe on the periphery of the playoffs.
But now with the shortened season and the fact that
they made some offseason deals that really helped their pitching staff,
(08:34):
and they've been able to stay for the most part
free of any significant pitching injuries, and everybody else has
fallen apart significantly. The Dodgers, the Cubs, and the Potteries.
Right now the top three teams in the National League.
And who could have ever imagined would be talking about
Washington or Philadelphia or the St. Louis Cardinals just being
(08:56):
an utter chaos because of all the injuries that have
ripped their clubs up. They got to the trading deadline
and they thought, hey, we've got a chance to do something.
And what they did was they had stockpiled so much
in the farm system and they were facing the potential
loss of some of these kids in the Rule five
draft is coming near. Because you can't protect everybody. They
(09:16):
decided we were going to start shopping and we're gonna
put multiple kids into deals, so we're gonna try to
get the right right guys. And you know, turned out
to be a nine player deal with Cleveland to get
my club Inert, which was huge. The Seattle deal is
probably deliverable downroad. That's seven player transactions. So they think
right now, Ben that they've got excuse me, every component set.
(09:40):
They are deep in kitching, which is huge in the
best of three or best of five series. Right now,
they are red hot hitting the ball. You look, you
look at their lineup, starting about with the Loodolf guy
and then going through about six or seven in the
batting order, and they they're all hitting better because they're
all supporting each other. So they can't wait for October
(10:01):
to come and you know, is it possible they could
be a World Series team. I guess anything is possible.
Tampa Bay and Oakland could be World Series teams too,
but have to go through the Dodgers or go through
the Cubs to get there. But the way this thing
is built right now, and if you looked at their
rotation on paper, and you looked at the depth of
the bullpen on paper, and then you looked at that
(10:22):
batting order, as I said, one through six or one
through seven, that's pretty comparable to who the Dodgers are
and what the Cubs are right now. So I'm gonna
be a fascinating month of October and baseball for sure. Well,
and and Lee, as you taught me back in the day,
the baseball playoffs are such a crapshoot with the short
series and all that. But let's break that. Clevinger is good.
(10:43):
I'll give you Clevinger, but some of these other guys
I only reworked the bullpen the Dodgers had at the
time we're talking here, the top bullpen in baseball. Fact,
they have the top pitching staff in baseball. Like a
lot of some of these relief pitchers that the plotters got.
I to me, they don't really move the kneel. You
do you disagree with that? And you think these guys
are actually going to make some impact because I I'm
(11:05):
looking at you. You're raiding the Seattle Mariners bullpen and
the and the Royals. This doesn't excite me very much. Lee, Well,
they got role players. Granted, they lost Curby Yates with
the bone ship surgery, but but they've got Drew tom
Morans who's reinvented himself as a short reliever closer. And
(11:25):
they got Matt Strong, who has really pitched well since
he came from Kansas City more than a year ago.
And they've got Trevor Rosenthal who has rediscovered a hundred
mile an hour fastball and right now he's pitching like
he pitched four or five years ago before he had
the elbow problems in St. Louis. Uh And and they're
deep and set up guys, and they still got young
(11:46):
arms that they could call up and plug in. So
I think collectively, you know, if they were Rolaids reliefaced
guy in the pen, No, not at all, not even
a Kenley Jansen. But I'll tell you what. They go
to the bullpen in the fifth and said extending, they
got role players and get you to the ninth and
get you to whomever the new closer it's going to be.
So I just think collectively, there's a lot of strength there,
(12:09):
and they all throw the ball hard, so attempt Timmy.
It's intriguing. And you know, I know from the outside
looking in, you know people on Los Angeles, people in
New York, But say, who are these guys? What do
you think they're good? Well, we've sat here and watched
this thing, you know, and I said, I thought they
could go thirty five and this year, which we're getting
in the playoffs, they might have an outside shot of
(12:31):
winning forty games. Nobody would have ever expected that. So
at the front of the rotation, you've got Clevinger, and
you've got the kid Chris Paddock, and he set some
up to send some downs, but the kids vibrant. And
you've got Donelson Lamet, who might be the quietest number
one starter on anybody's staff. And they still got other
guys that they can plug in, and that does not
(12:52):
We've had no conversation whatsoever yet about Mackenzie Gore or
the really highly rated number one draft pick who's sitting
on this taxi squad and roster, and Luis Patino who's
found a role right now as a setup. So it's
they got numbers and that's good pitching beats good hitting,
especially in a scary short series. That's that's what really
(13:14):
intreates me. Yeah, and Lee, we mentioned you can't mention
the place you've mentioned for Nado t junior, but this
guy I was trying to the last time we've had
good young players in baseball over the years, and obviously
Mike Trout's great near in judge, but the Razzle dazzle
that for for Nato to these junior brings. Uh, you
might have to go back to a rod to find
(13:35):
a guy that brought that impact right away with the Razz.
But is this is he gonna be a Padre for
the next ten years? I know he can't be a
free agent, I think till he's gonna be in San Diego,
certainly over the next few years. But is this a
long term guy? Is he gonna have a career where
he stays with the Padres? You think, you know, going
down the line ten, twelve, thirteen years or is this
(13:57):
once he's a free agent he's out of their situation
now because this has become a really good place to play,
and they got an ownership that's put a lot of
money into this franchise and Petro Petco Park pretty good
stadium to play in. It's a pretty good baseball city.
If they win, they'll draw three million in that ballpark
next to the gas lamp quarter. Says a lot of
(14:18):
positives right now. And you know some of the guys
in the media are just running rampant, Well, how are
they going to resign them? Etceter with. These guys have
paid money. These who would ever thought these guys would
have paid Maddie Machado thirty million a year or paid
our Cosmo thirty million a year, or dold Off the
kind of contract they did to Willmeyer. So the ownership
(14:40):
is there, Is it Dodger Rich? Is it Yankee Crazy? No?
But it's it's pretty good. And in terms of Tatisa
tell you the reason this team is right now in
this funt to go deep into October is are these
nicknames El Nino Las Alsa and the Swiss Army Knife,
Elninios ct. He does everything. The only thing that scares
(15:03):
me about him is he plays so hard. He's going
to get himself hurt because he is reckless. Alas also
is Machado now that that put good people around him
in the batting order, is a very different ball player
than the one that kind of dragged through last season.
And and the Swiss Army knife is his kid. They
scouted from Tampa Bay. Why the Rays would ever give
(15:25):
up on him kind of stuns me. Jake Cronenworth, who
plays first, second, third, left, center, and right. And by
the way, dude is hitting three. So it's not like this.
This is a guy who showed up in April and
disappeared May. He's just he's hitting everybody and again red
hot batting order. Short season, here comes the playoffs up. Yeah,
(15:48):
it's it's just really intriguing considering all the bad baseball,
but fans in San Diego have had to live through
and tolerate. Now, all of a sudden, this thing has arrived.
I think the shame of it all then is if
if fans were allowed in the stadium and we played
a full season, they draw three million. Here. You know,
the first half of last season with the arrival of Machado,
(16:10):
and he hit early, he hit well, Myers said, well,
Eric Hosmer hit, well, they got to the All Star
break ATTT five and they punched the Dodgers in the
mouth right before the All Star break. I'll tell you
what the atmosphere a Petico Park was like going to
an NFL football playoff game. I mean it was he elected.
So the saddest part is no fans in the stands.
(16:31):
Otherwise they draw three million in this place. Had just
going crazy. Right now they're going crazy watching it on
TV because they can't go to the yard. I'm happy
is that I like the Dodgers. Actually, I'm happy for
the plagect. When I was interning for you that that
was around the time the Padres had that fire sale
back in the nineties and they traded away a bunch
of guys and they I would go to Jack Murphy
(16:52):
Stadium and I would get a ticket, the cheapest ticket,
and I would be sitting behind the dugout by the
second inning because no one, no one was there. Stadium
was empty when they got rid of all those guys.
But I guess gott this year as well, and he
wanted to yap away and he had some things he
wanted to say. Yes, guess count well I was kind
of curiously just because of you mentioned the organization and
the franchise and ownership group. Do you think they make
(17:14):
a move or any moves like this if we're playing
a hundred and sixty two games as opposed to something
condensed like this. Well, i's this. We're August thirty one
and it was the middle of a hundred sixty two
game drive and there are only four games out of
first place, and in the wild card situation, yeah, they
probably would have. But here they are and they're not
(17:37):
going anywhere in the final twenty three or twenty four
games that are left in this season. And that the
one thing that's different about Padre baseball now than we've
seen in a long time. It's not one or two
players man roster that contributes, and they are. They are
deep and starting pitching. And now they've got the plethora
of guys out of the bullpen, and they've got a
(17:58):
couple of kids sitting on the stack squad that a
champion of the bid for the next of their opportunity
to come be part of this. So now this is
this is the real deal. You know, you compare this too, sadly,
what's happened in Anaheim where they have Mike Trout and
they don't have an awful lot around him. That's what
pottery baseball used to be. One player out of the
farm system, you hope it's going to be a star,
but there never ever was enough around him. But this
(18:21):
is this is the electric and the fact that we're
looking at the at this makeup of the postseason. We're
best of three, and everybody plays the best of three,
and I don't care how good you are, you get
scared if you've got to match up with San Diego
in the best of three, first round of the best
of fives, and then and going from there. So now
this is the real deal. And this ownership has spent
(18:42):
a lot of money, They burned through a lot of money,
that made some mistakes on money, and yet they've gone
back and they've given this general manager of the green
light to do this. And so I mean, it's it's
really interesting to see how aggressive A. J. Prelor was
at the trade deadline, But the fact of the matter
was it signed an awful lot of players over about
(19:03):
a four year window. In the minor leagues. They had
a lot of bargaining ships and and the unique thing
to me is after making six trades right wrapped around
the deadline, and after moving out about fifteen total players,
they still have all the blue chips at the top
of the board in the farm system that are still
owned by San Diego. So it's kind of cool compared
(19:26):
to where we're then in the past summers for the
last decade plus. Do you proceed with any caution though,
because when you look at the divisions and how the
alignment is right now, you're obviously looking at the National
League West and outside the Dodgers, San Francisco is a
punching bag. Colorado is a punching bag, and the same
thing with Arizona. And then you look at the American
League East as well. You mentioned with Anaheim Oakland is
(19:50):
there Houston's teetering on five hundred, But outside of that,
it really is anyone's in one's game. So if ever
there was a year for San Diego to get fatten
off a mystic, why don't you agree that this is
the year? Well, yeah, because, like I said, they've been
building towards this and understand this four years ago when
they decided to go on this unbelievable spending spree. Uh,
(20:13):
to sign all these Latin American players. What they had
plotted out was the Yankees are over the luxury tax,
the Cubs have spent over the luxury tax, the Red
Sox are taxed out. They're not going to be players
for any of these players in Cuba or possibly out
of Mexico. Uh and a select odd one or two
in the Pacific Rim. And they said, this is the
(20:34):
year June one, four years ago, we're gonna go on
a spending spree and we're gonna sign all these guys.
And they signed all these Cubans. And now not all
of them have gotten there yet. They've used a couple
in his bargaining ships. But they had they had pre
planned because of the paralysis with the luxury tax and
the limits and signing pools for the Red Sox and
(20:57):
the Yankees and the Cubs and a few others, that
was the or they were going to do it. And
they did it, and they got them all signed, and
they overpaid for a couple of their draft picks to
convince these kids to leave college and and to sign
to sign a fodder contract. So you know, here, here's
where they are. Because now they've got good young players
in the system. They've used some as as assets to
make these six trades. Thought they executed, you know, and
(21:21):
they convince convince the free agents to come, so hey,
it's it's right there. And they think because Machado is
still young, Hosmer still got miles left on him, Trent
Grisham is young, Myers is at the midpoint of his
career and is having a nice first half of the season.
They think this is not a one time thing. They
think because of the numbers that the Puddlers having a system,
(21:44):
that they're going to be able to win and stay
competitive if they stay injury free on the pitching staff,
stay competitive for a bunch of years. Now. Whether or
not they're going to be able to go back into
the marketplace another summer from now and sign a whole
pile more of the next wave of free agents, that's
that's debatable. But they haven't made a lot of mistakes
(22:05):
on the kids that they've drafted high, and they've had
a lot of eye draft bricks because they haven't made
made any mistakes or have guys blow off their arms.
So strength of numbers and they seem to have them,
and they used some of them, and I still got
more coming. I want to get off the padres here
and Uh, you are the former voice of the San
Diego Chargers. Did a great job, wonderful NFL play by
(22:29):
play run there and it is amazingly. The Charges have
been in l A a a few years now and all
of San Diego has essentially turned their back on the Charges,
which I didn't think was having. I don't think the charge.
I talked to some of the people with the Chargers
lead and they they thought that a certain percentage of
San Diego fans We're gonna drive up and back when
(22:50):
fans were allowed to go to games and attend Charger games.
And it hasn't happened. It has been unreal. Uh, what
is the NFL fan in San Diego doing that? The
old Charger fans, if they have they picked a different team.
What's the pulse of the people there in San Diego
as far as NFL It's a it's a real viable question. Ben. Uh.
This is a melting pot of people from everywhere, and
(23:13):
I think that's the intangible thing to make San Diego
different from any place else is that you have fans
who have moved here who are Patriot fans, or Bear fans,
or Seahawk fans or Dallas Cowboy fans or whomever. So
they have a lot of rooting interest about the team
back home. And if this team here was good as
the old San Diego Chargers became in my era when
(23:36):
I was the voice of the Chargers, and then what
they became in the Marty Schottenheimer era. For a short
period of time, you could not buy a ticket to
a Charger game. Now when they got bad, and then
when the ownership made a lot of mistakes in terms
of running off the original successful coach, Bobby Ross and
then firing and running out Marty Schottenheimer, they turned on
(23:56):
the Spoutos family and then the team started fall apart.
Philip Rivers was the last linkage between Charger football and
San Diego and what is up there in Los Angeles.
He has gone and now the Chargers will not be
on anybody's radar at all. And I, you know, I
thought it was ridiculous for Spanos his people to keep
(24:20):
making these public pronouncement. So Charger fans will follow us, well,
the hell they will can compare to what they did
to this community. After fifty five years of loyalty, The
TV ratings were cut in half. Where they used to
get thirty shares on Sunday, they're getting fourteen shares now,
and out of that fourteen shares watching Charger football on
TV and San Diego's hate watching hoping they lose, hoping
(24:45):
their guys get hurt. I mean, is the anger here
has just never ever subsided. Uh. It is interesting to
me though that the Rams have made no inroads at
all in San Diego. And I thought the Rams might
try to do some marketing, considering how they got so
quickly gar A Golf, Sean McVeigh, etcetera. But it's like
they've they've kind of ignored the marketer, have not made
(25:08):
much of an effort. But the fans here watched the games,
they'll watch the Chargers, they watch all the other NFL
games on on Direct TV and Sunday Ticket and all that.
It's just it's just a very very different time. It's
a very empty feeling. There's still a lot of anger
in the community. Um, you know, I did sports talk
radio here, Ben, as you know, for twenty eight years,
(25:31):
and and NFL football on radio and conversations on talk shows,
and the Chargers and the Raiders just absolutely drove the
content of what we did on the air. A lot
of that has gone away. The sports stalk stations here
are really staggering and struggling because we've kind of become
a one franchise town. We've kind of become Jacksonville, will
(25:53):
kind of become Port Loan, And that's sad considering how
big San Diego County is. Uh. I will say this
going forward that as as hard as Tom Talasco has tried,
it just can't get a break. Uh. You know, now
now losing Derwin James, their heart and soul safety who's
just a big time, big time player, is going to
(26:15):
hurt that defense. And that defense was slated to have
to carry this team because I think the Chargers have
become a very pedestrian offensive football team. They said goodbye
to Philip Rivers. He said goodbye to them. I was
disappointing that this guy could not finish the season here.
This was not so much on Rivers as it was
the organizations. I think let that really great quarterback down.
(26:38):
And I know a segment of the media would talk
and write extensively about turnovers and interceptions, But when you
got a superstar quarterback, thrown for yards was having to
do it on a wing and a prayer because his
offensive line as a disaster, or he doesn't have enough receivers,
or everybody's hurt. Uh. Rivers did as much as when
(27:00):
human being could do. And I was hopeful that Philip
would finish up here, but they just elected not to
do it. But by doing what they did, now they've
got but they hoped would be a very good defense.
Now it's dinged up with Derwin James gone for the year,
UH at a very pedestrian offense. And you guys know,
I know everybody who's covered these teams on the West
(27:21):
Coast knows you need star power to draw fans in
Los Angeles. And I'll tell you Tyrod Taylor, who's not
star power and I need a kid is Austin necklar
As he's not star power. And now Mike Williams is hurt,
and Keenan Allen is a year away from free agency
where he could walk. Uh. And if you don't have
star power a k A Jared Golf or prior to that,
(27:42):
Todd Gurley, or you don't have star power Lebron and
a D and Kawai Leonard Uh you're in trouble in
terms of how you can draw. And I think this
this would be an utter embarrassment of a season if
if stadiums were open and the rams were drawn, there's
sixties six to seven or two thousand and the charges
were drawn twenty one, because that's what I think would
(28:05):
have happened had we not had the shutdown of most
of these stadiums around the NFL. So a long answer,
but there's a lot of bitterness and disappointment here because
the NFL ownership in rocher Gardell let that family take
this team out of the city after this city, in
this county had put together a massive financing plan to
build a shiny new stadium in a market in which
(28:26):
they were king and they owned, and now they've gone
to a market where they are on the utter outside
looking in, on the periphery. They're not going to win
this year, Yeah, they're not. And Lee, I I know
you're short, so we got one more. I got one
more for you. And you mentioned the fact and it's
it's got to be tough for the guys doing sports
talk now with only one team in San Diego, and
and you have mentioned and you got a great website.
(28:48):
Lee Hack saw Hamilton's dot com, the old headline segment
which you dominated radio with you. You update that thing
every day. It's it's really impressive the amount of work
you put in that website. But the chances of an
NBA or NHL team coming to San Diego, there's something
going on with an arena? Is that right? What's the
latest one that way? And we'll leave you on this note.
(29:11):
We've been plagued in San Diego ben by really poor
governmental leadership for decades. The prime example, the Podres a
decade ago, twelve years ago, decided they were going downtown
because San Diego's check Murphy Stadium, as it was known then,
(29:31):
who's falling down? And the Padres decided, we're going downtown
and we're gonna build in the old East Village downtown
where all these warehouses used to be near the shipping factories.
And they had to fight through twenty two lawsuits, but
they got Petco Park built, and Petco Park led to
the retuber nation of the gas Lamp Quarter. And I
(29:53):
saw you sitting in a bar drink and I know
because I was there too, And now we know how
vibrant that gas lamp quarter cat Go Park Convention Center
area is but it was a terrible fight to get
anything accomplished. They finally got it done. The Chargers had
an opportunity to to be co owners of the shiny
new stadium on the big parking lot air Qualcomm Stadium,
(30:15):
which was the ideal location because it's central to all
the highways, and they refused to negotiate and they walked
away in the league let them go to l A.
It's left behind San Diego State. San Diego State is
in the process that just turned the first shovel of
dirt last week in building a thirty five thousand seat
football soccer stadium on the Qualcom site. San Diego State
(30:36):
has purchased the entire tract of land and that's that's
gonna be at what they call an East Village campus
UH for expansion. That that's a thirty year project. The
stadium is the first thing that's going to be done
in two years now in the center of San Diego,
the Midway District, the Sports Arena district ban They have
(30:58):
just gotten city Council of approval and they've just picked
a developer to build a state of the art entertainment
district on the sports arena property in San Diego, and
that will include the sixteen thousand state of the art
arena in addition to entertainment venues, restaurants, office building, some housing, etcetera. Now,
(31:21):
I don't in all honesty, we needed a new arena
and I had chirped and written about it when I
was doing talk radio and writing on my website. You
gotta be progressive, You've gotta build a new sports arena
as part of this Midway district. Well, the mayor said, yes,
it has to be part of the package, and they
finally got it done. In fact, the people who built
(31:44):
Staples Center, l A Live, the London Arena in England,
the Kansas City Arena, the one in Berlin. This is
a e G subsidiary. They are going to build this
arena in San Diego now as part of the entertainment district. Now,
whether not it it leads us to an NBA franchise
or an NHL franchise, that might be a bit of
(32:05):
a reach, but you know what, sports changes, and as
markets explode and grow, you know this, this is the
eighth biggest city in America right now, so this thing
will continue to grow. Because of who we are and
where we are and by the way, what's the weather outside.
So so then I think down road anything is possible.
You could get franchises that want to relocate out of
where they are, and if you've got a shiny new
(32:27):
arena here, then that becomes a landing spot maybe for
an NBA or even an NHL team, because this is
a melting pot of people. The saddest part of this
whole thing is we have such a great city with
football tradition that the Spanels family turned its back on,
and we don't have a football stadium, and we don't
have the real estate now at the clocom site where
(32:49):
we could have built a stadium, or somebody from the
outside who want to move a franchise here could have
built a stadium. That real estate has gone. That's the
only negative that we've lost that entity. But we're going
to have a basketball, hockey and nan who knows what
that's going to go once they get it up. It's
not going to happen in fifteen minutes, but it's you know,
it's going to happen. Yeah. Awesomely, thank you for your time.
(33:10):
I appreciate what have you on again and have a
great day today. Good Ben, my pleasure. Always glad to
talk to you. Keep up the good work on the network.
Too nice to shout with you again. Guys, be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific
Host
Ben Maller
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