NL West Report: Are The Padres Destined For Last?
The San Diego Padres visit the Chicago Cubs in a series that starts today and when you look at the teams’ position in the standings you wonder if the sports world wouldn’t be better served by just giving everyone DVD copies of the 1984 National League Championship Series when the teams played all the way to a decisive fifth game (’84 was the last year the LCS was best-of-five). Of course that would require Cubs fans to relive Leon Durham letting a crucial groundball go through the wickets in the finale, but Padres fans would surely enjoy re-living one of their two National League pennants (they would again win in 1998). At 17-32, the Pads are in last in the NL West. Are things really that hopeless?