The video focuses on the last four years of Padres Baseball, which many feel have been some of the worst years in the organizations long history. Not just when it comes to the win/loss column, but overall management and broken promises. The video is about 37 minutes and breaks its story into four parts with each part taking the time to point out various villains, with the finger seeming to always land back on ownership. The video ends with a call to action, which I will get to.

Something you should know is that this video is not professionally made. The sound, look and feel of the film are clearly provided from the wealth that iMovie provides. This is not an insult, as I encourage this kind of “underground/punk” kind of filmmaking. Use what you got, just make sure the content stays strong, and this video certainly follows that mentality. The videos four parts detail the destruction of the last four years.

In part one, Marver claims ‘The Padres Have Lied To You’, which is undoubtedly true. I don’t think anyone could really dispute that, as we’ve seen Jake Peavy, Adrian Gonzalez and Mat Latos all shipped off in recent seasons after guarantees from the Padres that they wouldn’t be. That’s just the tip of the iceberg as any fan can see the giant lie that is PETCO Park staring us in the face and clogging up the already scarce parking in downtown.

Part two is titled “The Padres Are the Cheapest Team in Baseball.” Again, if you are a fan of the Padres then you already know this and have known this for decades. Baseball itself often writes off the team as a joke. We’ve been relevant what – five times in fifty years? We had to beg and pay Dave Winfield to go in the Hall of Fame as a Padre, and even after he did Major League Baseball threw a fit and changed the rules so players didn’t get to choose their team anymore. That’s how Baseball sees us. A mistake. Marver’s film goes on to point out the stats that back up part two’s claim, and again he couldn’t get an argument here if he tried. His biggest gripe is based on the fact that the largest free agent salary the Padres have ever given out is to Orlando Hudson for a tad over $11 million a year. If you’ve read me before you know how much I care about Orlando Hudson. Our teams “attempts” at going after free agents goes about as well as me trying to trade Bud Smith for Derek Jeter in a 2001 fantasy league. It’s a joke, and everyone knows it. The video begs the question, “Why?” As Marver points out that the Padres make almost half their payroll in shared revenue, before they even touch their own revenue from ticket sales, concessions, and TV deals. The Padres consistently draw over 22,000 fans per game, which puts them almost smack in the middle of the pack since 2009. They’ve had some money to flash around, especially after this year’s huge TV deal with FOX Sports SD, so it’s almost insulting that the team did nothing with that money. Where is it going? It’s a fair question, and one that should be answered. Our one big signing this off-season was Jason Marquis. The Indians who recently inked a similar TV deal, draw a similar amount of fans, and have hovered around our payroll for a while now went out and signed Nick Swisher, Bret Myers, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Those are all guys I would love to have on our team. But, we couldn’t afford them and the CLEVELAND INDIANS could. I call shenanigans. Were a cheap team, but we aren’t a cheap city, and we definitely don’t act like a cheap city or support the club like cheapskates, so why are we a cheap team? Solid question. Answer?

Part three of the video is titled “New Ownership = Old Ownership” and deals with the utter disaster that was the Jeff Moorad era. Let’s just put it this way – Moorad used to be a sports agent, and have you ever known those guys to be good people? He broke this team down in payroll, players and city morale faster than John Moores could complete his divorce. He was a snake, and we should have gotten a quick clue when the other Baseball owners wanted nothing to do with him. He brought in Jed Hoyer who was another disaster and gave us Jason Bartlett. Wow. Glad he and his cronies are gone. Well, as the video points out they aren’t. And the “point man” for this new ownership group is Ron Fowler, who was a major part of Moorad’s group. As Charlie Brown would say, “Good Grief”, and as my friend Phil would say, “What the f*ck?!” It’s the same guys with new money, and they’re gonna break our hearts all over again. Nothing changes when everything changes.

New Ownership = Old Ownership

The last part of the video is titled “How Can You Help?” and this is where my views differ from Marver. The finale of the video calls for a change to the Padres. It pleads with the viewer to send a message to the ownership and organization that we want a real team. A team that can compete, that can give us playoff hopes and then might have a shot to actually win a playoff series. These are all things that I agree with and have been pushing for as a fan since I can remember being a fan. However, I have to say their method for achieving this change, their “message sent” is flimsy at best. The video wants you to stop spending your money on the Padres. Stop buying jerseys and hats and tickets. Stop going to games and buying concessions, and stop spending your hard earned money on season tickets. In essence the video is telling you to stop supporting the Padres. That this is the only way to institute real change and send a real message. The only problem with this mentality is that there is absolutely no proof that it will work. If we look at the two franchises just as tortured as the Padres, we can clearly see that a fan not supporting the team ultimately doesn’t result in change. The Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates have been without winning teams for decades now. Sure, they’ve had a couple of seasons spattered throughout that span which showed some promise and some hope, but for the most part neither team has enjoyed lasting success since the early 1980’s. In both cities new ballparks were built with the decree that a new ballpark means more revenue resulting in higher payrolls and top-notch players. Sound familiar? It should, and it should also sound familiar that in those cities those decrees were also shouted from silver tongues. Whether it was greedy owners, bad general managers, injuries or underperforming superstars, these two cities fell flat. In fact they barely lifted payrolls as promised and let young superstars walk one after the other. This should all be ringing several bells for you right now. So, what happened? Both cities shunned their teams, attendance fell off, and both franchises, although two of the most historic in Baseball, became irrelevant. Fans left the teams behind and the result of that action was nothing. Nothing happened. The teams didn’t get magically better, the owners didn’t ‘get the message’ and the teams continued to suffer. You might point out that the last few years the Orioles and Pirates have both actually re-emerged as some sort of contenders. Which is true, but when you factor in that PNC Park (Pittsburgh) and Camden Yards (Baltimore) were built in 2001 and 1989 respectively and since those years the teams have combined for 31 losing seasons you start to understand that messages are often not received. Stopping the flow of fan cash will result in some financial burden sure, but to a desired point of changing the way a team does business? Not likely. As Marver points out himself in his own video, the team still makes a ton of revenue without us, so who will ultimately care? Not the billionaires, but we will, the long-suffering fan.

Which is why I believe Marver’s call to action is found in his own, rather than in his message. David Marver made a video that is getting national attention from the MLB Network, CBS Sports, Grantland, and the local media is lining up to talk to him. He’s done something that the sports media isn’t used to seeing: He’s cared about the Padres. So much so that he took his own time to make a well researched, completely informative 37-minute video about why the last four years of being a Padres fan has been…well…sad. He did what we should all be doing. What Matthew T. Hall did with Padres to the People. They made an impact. It may be small now, but it’s growing everyday. Ron Fowler’s seen the video, which means I’m almost certain most of the front office has seen it. With technology the way it is, there’s no reason why we can’t bring about real change without the threat of monetary drought. I honestly believe real change comes by not shutting up. By taking to the Internet and exposing the people who have made the decisions that have led us here. The real call to action is just that: Action. Hit them where it hurts – the media.

Padres: The Sad Truth by changethepadres

Here is a link to the Change the Padres Facebook page that serves as homebase for David Marver and his movement.

Because I was so excited someone went to this extent to show they’re support for the Padres I had to meet them. I sat down with David Marver, and we talked about the video and his feelings on the future. That interview will be posted on Sunday.

For more Padres stuff and other things you might not care about follow me on Twitter @dallas_mc

Do you have a billion dollars? You do? Then why the hell are you reading this? Cause it had the word ‘billion’ in the title?  If that’s the reason then you are obviously bored, but you obviously love the Padres and you should go buy them. Can you buy them? Please? Why not? Why does this paragraph have so many questions in it?

…

Sorry. I fell into a hypothetical hole where a billionaire read my column and I couldn’t get out.

While I was down there though I had a lot of time to think about the qualities I’d like in a new owner. They are as follows:

1) He/She has at least, in their own assets, a billion dollars.

2) He/She actually likes if not loves the game of Baseball.

3) He/She knows something about San Diego.

4) He/She is single.

Number one and four are the most important qualities and I think the reasoning for that should be quite obvious. Divorce has almost ruined Baseball in Southern California and it shouldn’t be that easy. If you’re a billionaire and you’re married, please stay away from Padres. I’m sorry for your future marital problems and I hope the dividing of your assets goes as smooth and pain free as possible.

I want an owner who cares about his team more than anything else and above all is willing to put his ridiculously large sum of money where his heart is.

I want a Mark Cuban. I want a Jerry Buss. I want an Ewing Kauffman. I want a Mike Ilitch. I want a George Steinbrenner. Yea, I said it. I’d take one George over eight John Moores or Tom Werners any day of the week. Give me all the temper tantrums and outrageous comments of Mark Cuban and I’ll beam with pride that that insane rich guy is my owner.

Those guys know what owning a team is all about. They know that it’s not just about being so rich you can afford possibly the most expensive Fantasy team of all time. It’s also about being a fan. Being a fan of the sport, the city and the team you control. The word ‘fire’ and the word ‘sale’ are not in their vocabulary, just the words ‘do’ and ‘anything’ and ‘to’ and ‘win’. In fact, since Ray Kroc I can’t think of one owner the Padres have had that actually cared about the city of San Diego and the Baseball team that played within it’s geological limits.

I just don’t freaking get it. (Author’s note: I really wanted to use a much stronger word than ‘freaking’, but we have rules here and they’re freaking awesome.) I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get some crazy billionaire to ride into one of the most beautiful and populated cities in America and light the town on fire. If a guy like Jerry Buss walked in to the Gaslamp and took the reigns of a badly run franchise that still manages to draw an average of 25,000 people a game, I’d let him do pretty much whatever he wanted. Move the fences in? Sure! In fact turn them into picket fences! Pink dress night? Sure! Re-name every player ‘Sylvester Horsepuncher’? Yes! Where do I get season tickets? I wouldn’t care what he did, because I know he would build a team of dress-wearing Sylvester’s that would win. And, I don’t even care if he won a World Series; just a few playoff appearances sprinkled around consistently respectable seasons of Baseball would be fine.

The complete crap show (Author’s note: I bet you can guess what this note was gonna say.) that was the Jeff Moorad takeover has left an unneeded stain on a franchise already covered in more stains than a…(Insert another Author’s note of your choice here)…and I, like many Padres fans are getting real sick of it. It’s not like San Diego is undesirable, in fact there’s a reason we draw the same if not more road team fans as Padres fans every home game. People move here from all over the globe! If we had owners who would just come out and say, “I’m going to do everything in my power to make the Padres a contender. Not just for a few seasons, but for decades to come.” I would be happy. It’s just that simple. Obviously they’d have to follow through on that promise, but if they contained all of my above qualities listed then they would.

The current list of possible suitors is no joke and actually kind of exciting. There’s the O’Malley group, which now features Phil Mickelson as their “face”. They have a long history in Baseball and the money to back it all up. Legendary Pictures maestro Thomas Tull wants to buy the Padres so bad he convinced Tony Gwynn to join his team. He’s a smart businessman with a lot of money and the forethought to get the most popular Padre of all time to stand by his side. Let’s just say if you’re going to buy an L.A. team you might want to get Magic Johnson in your crew, it’s not so different with Tony. I do like Thomas Tull and I really like the fact that Gwynn likes him. However, the guy I really dig is Steve Cohen. Alone he’s worth $8.3 Billion and his yearly salary is a measly $1 Billion. He’s already been divorced once, so that’s pretty much out of the way. He’s a genius businessman who in 2011 was ranked by Forbes as the 35^th richest man in America. It’s like reading poetry isn’t it? If I’m going for the possible crazy billionaire owner, Cohen is my guy.

I did it! I don't know what I did! (Tom Fluegge-US PRESSWIRE)

I want these things, but in the end it doesn’t matter who buys this team. It could be Tyler Perry for all I care. I just want Bud Selig and his crew of seemingly inept employees to actually take a stake in what happens here. Do some background checks, look at some bank statements, because right now it seems like it’s harder for me to rent an apartment than it is for someone to say they can afford a Baseball team. Selig drug his feet in Montreal, he almost destroyed one of the most historic Baseball franchises of all-time in Los Angeles, and he’s currently the person to blame for the Moores/Moorad blue light special. With the recent news that John Moores might not sell his controlling interest after all, it’s more important than ever for Selig to come in here and give the Padres what they deserve: An owner who’s crazy about Baseball, not just crazy.

Yes, I want a billionaire. I want a single or unbelievably happily married man, but above all I just want somebody who will make this city care again.

For more Padres stuff and other things you might not care about follow me on Twitter @dallas_mc

Sporting News hit the nail on the head when Hoyer was hired when they said, “Hoyer will face the same obstacle Towers faced through the years; a payroll significantly smaller than baseball’s big hitters. The payroll for next season will probably be in the $40 million range.”

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