On the other hand, Dallas posted another blog a week after the Matthew T. Hall interview titled “Blacked Out.” In his always controversial, yet sarcastic ways, Dallas mentioned how San Diego really isn’t a Chargers Town.

Here is what Dallas had to say:

“This is a Chargers town.

Maybe if we keep telling ourselves that, it will be true.

Trouble is, this is not a Chargers town, and if the powers that be have their way the Chargers will soon no longer reside in this town.”

So I am asking you, the fans, is San Diego really a Chargers Town or a Padres Town? Let us know in the poll below. If you like, please provide your explanation of your choice in the comment box.

I purposely did not include San Diego being a bandwagon town. So you have to pick between a Chargers town or Padres town.

Sep 16, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers fans cheer on the Chargers during the second quarter against the Tennessee Titans at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

(Also from the corrections department ((i.e. e-mails)) the U-T is now called the Union-Tribune San Diego, and Matthew Hall had season tickets WITH his friend, his friend didn’t have them on his own.)

Enjoy Part Two:

D: You pretty much grew up on the East Coast, so you’re used to sports and local teams kind of being a much more important thing to a community. There are even great college traditions out there. And especially during the winters, there’s just not a lot to do so you stay in to watch the games or brave the weather to support the team. I think San Diegans always use that as an excuse for not supporting their own teams, that’s there’s just so much to do here.

MH: I think it’s just a different mindset here. It’s different in every city and every city has its passionate fans. I think it depends on history and family. Like when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, I’m proud to say I was one of the 55,000 people in St. Louis who saw the game. And there were people crying, people who said they broke open bottles of whisky they’d been saving for that moment, people going to gravesites to share the moment with dead family members. I don’t think that’ll happen if the Padres win the World Series.

D: (laughs) Probably not.

MH: They’ll be very happy, you know? But, it’s just a totally different mindset.

D: It’s weird to me that there is that different mindset, and that it’s passed off as a geographical issue. But, sports writers always say, “If the city sucks, they know at the very least they’ll always have a team to root for.” And here we are, sitting outside in 75-degree weather; I mean our city is awesome.

MH: Yea, but if people are passionate they’ll come out no matter what. I mean, lately even the Chargers have been a tough sell and San Diego is a Chargers town.

D: But, how much of a Chargers town can this be when we can barely sell out home games? This is a problem we’ve had for years now.

MH: That’s a valid question. On the U-T’s website we have a stat that always shows the paper’s top ten stories and during the football season, anything to do with the Chargers is routinely in the top ten. Sometimes they take up five of the top ten stories. Maybe a Padres story will break in there every now and then, like Yasmani Grandal’s suspension, but not often.

D: Yea, which goes back to Padres to the People. You ended up starting it at the right time TV wise, but the worst time possible the way the team was playing.

Hey.

MH: I think I put the first column out right around the All-Star Break and the team was on a winning streak. But, I think if I had done it earlier in the season, people would not have cared as much. But, at the break we were winning, the young guys were making a splash and it was like, “Come on man, we still can’t see this team?!” What I really enjoyed was the human aspect of it. At the Padres rally, older people with mobility problems came out just so they could be a part of it. It sounds dramatic, but I got e-mails from 90 year olds who basically said they might die before they get to see this team on TV. It really broke my heart. And, that’s why I did it.

D: Exactly.

MH: It’s not easy to take the whole family down to Petco, so you have a lot of these kids who want to watch the team on TV, but can’t and that’s a whole generation of fans the team is losing. It’s also a lot of money the team could be making off of that fan over the span of their interest. It’s really a business decision. You’ve got new ownership coming in and that’s another thing that upsets me. At their press conference they didn’t address the TV situation at all. You think they would have said something, but nothing.

D: I think people would have even liked an empty promise.

MH: Yep.

D: I grew up in San Diego a die-hard Padres fan. But, it seems like many sportswriters at the U-T and other media outlets, especially radio, kind of hold these guys hands. They never call out the team or it’s players and they kind of just wish for the best. Because you are from Boston where calling out the team is much more common, did that make it easier for you to start this campaign?

MH: Well, in a place like Boston the team and owners get called out because the fans expect it. They want the media to share their passion and I think in San Diego people take a little more hands off approach. Except in radio, those guys are always vilifying, maybe a little too much -

D: Except for in San Diego. I think radio is just as bad as print. You hear those talking heads and they’ll be like, “Well, we have Bud Black with us, so let’s not ask him anything interesting. What’d ya have for breakfast, Buddy?”

(Laughs)

D: “Oh, really? Well, everything’s great! See ya next time!”

MH: Ha! Yea, yea and maybe it’s because I’m an in your face type of person that I just did what I did. But, I was also interested to see how the fans would react. If I called them out and nothing happened, then maybe this Padres to the People movement is gonna die a very quick death.

D: I did want to ask you quickly about the recent Yasmani Grandal issue. I wrote about this the other day and kind of formulated a different opinion about it. Grandal and Melky Cabrera are in this timeframe where they would have been very impressionable kids during the great homerun race in 1998.

MH: Interesting.

D: It feels like after they realized they lost a whole generation of players, Baseball started to really care about saving the kids from steroids. Now their worst fears came true and these players who were kids in ’98 are now busted for steroids. Do you think we can totally place the blame on them when they saw their heroes doing it? Can we totally blame them?

MH: Well, that’s a complicated question. Cheating in sports has and will always happen. It’s like with the clear, they’re always trying to stay one step ahead of testing and the rules. But, of course kids are gonna envy that stuff. Look at what makes Sportscenter – homeruns! That will always be the highlight.

D: It definitely seems like that’s what kids will always want to emulate, because those highlights make people famous and get people bigger contracts.

MH: Exactly, and I think that could have easily influenced today’s players. Whether it actually played a part in their decision-making is another thing, but it is very possible.

D: I proposed in that same column that perhaps the only real way to alleviate steroids in Baseball is to employ a life ban on the first positive test.

MH: I think that’s a bit drastic, but it probably would be the only way to actually get rid of steroids. If players knew it was one and done, they more than likely wouldn’t risk it, but you never know, everyone’s looking for that edge. I think Baseball’s current rules do help curb steroid use. But, they kind of put themselves in this position.

D: Yea, this has been happening for a lot longer than most people realize.

MH: Look at the 1970’s and even part of the 1960’s, players were taking “greenies” and all sorts of things. It’s just how it is. I saw Sammy Sosa hit his first homerun at Fenway Park, and he was just this little string bean of a guy. But, even then he looked like he could be something special, and I wonder how much he actually needed the steroids to make that happen. But, even this taps back into the TV deal. Yasmani was a part of that. Here was this young exciting player, that was good and marketable and now who knows? It also begs the question about Chase Headley.

D: Whoa, I honestly didn’t even think about that.

MH: Yea, and I do not want to accuse him of anything, but it should raise a few eyebrows that he all of a sudden put up this career year.

D: It’s that belief that if one guy in the clubhouse is doing it, then who got him hooked on it?

MH: Of course, yea, and Chase says it’s because he changed a little quirk in his swing…that may well be the truth. It probably is, but nowadays you have to be suspicious of everybody who puts up great numbers out of nowhere.

D: Oh, you don’t have to tell me about Chase’s year, I had him in a fantasy league.

MH: So you know all about it! (Laughs) It just makes me sad, and can be very unfair to some of these guys. But, you just never know. It’ll be interesting to see how fans treat Yasmani when he comes back.

D: Agreed, and as a Red Sox fan you’ve been through the David Ortiz rumors and the actual issues with Manny. Were you able to forgive? Do you think we should?

MH: I do. I think these guys are born with a competitive edge and make mistakes. However, if they were to get caught a second time, which is what happened essentially with Manny, then that’s a different story and I don’t think you can forgive that.

D: It’s a situation where they know full well what’s going on at this point and they’re clearly making the decision to do right or wrong – again.

MH: Yea, It’s a touchy issue. It’s also very complicated for us to understand what goes through these guys’ heads. Many fans will not support the steroid users when they come back and that’s fine. It’s their right and I think as fans we make that decision individually. I hope Yasmani comes back and can brush this off, and move on. The team certainly needs him to step up.

D: Yea, or we have another year of watching Hundley bounce around .170

MH: Exactly.

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

I first came in contact with Hall over Twitter. After reading his first column about the TV debacle, I decided to write my own column backing his play. I also got most of the facts about his life wrong. This is because the research budget at Chicken Friars is $0.00, and I was too lazy to troll the Interwebs. However, Hall couldn’t have been more understanding and in turn backed my column, and we became Twitter besties.

Matthew T. Hall

I’ll quickly give you a run down on the actual Matthew T. Hall. He moved to San Diego from the East Coast (New Hampshire at the time) in 1999 to continue his writing career. After a stint at the Daily Transcript, a print venture with local radio legend, Scott Riggs, called Static Magazine, he eventually landed at the Union-Tribune. He writes very opinionated columns about sports, politics and sometimes animals. He is 56 years old. That is a lie. I don’t know how old he is, and it doesn’t matter. He is probably around 35, but could easily pass for 31. You can follow him on Twitter @SDuncovered

Hall and I talked about the TV deal, Padres to the People and steroids. We talked for a while, and instead of editing out great stuff this will be split into two parts. Part Two will be posted on Wednesday, enjoy Part One:

(I pushed record in the middle of apologizing to him for getting the facts of his life wrong. Which started a conversation about how passionate fans will always correct you for getting the most mundane of facts incorrect.)

MH: Padres fans are passionate, and they’re gonna let you know if you got a fact wrong. They really care about the team, but has the team done a lot to justify that love?

(Laughs)

I mean that’s an open question of course. Clearly during the Moorad and Moores years they didn’t. The team made the playoffs a couple times after they got Petco built, but then starting trudging along as, you know, not the greatest collection of players.

D: Oh yea, it’s been terrible. I wrote about this the other day, leaving Baseball in ’94 as a fan and then coming back in ’98 mainly because the Padres got to the series; I got excited that they were actually trying, but then 1999 happened…

MH: Yep, fire sale.

D: Yea, and then here we go! Klesko and Nevin for the next five, six years! It was like I got sucker punched.

(Laughs)

D: From first place World Series to who is Ruben Rivera?

MH: Yea, a buddy of mine had a ticket package at Qualcomm, and I used to love going to games, but then we dumped the tickets when my kids came. I used to love going to games and rooting for the Padres. I’m from Boston, but the Padres are my adopted team and I want to see them do well, and now I just want to be able to see them! And, that’s how the whole TV thing started.

D: Yes, Padres to the People, or better yet, hashtag Padres to the People.

MH: Right, right. I kind of stepped into a void though, cause no one was really doing anything. I mean, the columnists at our paper we’d been writing about the TV deal or lack thereof, occasionally, but almost nothing inside the sports pages. I got my column in May and the season had already started, but the Padres got off to such an abysmal start that no one was pissed off about not being to watch the Padres, cause no one wanted to watch them anyway!

D: (Laughs) Exactly.

MH: But, then I started to talk to people and realized there are die-hard fans out there that want to see their team regardless, so I wanted to give them a voice. No one was giving them one and Padres fans didn’t really know what to do. It’s not like fans are going to be able to call up and get these top executives on the phone, and whoever they could get a hold of wouldn’t take their concerns seriously.

D: Right, right. Who’s gonna actually listen?

MH: Right, so my first column I wrote about it got people really agitated because I basically blamed the fans. You know, I said if this was Boston or New York there’d be people on the streets with pitchforks!

(Laughs)

MH: I mean probably not literally, but you know what I mean.

D: Well, maybe literally…

MH: Ha! Yea, but you know people wouldn’t stand for this out there. Just recently when people in New York couldn’t see Jeremy Lin play on the Knicks, the city dragged everyone into public meetings and basically scared them straight and a deal got done. But, here the politicians weren’t doing anything, so I blamed them. The team wasn’t doing anything, so I blamed them, and the fans, I basically said, “stand up and be counted!” and they did, man. They let me have it! I got more e-mails that next day then on any particular story in my career.

D: Was it just mainly negative e-mails?

MH: No, it was actually a good mix. I mean people were saying, “How dare you?” and stuff like that, you know?

D: Right, of course.

MH: But, then I started getting, “You’re right. We want to stand up, but we don’t know to who or what to say!” So, then I thought about it and said, “OK. Let’s all get together at Petco and complain about it together.” I didn’t really know where to go from there, but let’s do it!

D: Exactly. Finding a starting point.

MH: Yea, yea. So, a couple weeks later we got together.

D: The Padres to the People rally at Petco, right?

MH: Yea, about 150 people showed up.

D: So, about the same that shows up for games.

(Laughs)

MH: Yea, it was fun man. I brought a cooler to stand on and brought a bullhorn that I borrowed. And, we basically all decided to let them have it you know? Let’s e-mail these guys. So, that’s when I started publishing some of these head (cable company/team officials) guy’s e-mails in the paper.

D: That’s awesome! Did you get any backlash from those guys for giving out their e-mails?

MH: No, I mean they knew where I was coming from and I had talked to all of them before. I don’t think they knew I was going to put their e-mails in the paper, you know?

(Laughs)

So, that might have come as a surprise. But, I didn’t get any blowback from them; in fact I think they started to take it more seriously. Now, they knew people could reach out to them and many people did. That all went down near the end of the season, and I think fans started to realize they weren’t gonna get anything done this season – but, maybe, next season. So, then fast forward to the last day of the season and I posted my last column about it, I basically said, “This is your last day to not watch the Padres, so make the most of it!”

(Laughs)

Then that day AT&T U-Verse aired the last game! They didn’t tell anybody, do a press release or anything. I think they didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, so they could get the kinks out and get it ready for next season, and then they can make a big deal out of it. So, now that leaves only Dish and Time Warner as the only two providers in town that don’t show the team. So, there’s still work to be done. I don’t know when I’ll start banging the drum again, but it’s becoming a national story. There’s around a million people in Los Angeles right now who can’t watch the Lakers. It’s a war between providers and it’s going on everywhere.

D: Going off the little knowledge I have about distribution, aren’t the providers who won’t show games losing ad revenue? I mean, shouldn’t that push these guys a little bit to get something done?

MH: Yea, and with the Padres they have this 20-year deal with Fox Sports, and there’s going to come a point, and they know it, and we know that they know it that they’re going to start losing money. However, in year one of those twenty years they probably don’t care as much. But, see this is the overarching thing: I watch all my TV on DVR. I don’t wanna watch the commercials. I wanna watch 42 minutes of Walking Dead and move on, you know? But, sports are the only thing I wanna watch live. People always want to watch live, and that’s why teams and companies are making gazillions and gazillions of dollars. People will always want to watch games live. So, they should get a deal done, I don’t know why they aren’t, and I still think people should be more outraged!

–Stay tuned for Part Two of the interview, when we get a lot more in depth about Yasmani Grandal. That’s on Wednesday.

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