PETCO Park Fences Just Fine Despite Players' Complaints

The Padres can’t hit, or at least they haven’t proved that they can yet.

They rank last in runs scored in the majors, last in batting average, third to last in home runs, third to last in hits and last in on base percentage.

So, naturally, it is the friendly confines of PETCO Park that are causing these problem on offence.

Okay, easy solution to this is to bring in the fences.

Easy enough—wait, what?

Last time I checked it was the players with the bat, not the field. But then again, the Padres have been so bad that I haven’t watched a game in awhile, so something might have changed. So how is it the park's fault that the team cannot hit at home?

Ever since PETCO Park opened in 2004, it has been widely known as a pitcher's park and very hard to hit a home run in.

So, naturally, it is 2011 and Padres batters are still complaining that their home park is not conducive to home runs or hitting in general.

Before I go on, I would like to remind everybody that this is their job. They are getting paid a lot of money to play baseball for a living. And as with any other job, you have to make adjustments in how you go about your workday—their adjustments are quite a bit different then mine—but changes just the same.

Okay, because of their inability to adjust to their home ballpark (that they annually play 81 games in) the players have given up and have started making their case to move the fences in to make PETCO more conducive to scoring runs.

Needless to say, I have not jumped on that bandwagon; instead, I have created my own. Join my cause and say “no” to moving in the fences at PETCO Park.

While I am opposed to moving the fences in, I will say this: Those fences are so ingrained and wreaking so much havoc in the players’ minds it would take us hiring Leonardo Dicaprio and Ellen Page and creating another Inception movie to get the fences out of the Padres' minds.

Really, the only reason I am so vehemently against moving the fences in is the principal of the action. Like I said before, playing baseball is their job, and in any job there will be obstacles to obtaining your goal, some more difficult to overcome than others.

By saying the fences should be moved in, the players are basically saying they cannot do their job—and as a result should be fired, which, alas, is not possible.

In sports, the mental aspect of the game defines the great players and the busts. The only difference between Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and former Charger quarterback Ryan Leaf is their mental capacity to play the game. Manning had the mental toughness and capacity to run a football team and has succeeded tremendously; Leaf, on the other hand, was too immature and unable to handle the pressure of running a team and, thus, has been out of the league for many years.

To bring it back to baseball, the Padres' No. 1 draft choice in 2004, Matt Bush, was unable to handle the mental side of playing shortstop and batting. He is now in the Tampa Bay Rays farm system as a relief pitcher, while other players drafted right after him are in the majors having successful careers.

Instead of worrying about where the fences are and if they will be able to hit a bunch of home runs, the Padres players should be more worried about getting their heads in the right place and focus on pounding the ball in the gaps and getting a lot of doubles and triples.

The Padres have already voiced their displeasure to their bosses, and the fences have yet to be moved for over six years. So now they either need to get some shovels and pool their money and move the fences in, or they need to get their head in the right place and focus more on hitting to the park's advantages.

The funny thing in the whole issue is that the Padres are hitting just as well as their opponents in PETCO Park the past six seasons, with identical batting averages of .240 and similar home run totals of 460 for the Padres and 498 for the opponents, and with comparable runs totals, with their opponents outscoring the Padres by only 77 runs.

The Padres players are right. The fences are affecting their hitting, but it is just in their head.

Observations from the Week That Was, May 28-June 2

You thought Travis Pastrana’s double backflip at the 2006 Summer X Games was insane? Watch this triple backflip by BMX rider Jed Mildon.

Shaq retired via Twitter on Wednesday. I'm 19, so I will remember Shaq more for his off-the-field exploits then his on-the-court success as I missed the dominating years of his career.

Having written a nine-page term paper on the history of ESPN—which I got a 100 percent on—I decided to buy the new book about ESPN, Those Guys Have All the Fun. The first chapter is about the creation of ESPN and all the people involved with the making and first months of production. The rest of the book, from what I have read so far, is basically the major stories that shaped the network. The way they formatted the book is interesting: They tell the story by using only quotes from the different people from ESPN, inserting the commentary only when needed to clarify a thought or sum up a passage. This is done in italics to clearly show that it is not the opinion of the writer but that of a former/current ESPN staffer. It wasn't until Page 96 that the dirty laundry started to air out. Will give a full review of the book in next week's column.

I am heading up to Anaheim to watch the Angels take on the Yankees tonight with my friends. Should be nice to watch some quality baseball without players whining about where the fences are (yes, that jab was directed toward you, Padres). Will report on the experience in next week's column.

Fantasy Corner

Talk about an expensive bust. Red Sox $100 million starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is having his Tommy John surgery this coming week. This erases the rest of this year and part of next for Matsuzaka, and gives Tim Wakefield a spot in the starting rotation, who is now worth picking up to spot start.

Sports Tweet of the Week

Chad Ochocinco was unusually quiet on Twitter this week, and any pro athlete that doesn’t have a 12-year-old daughter and watched Justin Bieber’s movie—and admits it—gets the nod for this week’s tweet of the week.

Coming from Matt Antonelli (@MattAntonelli9), former Padres second base prospect and current member of the Washington Nationals farm system: “Just watched Never Say Never on the bus ride to Indy ... not the most manly thing I've done in the last 24 hours, but JB has a new fan.”

For the Record

Ohio State football coach Jim Tressle's firing due to lack of institutional control and the myriad of NCAA violations in the program is just the start in college football. More violations are likely to be uncovered at Ohio State, and the rest of college football will be looked at a lot more closely by the NCAA.