When I first heard about the Change the Padres movement on the Darren Smith Show months ago, I was totally pumped. Pumped that someone, in this case David Marver, was finally trying to raise expectations of the fan base of the Padres ownership. That someone cared enough to painstakingly listen to hours and hours of old interviews to compile a pretty compelling documentary. Pumped by the fact that the national media was picking up the story of the long suffering Padres fans. Backed by facts, I thought Marver made some great points - mainly that the Padres ownership led by Jeff Moorad nickel and dimed their way to a huge windfall profit for themselves while Padres fans were left with a bargain basement, non-playoff team to root for. Obviously, the formula isn't as easy as high payroll equals lots of wins. Otherwise the sad sack Dodgers and Angels wouldn't be sitting in last place. The awful, awful Washington Redskins would have 15 Super Bowls. But, I also don't think anyone would argue that having better players, in general, will help a team have more wins, which is what I think Marver is trying to get at.
At the same time, I think Change the Padres goes a little far. First off, he complains about some of the past trades, and sure, I would have liked to have seen Adrian stay but not if the team was Adrian and nothing but league minimum players. But no one really misses Ludwick, and I still think the Padres got the better of the Peavy trade. Moreso, I don't think the boycott of games is the right way to do it. We are fans of the Padres. We like watching Padres games. I don't know about Marver, but I enjoy going to the Padres games, and I don't intend on stopping going because I'm cross with Ron Fowler (which in general, I am). The boycott won't change anything. The team makes money regardless of his attendance thanks to revenue sharing, TV deals and MLB Advanced Media revenue. There's a reason they are posting the highest operating income with mediocre attendance.
The thing I don't get is the apparent hatred for Marver. I check on the Tweeter and pretty much every game he is involved with a long string of back and forths with people calling him a bad fan, calling him out on hypocrisy, and nitpicking his statements. From what I see David Marver is a good fan that just wants more from the team's management. Tonight he was arguing about Yonder Alonso vs. Adrian Gonzalez. I like both of them. I think Yonder will improve and become a very decent 1B. But I see a statement to @changethepadres that says something like "well is Adrian so much better that he'd be worth all the extra money?" The answer is I don't care about the money. It's not mine. I'm not getting a taste of the Padres' profits. I want the best players possible on the team so that they win the most games possible. Debating whether a player fits the arbitrarily set budget isn't my concern. Expect more from the ownership. Obviously it's not my money, but from the fans' standpoint, we should be demanding more. Whether that's in the form of a bigger budget by the most profitable team in baseball, or whether that's in a better gameday experience at Petco, EXPECT MORE.
I think each of the Padres blogs has their niches. Gaslamp Ball is relentlessly positive, which is great. Padres Public is bringing an eclectic group of Padres fans together to provide a big variety of content, which is great. The Friarhood is bringing in depth analysis and great in-person experiences, which is great. And Change the Padres is bringing an activist viewpoint for fans to always expect more from the team, which is great. After all, we are the customers. We SHOULD be expecting more. I had a MXN burrito for lunch and I expect more, like any customer of anything should. And Padres Jagoff? We are bringing the MS Paint dick jokes...
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