SAN DIEGO HERE WE COME!!
Kyle Wright is shaking up his team, and he started by moving the whole franchise.
The former Florida Marlins will begin play as the San Diego Padres starting with the 2010 FCBL season.
No one in Florida seemed to notice or care.
"We had a baseball team here?" asked one confused passer-by who was interviewed outside Land Shark Stadium.
"I always wondered why the Dolphins had a banner that said '2007 FCBL WILD CARD/LEAGUE RUNNER-UP' hanging by the Super Bowl trophies," added another.
In San Diego, Wright, who was clearly still pissed off after a 57-105 record in his team's final season in Florida, discussed the move.
"We just moved our business operations from Florida to Indiana, and we no longer had a connection to Florida," Wright said. "Our natural market, Cincinnati, is already taken, and we wouldn't want to play in that bandbox by the mud anyway. So we had to look elsewhere.
"I liked what my brother-in-law had to say about the market. He was stationed at the Marine base in San Diego a few years ago and served on the security detail for Shania Twain at Super Bowl 37 in San Diego and had good things to say about the area.
"We also plan to attract the best pitchers in baseball, and you can't ask for a better combination for pitchers than San Diego weather and Petco Park."
Wright was asked why no players were made available at the introductory press conference.
"Because most of them probably aren't going to be here next year," Wright snapped. "You don't keep a 57-win team intact."
Wright said Padres fans can expect more than one major announcement in the coming weeks.
"We will be a completely different team in 2010," Wright pledged.
Wright also said the franchise has shifted its guiding philosophy from a "Moneyball" approach to some new concepts. Wright wouldn't go into specifics but said he had been studying the biography of FCBL legend Brian Goodwin.
"We found some ideas that will work for us," Wright said.
Wright was asked how long it would take for the Padres to be competitive in the East division, by far the best division in the FCBL and perhaps in all of professional sports.
"Next year," Wright snapped again, ending the press conference. "I didn't come out here to get my ass beat."
Commish Noland
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11/5/2009 12:00:00 AM
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