As the baseball playoffs begin the Padres are home for the first time since 2004. That’s right, they don’t have the opportunity to get trounced in the first round of the playoffs. It’s been nothing if not a turbulent year for the home team. At the beginning of the year the “smart money” said that this would be the year for the Padres or the Dodgers. Many expected that one would win the division and the other would be the wild card; instead the Padres placed 3rd in the NL West. Now the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies are heading toward the World Series.

All season the Padres have relied on their pitching and have suffered from mediocre hitting. Unfortunately toward the end of the season when the arms started to get tired they had nothing to back them up. Jake Peavy was wonderful and is probably the strongest contender for the NL Cy Young award. But the last game against the Rockies was one of his worst outings and he just looked tired. I think Chris Young will be the pitcher who will finally give the Padres their long awaited no hitter. He had a strong start but he just couldn’t bounce back from a strained oblique in late July. Greg Maddux has always been a great pitcher to watch but he’s clearly in the sunset of his career and may have made his best contribution in working with some of the younger pitchers. The saddest part of this season may well be future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman. He had 42 saves this year and holds the Major League record of 524 saves over his career but two of the Padres’ last three defeats were because Trevor blew the save. Unfortunately if you’re the team’s closer you’re either the hero or the goat and nothing in between. Trevor has been crackerjack because he relies on only two pitches: his fastball and his changeup. They are essentially the same pitch but have vastly different speeds; I’m beginning to wonder if he isn’t losing a few miles per hour on his fastball thereby diminishing the difference between the two pitches.

In any case I will chant the baseball fan’s mantra of “wait till next year.” I categorized this as “celebrating” because every baseball season is a celebration and I’m glad I came along for the ride. Pitchers and catchers report in four months.

Today we left Cooperstown and are in New York City. Tony’s and Cal’s induction into the Hall of Fame was yesterday and it was a day to remember (I didn’t write this yesterday because I was too tired by the time we got back to the hotel). The day was warm but there were enough clouds in the sky to keep it manageable. We paid extra for good seats and that turned out to be the best investment we’ve made so far. We were right behind the press tables and could easily see the people on stage.

If you’ve read anything at all about the weekend you know that this was a record crowd for an induction weekend: there were about 75,000 of us. It was also a record weekend for Hall of Fame Members: there are currently 63 living members and 55 of them were there. They were all on stage behind Tony and Cal and it was hard to imagine just how much talent was on the stage. I’m sure that all HOF speeches are a series of thank you’s but given what a class act they both are, these speeches were above and beyond. I’m still looking for the texts of the speeches but they were both moving in different ways. Tony depended less on his notes and it felt more like it was from his heart. Cal read his but the speech was more polished. Neither was better than the other and they both gave a good sense of who they are as men.

I also want to thank the village of Cooperstown. It’s a small place and they did a very good job of accommodating all of us. There were some glitches with the shuttle buses but that was more a matter of them promising what couldn’t be done. We were picked up at our lot but got stuck in such a huge traffic jam that it was quicker for us to get out and walk (which is what we did). There were just too many vehicles and too few roads.

We’re definitely planning a return trip.

We’re currently in Cooperstown New York for the induction of Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken in the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is Nancy’s first trip to Cooperstown and I haven’t been since 1991. They tell us this is the biggest crowd the town has ever seen and I believe it. Most of the reason is that they are inducting two of the sport’s greatest: Tony and Cal were both elected the first year they were eligible. They both spent their entire career with one club when they could have easily chased more money by moving. They are both still in their respective communities and doing good work there. In short, they are exactly the kind of men the league (and our world) need. As we walked around the town today we saw many, many people in Padres or Orioles gear and without exception we were eager to talk about them.

This is also a good weekend to spot the stars. We had our picture taken with Padres owner John Moores and Nancy had her picture taken with ESPN’s Joe Morgan. We also met Tim Kurkjian who autographed our copy of Is This a Great Game or What? It’s been a great day.

In addition to baseball we’ve also been able to pursue another hobby, wine tasting. When most people think about wine tasting, they think of California. There’s certainly no shortage of wineries in California but we’ve found that many other places in the country, including the Hudson River Valley. Yesterday we stumbled on Benmarl Winery and were impressed with their Zinfandel, and Adair Winery where we were impressed with the winery but not the wines. Today on our way out of Cooperstown we found Bear Pond Winery where we bought a bottle of their Traminette. We’ll keep everyone posted on what we find.