Results tagged ‘ unfinished business ’

Top 100 MLBlogs of 2011: #6

Unfinished Business is the sixth most popular MLB.com fan blog for the year of 2011.

Last year I was #8, so I guess I’ve made progress this year despite being insanely busy. Actually, this was  probably the lowest year yet in terms of content, and I still gained two spots.

I was busy this year, mostly with finishing high school, working on The Telescope and spending a ton of time  with friends. And of course, being a fan of the Padres. We had a terrible year. It was sad. But 2012 is a new year, and  maybe all these trades will actually help us out. Who knows.

I just want to say thank you to every single one of my readers, whether you read every post or one every once in a while. Padres fans really are the best fans because we have the deal with one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball. But we love them despite it all. So thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts and my rants and my love for Padres baseball.

I’ve been doing this for over three years (WOW!) and I don’t plan on stopping soon. My sixth season of Padres fandom is coming up as well. Crazy stuff.

Thank you again. You guys are amazing.

GO PADRES!

Countdown to Trevor’s Ceremony: Enjoyable Reading

I’ve written a ton of blog posts about Trevor Hoffman. A TON. (I’m even wearing a Trevor Hoffman shirt in my main blog picture <- cool, huh?) Especially after he became a free agent. I’m linking them all here, but if you don’t feel like reading all of them, there are two-must read ones, posts that I consider to be some of the best things I’ve ever written.

MUST READS:

  • Always Belong To Us - No matter where Trevor went (or was forced to go, ahem), he will always be a Padre. He will always be our All-Time Saves leader.
  • Why Trevor? - I could not believe what the front office was telling us. I was upset, confused, and thinking, how can you let someone like Trevor Hoffman go?

The rest:

I hope you were able to find one or two that interested you and helped you get ready for the weekend. For me, looking back at all these makes me so thankful that we had one of the classiest guys in the game here, in San Diego, for so many years. I’m so glad that we’re going to have him for many years to come.

One day and 13 hours!!!

GO PADRES!!!

Yay for WordPress!

Check out the new digs!! I’m so excited and so far, really pleased with MLBlogs.com’s new setup. WordPress is definitely a 1000 times better than Movable Type, so I can’t wait to make my blog a lot better with all WordPress has to offer.

This is going to be great. Welcome back to Unfinished Business, and as always, GO PADRES!!!!!

Top Five :D

You guys are awesome.

Just sayin’.

In January’s Latest Leader’s list, Unfinished Business is #5. I am consistently amazed and humbled by the way you guys read my blog. All I can say is THANK YOU. Thank you for wanting to hear the rants about the Padres from one girl. Thank you for your support of me and this blog. I never imagined where this would go when I made it 2 1/2 years ago. I hope that I will be able to continue to write about my boys for you guys for a long time.

And of course, I must dedicate this ranking to my boy :)

kooozie.jpgBe still my heart. Oh wow.

Seriously. That guy is way too cute.

ANYWAYS, we are ridiculously close to pitchers and catchers reporting. I’m soooo excited!! I was just thinking the other day how much I miss baseball. I’m usually so busy during the offseason that I barely notice that baseball is gone, which is a good thing, but I’m SOO excited that it’s coming back. It’s been waaaaay too long.

But before everyone heads out to Spring Training, we’ve got Fan Fest in a week. I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to make it. There’s some technical details that need to be worked out, but if all goes well, I will be out there at my second home, Petco Park, in a week. By the way, I’m planning to wear my Adrian jersey, but I will definitely have Kouz on my sleeve. Maybe I’ll use the picture above. It’s just waaaaay too cute. Whew.

Well, thank you guys again so much!!!!

GO PADRES!!

http://twitter.com/padresgirl5

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unfinished-Business/273968091144?ref=ts

2011 Baby!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I am soooo excited for 2011. It’s kind of creepy how fast it’s here already, but I’m excited nonetheless.

IMG_6139.JPG2010 was a great year, no doubt about it. Especially for Padres baseball. Our season was amazing!! We had a season that far exceeded all the expectations of just about everybody. But even as the season went on, and we won much more than seemed possible, not many people believed in us. Of course, the faithful did. The die-hards did. We believed in them all the way up to the last game of the season, when our only hope was to win against the soon-to-be World Champions. We weren’t able to come through in that game, but it was still a season worth celebrating.

5kouz.jpgThere were some sad moments this year, most memorably, at the very beginning of the year, in January, when Kevin Kouzmanoff was traded. That hurt me very, very deeply. It was really hard to see him leaving my team, and my fanhood did suffer because of it. But he’s still my baby, no matter where he’s playing. He’s in Oakland now, but I’m still cheering for him and hoping that maybe someday he’ll get to come back to the Padres. The “Kouz Krush” lives on! (Thanks to unclejackie for that wonderful phrase!)

We also lost Adrian Gonzalez, which was quite the blow, but I guess it was easier to handle. We all knew that it was coming and it was handled so smoothly that it’s easy to deal with. Also, he’s going to the Red Sox, my second favorite team. At least he didn’t go to the Yankees. I would have been sooo upset if he had gone to the Yankees.

This was also a big year for my blog. I celebrated my second blog birthday, which was very fun. I also found myself in the Top 10 Latest Leaders for the first time ever, and have stayed in there consistently over the next few months.

Thank you all so much. This year was a blast, and I’m looking forward to more blogging and more Padres baseball in the year ahead. I’m also really looking forward to the FanFest, in which I will be meeting a lot of you through the Twitter meetup and just walking around Petco Park. I can’t wait to start a new season with a new team and hopefully get to watch some great Padres baseball.

Have a great New Year, everyone.

GO PADRES!!!!

The End for Adrian?

adrian gonzalez.jpgSo, the Red Sox and the Padres are talking about an Adrian Gonzalez deal right now, and it looks pretty serious. I am not okay with letting Adrian go.

I know that this was inevitable, Adrian leaving, but I still don’t want it to happen. Even if you don’t know anything about Padres baseball, you’ll know that Adrian Gonzalez plays for us because he’s the face of the team. He’s the only one left. First we got rid of Jake Peavy, than Trevor, and now it looks like Adrian’s out the door. Of course, we still have Heath Bell, but you can’t base an organization’s face around the closer. I don’t think it really works.

I’m just going to say that if Adrian gets traded, the Padres as a business are going to suffer. Unless we get someone the caliber of Josh Beckett or David Ortiz in return, I believe that the fanbase will shrink considerably. I know that even aquiring Aaron Harang has turned my sister off completely to the Padres, but trading Adrian Gonzalez…for the average fan, who on earth do you go to a Padres game to watch?

I do have to admit that I would love to get Jacoby Ellsbury here. I love that guy. And going to the Red Sox isn’t the worst thing for a player like Adrian to do. At least it’s not the Yankees. But losing a guy like Adrian…man. Hometown boy, long-time player, face of the franchise…I don’t really see how trading him is going to benefit you.

Okay, I know that if we do trade him, we’re going to get a lot in return. A lot. But I think the Padres are still going to take a huge blow.

I hate losing players. I hate losing guys who have helped us so much and in so many ways. Adrian’s just been incredible for us, and I really don’t want to lose him.

Adrian Gonzalez is my 8-year-old brother’s favorite player. He loves playing baseball. He loves pretending to be Adrian Gonzalez. I don’t have the heart to tell him that his favorite player is about to be traded. And I know that my little brother isn’t the only kid in this city who loves Adrian. Kids look up to this guy. It’s going to be pretty tough for a lot of them.

Well, it’s a good thing that the Red Sox are my second favorite team.

I love you, Adrian. Thank you for everything.

GO PADRES!!!   

Winning the World Series: Unfinished Business

The Latest Leaders list for October came out last night, and I’m #7!!!! I’m so excited :) Just wanted to thank you all so much for your faithful support and for coming back to read what I have to say. It means so much to me!

I thought I’d talk a little today about my blog’s title, which, as you should all know, is “Unfinished Business.”

I got the name from a then-GM Kevin Towers quote after the 2007 season. During the 2007 season, all you Padres fans know, was the Worst Game Ever. After a remarkable season, we found ourselves tied with the Colorado Rockies for the Wild Card. So, we went to Colorado for a one-game playoff. It was October 1, 2007. A Monday night.

It was literally the worst game ever. Our ace, Jake Peavy, was horrible. Adrian hit a grand slam. The game went back and forth the whole time. Finally we got to the 13th inning and Scott Hairston hit a two-run homer to take the lead. It was sooo incredibly exciting!

The all-time saves leader, Trevor Hoffman, came in to save the game and get us our playoff spot. Except…things did not go as planned. Bam bam bam bam, single, single, triple, run-scoring flyout, and we were done. The Rockies went on to the World Series, but lost to the Red Sox (TAKE THAT!!). 

So ANYWAYS, Kevin Towers said during the offseason that we had some unfinished business with the Rockies. I completely agreed with that, and that was what I titled my blog when I started it in the 2008 season.

But after 2008, the title was not really relevant anymore, because we couldn’t just stay mad at the Rockies for the rest of our lives. Well, the fans can (and I am), but the team itself was completely different than those guys who were in Game 163.

I debated changing the name after that season, but decided that it was still very relevant, because the Padres have the ”unfinished business” of never winning a World Series. In our 41 year existence, we have reached two total World Series, and won zero. Our first time was 1964, and our second was 1998. We have had no success at all. Pretty sad.

Our unfinished business is to win a World Series. I know that someday, someday, we will. We’ll get it eventually.

Just wanted to let you all know that we still have that Unfinished Business. I honestly thought that we had a chance this season. But hey, that’s the duty of a die-hard fan, right? We believe in the impossible. Even there in that stupid last game of the season, I clung to a hope that we would force the playoff. I HATE THE GIANTS!!!

I absolutely hate that the Giants won the World Series. I don’t care about Bochy or Flan or whatever. The Giants freaking kicked the Padres out of the playoffs. That is unforgivable.

Blech. We’d better dominate the Giants’ butts next season.

Well, the Adrian drama goes on. He had shoulder surgery not to long ago, and now it looks like he’s not going to be ready in time for the start of Spring Training. Smooth, Adrian. Real smooth.

Also, FAN FEST IS SET FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2011. BE THERE.

Hey, that’s actually not that far away…only three months!! Sweet!!! I’m soooooo excited :D :D :D :D :D   

I hope you guys all have a great weekend. I’m super busy writing it up for NaNoWriMo… 

GO PADRES!!!! 

#5 ♥

Well, it’s been four days since the season ended. It’s been rough, that’s for sure. Especially since everyone who thought that the Padres were not going anywhere this season are back in full force saying, I told you so! It’s extremely frustrating, but what can you do. The only consolement I’m getting is that I believed all season and I didn’t give up. I was right there with my boys the whole time, and man they had an incredible season.

As the offseason goes on, I’ll be writing some season-rememberance stuff, but right now I kind of want to review my personal season of blogging.

Let me tell you, this year has been absolutely amazing. I didn’t blog as consistently as I have in years past, but this blog has really had a great year. In 2009, I was around the 20s in the Latest Leader list. This season I jumped up to number 10 and number 11. That’s where I was for most of the year until I jumped up to #6 in August and now, I was #5 in the top fan blogs list. I’m soooo excited!!!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that my all-time favorite baseball player is Kevin Kouzmanoff, whose number is 5. I’ve always wanted to be #5 on the list so that I could do a dedication to him and I’m soo excited that it’s finally happened!!

Since there’s a lot of recaps going around, I’m going to review Kouz’s season. I didn’t really talk about him much this season because I was so focused on the Padres’ first-place dominance, but I think it’ll be cool to see how he did after he was so sadly shipped away from the Padres.

Kouz was traded to the Oakland A’s on January 16th, 2010, in exchange for Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham.

He hit .247 with 16 homers and 71 RBIs. He played in 143 games, and of course, his back acted up near the end of the season and he was out for a few weeks.

His fielding stats, though, are no where near as impressive as last year. Remember that when he had three errors all season and a .990 fielding percentage and he didn’t get a Gold Glove? That was so sad. Man. But anyways, he had 12 errors this year, and a .968 fielding percentage. So, not too bad, but not as great as last year.

On another matter, he’s still as adorable as ever ;)

5kouz.jpg

I missed you a lot this season, Kouz. Definitely not the same without you, and your trade even effected my fanhood just a little. I’m glad you had a great season with the A’s, and I hope that someday you’ll be able to play in San Diego again. Love you!!!!!

Thank you guys sooo much for your great support. Thank you for getting me to #5. This blog would be meaningless if no one read it, so thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy putting it together. You guys are amazing!!!! 

GO PADRES!!! GO KEVIN KOUZMANOFF!!! GO #5!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Unfinished Business!

First, I have to apologize for being so stupid that I didn’t even know my own blog’s birthdate. For some reason, I was completely convinced that it was the 28th of June until yesterday I dug all the way back in the archives and realized that it was actually the 23rd. Oops. So, this is a little late, but better late than never :)

This has been a very interesting year in my fanhood. Only about a month after this blog’s first anniversary, our ace and homegrown boy Jake Peavy was traded. I was extremely upset at the Padres for that, and it was a rough time to go through. Surprisingly, I can look back on that trade and say that it really was for the best. The team has gained a lot more than it lost.

It was also during this year that I lost my all-time favorite baseball player, Kevin Kouzmanoff. That was even harder than losing Jake. Even now, I don’t see a good, solid reason why they had to trade my baby. Obviously we did get some good players in return for him (Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham) but I think we could have gone without them. Sigh. We can’t change what happened but no matter where he goes, Kouzie will always be my favorite baseball player.

In the second half of the season last year, the Padres really picked things up. I don’t know what it was, but I think it had a lot to do with all the young guys coming up and getting consistent playing time. The youth movement worked really well.

We didn’t really leave our last-place standing in the NL West, but we were winning consistently, and that was good enough. All through the offseason, the big question was, are the Padres going to keep playing like that next season? Is this second half going to carry over? Is this winning thing really going to stick?

It was in this time of uncertainty that I really started to think about the nature of my fanhood. I’m a die-hard Padres fan. But as I saw all these San Diego icons leaving, I had to really examine what my fanhood was. And in that, I realized that I am a Padres fan. I am a fan of the team. It doesn’t really matter who the players are, as long as there are 25 guys on that roster, I cheer for them no matter what. Kevin Kouzmanoff was a HUGE part of my fanhood, but when he was taken away, what was left? It was just the team. It was just the San Diego Padres.

I think the Kouz trade really did effect my fanhood in a bad way, though. I have not been as motivated to listen to the games, or to blog, or to follow the Padres at all. Obviously, I am a huge Padres fan, but your fanhood is enriched so much more when you’ve got a special player to look out for and to cheer for. Ever since Kouz was kicked out, I haven’t had that. It’s kind of been rough, but I know that my fanhood will pull through and hopefully get a second wind. Hopefull I’ll be able to find a new Padres favorite soon. Lance Zawadzki was getting pretty close to that spot, but then the Padres sent him down. Boo.

This is my fourth year of being a Padres fan. Isn’t it amazing how fast time goes by? For two of those years I’ve been absolutely priveledged to be a part of the MLBlogs community. It’s been so much fun blogging here. I am so thankful that I got to be in this group of baseball lovers. I don’t think my blog would be doing as well if I was at an independant website. Being a part of this group is so much fun! I am extremely happy to be here and to be celebrating two years of blogging!

I expanded my horizons a little this year. Instead of promoting my blog exclusively in MLBlogs, I started connecting with some of the other Padres blogs out there like Gaslamp Ball, RJ’s Fro, and the Friarhood. I also extended into Facebook and Twitter for promoting.

I really would encourage you guys to ”become a fan” of or “like” or whatever it is they call it these days on the blog’s Facebook page. Every time I put up an entry I post the link on that page. I think it’s helpful to people so that they don’t have to remember to go to my blog everyday, they can just see the link on their Facebook newsfeeds and go straight to it from there. 

I don’t really tweet that much, usually the only times I do is when I don’t have anything else to do and I’m listening to the game…which isn’t often. I don’t always post the links to my entries every day either, so the Facebook page would be the better place to go. But I’m going to try to be better about updating both consistently.

Okay, here’s some stats:

Rankings: MLBlogs Latest Leaders List (over the past two years): 44, 30, 21, 25, 24, 31, 23, 22, 36, 29, 31, 31, 21, 19, 15, 17, 21, 19, 22, 18, 10, 11, 11 

MLBlogs 2009 Leaders: #20 (out of 100)

Entries: 463

Comments: 2279 

Hits: I think I’m getting about 2,000 hits a week.

Here are a few of my favorite entries from the past year:

     Lamenting the heat and our losing trends.

     I was soooo upset about the Padres getting no-hit that I abandoned the them for a   weekend and fled to the Red Sox.

     The Padres were able to stay out of last place for quite a while, but all good things come to an end…

Thank you so much to everyone here at MLBlogs. I love this place and it’s been so much fun blogging with you all. Thank you for making this an amazing experience for me. I love reading your blogs!

Thank you so much to all the guys at Gaslamp Ball, RJ’s Fro, and the Friarhood. Your blogs are all so great and so much fun to read. I am extremely grateful to you guys for linking my entires and blog on yours. I know it’s helped my readership a ton and I can’t thank you enough!! It’s a pleasure to be part of such an elite group of Padres bloggers!

Thank you so much to my MLBlogs Padres buddies, Hyun Young and John!! Both of you, it’s so much fun to talk Padres on Facebook and Twitter. Hyun Young, it’s so much fun to hang out with you at Petco and your love of the Padres inspires me. I still want to meet Eck sometime! 

Thank you to all my readers. I’ve said it time and time again, but without you guys, there would be no purpose for me to write this blog. Thanks for putting up with me through the good times and the bad. Thank you for all the support and the comments. You guys are amazing!

Here’s a shoutout to everyone I personally know who reads this blog. You know who you are. Thanks so much for supporting my fanhood and this blog. It always thrills me so much when one of you comes up to me and tells me that you’ve been reading it. Thank you thank you thank you!

Thanks to my Twitter followers and my Facebook fans. Thanks to my amazing family and super amazing friends. I love you guys!

Thanks to my Heavenly Father, who has blessed me so much. Without You I am nothing. May I always give glory to You in everything that I do.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Unfinished Business

Happy birthday to you 

happybirthdayunfinishedbusiness.jpg Thank you all so much.

GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!

Unbelievable!

Okay, so I was shocked that we were able to win two in a row. Saturday’s game against the Diamondbacks was amazing! We won 5-0, and it was just a great game. I was thrilled that we finally won our first series of the year. It was about time! I was very happy that we were able to get the series, and I would have been content with that. But my boys weren’t. They wanted to get all three, and guess what? They did!

This is the team who was 3-6 coming into this weekend’s series. They had yet to win a series at all. Things were not clicking for them at all, and then suddenly, they came out and won three games. It’s seriously unbelievable. I’m so amazed at this turnaround!

Sure, it was only one series, but we won all three games in that series. The first game was a huge come-from-behind-walk-off win. The second one was a dominating shutout. And the third…my goodness, that was a game to remember.

Wade LeBlanc was called up on Saturday night to take Chris Young’s start. Speaking of Chris Young, things are not looking good. Sigh.

Wade had an amazing spring and was really impressive. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room for him on the major league team, but he was sent down to Triple-A with the promise that he would be back up in the majors in no time. We hate to see a guy like CY go down so quickly, and Wade was definitely up here faster than he thought he would be. Still, it’s a good thing that we do have guys like Wade who are great pitchers and can come up anytime we need them.

wadeleblancc.jpgWade threw five innings, allowing seven hits, one run, two walks, and struck out seven. Talk about an incredible outing, that’s what Wade gave us yesterday. Man, he was sooo good! I think that was the best outing by any starting pitcher so far this season. He’s got a beautiful ERA of 1.80.

The Diamondbacks got a run in the top of the first and another one in the top of the sixth off of Edward Mujica. But in the bottom of the seventh, my boys found their bats.

Scotty Hairston hit a solo homer to start the inning. BANG! We’ve got our first run on the board.
Two outs later, Everth Cabrera singled and stole second. Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled, sending Everth home to tie the game. Adrian was intentionally walked, which brought up Chase Headley.

Chase hit the ball way out into left-center field. Jerry and Adrian scored, and the throw from the outfield was caught by nobody. Chase kept chugging around the bases, and with nobody covering home and the baseball somewhere around the mound, he scored the fifth run of the inning. I’d call in an inside-the-park home run, since it’s been a super long time since we had one of those, but it was ruled a double and an error. Oh well. Still, it was an amazing hit and play.

chasecelebrate.jpgIn the ninth, Heath Bell came in to try to get his third save of the year. Of course, he had to make things interesting by allowing a run, but he was able to close the 5-3 win and the series sweep.

heathsavethree.jpgComplete domination. I love that we were able to be at home and sweep the team that took two out of three in our opening series. We seriously dominated, and it was soo much fun to see!

I’d like to talk a little bit about how the NL West is shaping up so far. It’s actually been very interesting to watch all the teams in it, ’cause it’s been very different than the past few years have been.

The Giants have been on top since the season started. They’re 8-4 right now. In the middle, we have the Rockies, Dodgers, and the Padres all at 6-6. Arizona’s at the bottom with a record of 5-7. What has been really interesting to me is that the Dodgers have been matching the Padres almost exactly. 

I don’t know how the NL West is going to play out, but as always, it will be interesting to see how things pan out over the season.

I’m so proud of my boys. It was amazing what they were able to do this weekend, and I really really hope that they keep it going!

We’ll be playing the Giants for three games here at home. This could be a crucial series between the two teams. I’m really excited about my boys, and I hope that they are able to keep dominating.

GO PADRES!!  

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