Embarrassing Padres Owe Dodgers For Dismal Showing Against Reds

As a Dodger fan, I felt like such an idiot rooting for the lowly Padres last weekend. You don’t realize what a lifeless, gutless, truly atrocious team the Padres are until you’re put in a position in which you must pull for them.

Watching the Padres fumble and bumble their way to a four-game sweep by the Reds raised the very real suspicion that San Diego was tanking it against Cincinnati to make things more difficult for the hated Dodgers. The evidence: Mark Parent, who couldn’t throw out Roseanne Barr trying to steal, started two games in the series with the Reds; Atlee Hammaker, who couldn’t last six innings if you put a gun to his head, made a start against Cincinnati. Neither of these alleged players saw action in the recent series against the Dodgers, which the Padres played as if it were the World Series.

If I were the Dodgers’ starting pitcher in Game 1 of next week’s series against San Diego, I’d drill the Padres’ first four batters of the game--one for each game San Diego gave to Cincinnati last weekend. The Dodgers need not worry about retaliation from San Diego--the Padres have proven they are spineless wimps.

HAROLD P. WEBER, Oceanside