Sez Me …
Fernando Tatis Jr. is a bust.
OK, before you get your briefs in some kind of fancy nautical knot, let me say he is not a traditional baseball bust.
He’s not Mike Ivie, the Padres’ first No. 1 overall draft choice, a catcher who couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher.
Nor is he any of the incredibly numerous No. 1s the Pads picked who couldn’t play big league baseball — even former lead scout Bill “Chief” Gayton told me it was embarrassing, and just about impossible, although the baseball draft is the all-time crapshoot.
Thing is, Tatis still can play the game. He’s the best right fielder in the sport, although manager Craig Stammen has been playing him at second base during Jake Cronenworth’s recent absence.
(Which I consider a mistake. Imagine Roberto Clemente playing second.)
In any event, Fernando isn’t Fernando.
After hitting zero home runs basically the first two months, Tatis finally homered Saturday in Washington. But he is not the same offensive player. His slugging percentage is horrible. He isn’t even the same baserunner. And he’s at least part of the reason why the Padres, while better record-wise than they should be, are boring — almost entirely boring — at the plate.
Tatis turned 27 in January. Prime. Going into this season, he had hit 152 career home runs despite missing 2022 due to an injury and a performance-enhancing drugs charge.
If you want to say his power has diminished since the suspension, maybe it has. But he still had enough of it to hit 72 home runs since, including 25 last season.
I’ve been watching baseball forever. Great players may slump, but not like this. They get it back. Power guys homer by accident. Fernando has no such accidents despite hitting the ball hard.
Tatis had two home runs and 11 RBIs in the six games he played in the World Baseball Classic. There was no warning.
Meanwhile, the Pads finished their last homestand going 0-for-35 with runners in scoring position vs. the Phillies. Fernando hasn’t helped.
I don’t know what his problem is. He probably doesn’t. The team doesn’t. The manager doesn’t. Or this would be over.
If Fernando doesn’t get his power groove back, maybe a dreaded stint in homer-happy El Paso is necessary. …
Is it a big deal that Justin Herbert missed a few of the Judases’ voluntary workouts? Look at it this way: With whom would you rather dine, Jim Harbaugh and Mike McDaniel in L.A., or Madison Beer in Europe? …
I’d say the NFL Team That Used To Be Here has much more to worry about than their quarterback missing voluntary workouts. Like how to keep him vertical. …
I don’t want to hear about “new coaches, new system.” Herbert ain’t Ryan Leaf. He’s been whipped into crap. He deserved leave time. He’s back now for mandatories, anyway. …
Harbaugh, really worried, says that when Herbert told him his plans to be with Beer, the head coach told him: “Do you need a ride to the airport?” …
I don’t know why teammates should give one damn about a quarterback’s political bent. They’re there to win games, not elections. …
Jason Kelce worries that “we’re getting away” from the Sunday NFL tradition. What was his first clue? Was it all the games that no longer are on Sundays? …
Brother Travis Kelce reportedly is getting $20 million — about $8 million more than his Chiefs salary — from Pfizer to hawk COVID vaccine. He’s a tight end, but it’s what happens when you find the right woman. …
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift went to a Knicks game. As the one and only Rick Smith would say: “That’s great, isn’t it?” Is this all we’ve got to get worked up over? Oh, and Spike Lee probably also went. …
And I went to Vegas. …
Speaking of Vegas, have you ever had a ribeye cap steak? Incredible. …
The Lakers have hired a rocket scientist as their assistant general manager. Now we can finally beg the question: Are rocket scientists really that smart? …
Amy Schumer’s commercials for a menopause product may be the worst, most annoying TV ads I’ve seen. And that takes in more ground than the Soviet Union when The Wall was still standing. …
Ronald Reagan didn’t bring down that wall, by the way. Time did. It just happened to be Reagan’s time. …
Got this long ago from a former Kansas publicist. When Wilt Chamberlain was a Jayhawk and already famous, the team went to Iowa. Getting off the plane, Chamberlain was wearing shades on a gloomy day. A waiting reporter asked: “Why the sunglasses?” Wilt: “I’m traveling incognito.” …
Jim Hill’s still doing TV sports in L.A. Did you know, when he was a DB on the NFL Team That Used To Be Here, he briefly served as a DJ at KCBQ radio? I remember seeing him through the window at the Cortez Hill studio. …
The Indianapolis 500 was better on radio, in my mind’s theater. I still hear the voice of Sid Collins: “Now stay tuned for the greatest spectacle in racing.” …
Indy, amazingly, doesn’t have one NFL driver. …
But what a race for Felix Rosenqvist. Greatest performance by a Swede since Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca.” …
From Austin Koneski: The Coca-Cola 600 was the first NASCAR race since 1979 without a Busch or Earnhardt in it. No Nolan Smith, either. …
RIP, Sonny Rollins. One of the greatest among influential jazz greats. The sax belonged to him. …
Congress and the president can give Admiral Ray Spruance a posthumous fifth star. We won Midway because of him. Spruance was our greatest on-the-water admiral. Way too long overdue. …
S.W. Kim made 33 birdies at the Byron Nelson, one off the PGA Tour record. He lost by three strokes to Wyndham ”Hotel” Clark. So he stunk. …
A Victor Wembanyama trading card has sold for a cool $5.1 million. Sources claim the collector was willing to pay $7.5 million, or about a million per foot. …
Poor Wemby. Tired? Regular NBA games are 48 minutes long. In 1961-62, the season he averaged 50.4 points, Wilt played 48.5 minutes per game. …
When a reporter asked Joe DiMaggio what it’s like to be married to Marilyn Monroe, he replied: “It beats rooming with Phil Rizzuto.” …
Wisconsin gendarmes have arrested Packers tailback Josh Jacobs on — guess what? — domestic violence changes that include suffocation and strangulation (felonies). Green Bay has to hope the NFL shows its usual apathy and Jacobs gets off before ending up in Kansas City. …
Oh, in defense of the NFL, it did give its stock “we are aware of the report.” …
World Athletics on Thursday placed The Heritage Plaque in the L.A. Coliseum to honor the late Al Franken, the greatest track and field promoter in the history of the world. …
Pan Am is returning, but Howard Hughes is not. At least I don’t think so. …
Which peace is harder to find, inner, mind, or in our time?