Dear Nick

Dear Nick Canepa is a good guy--certainly not as testy as Bill center who claims to be a sportswriter but bans fans on Twitter if they challenge him on anything. Was he that jealous of my Casey at the Bat on padres TV for Fox Sports a year ago? maybe. Should Bud Black have been fired? Absolutely, yes! I believe in baseball karma or team chemistry. It's what Bruce Bochy brings to the teams he manages and Bud Black does not. How many seasons , how many different rosters, how many payroll variances do you need, Nick, before this sinks into your head? Quite simply, Bud Black has proven one thing. For a manager, he is a good pitching coach (he even won a title in that capacity which is what conned the Padres into believing). He can't get his team into a position to win a championship. Nine years? Come on! Now, AJ is on the clock. He gets another honeymoon with Murphy, but after this season, he makes his final choice for padres manager for next season and beyond--maybe Murphy and maybe not. Soon, Padres nation will know one thing. Does Preller have the winning touch or is he all about mumbles and mistakes? Did he make one keeping Black when he took the job? Was it even his choice? I haven't found out much from Preller and he even went to high school with me (Walt Whitman in New York) though it was a century or so earlier. Is the Padres season over? No! But I don't like how they are playing . With half the season plus remaining, the team could always catch fire. One can only hope. That is what being a f an is all about.