For San Diego, It’s Mission Impossible
This is a sp sp spor spor sports story. But not to worry, political junkies. It’s also a story about a town in search of redeeming values.
The San Diego Chargers are the epitome of the city they represent. They tease you with their talent. But fall on their face when it counts.
Sunday’s win in Tampa Bay coupled with a Denver loss to Buffalo allows the Chargers to once again reach the impossible dream. By beating the Broncos in San Diego next Sunday night on national television, the Chargers would win the American Western Conference title and make the National Football League playoffs.
They would arrive there with an 8-8 record, tied for second worst in playoff history.
No one gives them much of a chance except die-hard Charger fans in a town with lofty goals, beautiful weather and a graveyard of dead expectations.
San Diego the city is a perennial bridesmaid but never a bride.
It still clings to “America’s Finest City” title it won nearly a half-century ago but its economy and leadership since has been nothing more than a ride on the old Ocean Beach roller-coaster.
Time Magazine once dubbed it “Bust Town, U.S.A.” At one time it had a local bank go under in the largest bank failure in U.S. history.
A La Jolla investor bilked millions in a Ponzi scheme unmatched until the recent Madoff scam estimated at $50 billion in New York City.
Residents have seen their city and county elected officials jailed and convicted on penny ante corruption charges.
Today, unemployment in the county is 18% and San Diego’s neighbor to the south, Chula Vista, has one of the highest mortgage default rates in the nation.
Little wonder the populace seeks redemption in their sports teams. But only those seniors over the age of 55 can remember championship teams.
The Chargers won the old American Football League championship in the days before the merger with the NFL. They have been to the Super Bowl once since then. And, lost.
The Padres since their inception in 1969 have been to the World Series twice. And, lost. Both times.
There was a time under coach Don Coryell the San Diego State Aztecs were a small college powerhouse, beating teams regularly by 40-point margins. They outdrew the Chargers in attendance. But that was 30 years ago.
San Diego had two National Basketball Association teams. The Rockets moved to Houston. The Clippers relocated to Los Angeles.
Entering the 2008 season, the Chargers were considered one of the NFL’s best teams and considered by more than just San Diego scribes to reach the Super Bowl.
All they were good at was losing by one to four points to six of the teams that beat them. They still stunk up the joint, as the great columnist Nick Canepa wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune, which, by the way, is up for sale before it goes broke.
So it is with much trepidation the team is teasing its denizens with the chance of glory.
Even the diehards know failure is in its grasp.
cross posted on The Remmers Report
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8 Responses to “For San Diego, It’s Mission Impossible”
While I was in school I even did some “living education” travel then — I spent a year in San Diego. (I grew up in the Bay Area and after finishing school, spent seven years in Los Angels before leaving California. Interestingly, a best friend of mine then and to this day, in Los Angeles, was someone with whom I shared a common dormitory area with when I was in San Diego. A common trip many of us at work in Los Angeles liked to do together as well as enjoy privately was “the ride” on bicycles from LA to San Diego and back on the 4:45 Amtrak train Sunday afternoon.) For the contiguous 48, San Diego arguably has the best climate, as is commonly and generally viewed.
Jerry, here in Detroit, the Lions have gone 0-15 this year, and I believe we'd not only like to trade places with the Chargers, but would gain some measure of confidence having Marty Schottenheimer coaching again in the playoffs (assuming we made the playoffs rather than to go 0-15 with another, bigger record in our sights).
Be aware that California sports fans are often apathetic and fair-weather-y. (Part of it is not cultural or narcissistic but just characteristic of places where there is so much to do, all year, comfortably.)
I'd also add that part of California's sports apathy is the fact that a great many sports fans here are transplants from other states. New York, Boston, and Chicago teams all have HUGE contingents of fans living in California, many of whom will never adopt their new hometeam, no matter how many Commissioner's Trophies , Stanley Cups, or Lombardi Trophies are won.
Sports, including pro sports, are a bigger thing in the Midwest and some parts of the Northeast than they have been in California.
Plus even though I was lucky enough to see the rise of the greatest pro sports team ever, the 49ers under DeBartolo (before his, ahem, difficulties ended his reign as team owner and with that, the not-necessarily-coincidental descent of the Niners into mere mortal status), there are other teams, not based in California, that have a nation-wide fan following, and so are superimposed on the very important transplant population in California (and other places like Arizona). The New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys are the main two.
Hey Jerry, thanks for the post, quite a trip down memory lane for this San Diego ex-pat. Ah yes, J. David and Associates, the good ol' days.
Curiously the two high points for San Diego sports fans came in playoffs short of the big prize. The first was the '74(?) series against the Cubs when the Pads came back from an 0-2 deficit (in a best of 5 series) , with Dodger transplant Steve Garvey hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the pennant. Only to get beaten by the (then) outstanding Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
The other was the AFC playoff game played in sweltering heat in Miami (I forget the year) and featuring Kellen Winslow's superhuman performance. Only to lose to the Cleveland Browns in the (as we dubbed it) Ice Bowl.
Always the bridesmaid I suppose.
Having spent over 25 years in San Diego and the last 28 years in New York City, I think I have a very good perspective on BIG MARKET and SMALL MARKET sports.
Sports in bigger markets tend to have fans that not only have lost the value of what sports are about but have embraced corporate commercial sports to the nth degree. Turn on a game in New York and marvel at all of the fans clogging up the seats wearing team gear as if they might be called on the field at a moments notice. And it goes beyond the game. On a daily basis intelligent adult human beings go off to work wearing more team paraphernalia than the employees of the organizations they idolize looking like 12 year olds. Have big market fans bought so far into this follow the leader mentality that they have lost their own self identity and now express it through a team logo?
And when are these “Big Market Fans” going to finally say enough is enough. In New York City both the Yankees and Mets after handing out in excess of $300 million dollars in contracts during the last few weeks, still had the nerve to ask for more help from the City to finance their already bloated stadiums. Citibank is going to keep their name on the Mets new digs to the tune of $40 million even after a bailout! But what's $40 million when you've got billions in TARP money. Meanwhile the Met and Yankee fans are happy to to go along as they lose their jobs daily. Where is the outrage! Don't even get me started on the Jets and Giants.
In San Diego the citizens and fans have fought against placing the public under such distress in the name of a new publicly funded stadium for the Chargers. This is even aghast under the threat that the team might move away. Does that make Charger fans lesser fans than other teams fans? Or maybe they have a better perspective on what really matters in life. Even if that means losing a team that has been so much a part of the City of San Diego for generations.
San Diego did fork over land and the keys to the city to the PODS but they also have resisted accepting sky rocketing ticket prices just for the sake of the Pavanos of the world. You can say all you want about the revenue the New York teams bring in but, 27 World Series Championships, NBA Titles, Super Bowl Victories and more team hats sold than all the hats in most civilized countries has not lowered my taxes by one penny. And yet the beat goes on and the fans eat it up.
I love Sports and I love the Bolts. My father passed away with a Charger check book holder in his pocket and season tickets he had purchased for over 40 years in his desk drawer. So say what you want about San Diego but remember this. Just because some fans choose not to wear gear everyday, or are not willing to shell out year in and year out just because the sports teams say you have to does not make them less of a fan or apathetic. In fact maybe they believe that the impossible is always possible if your truly a fan of the game.
San Diego has great fans. I lived in Washington DC for many years. Went to Redskins games at RFK in the city of Washington. The stadium was noisy. Then they moved to FedEx in Maryland, and it was never the same, tons of other fans. Now, the only thing close to a loud noisy stadium is San Diego Chargers in their Qualcomm Stadium. That's right, it is EXTREMELY LOUD. And, for the last 3 years, a sea of Chargers fans. Wasn't like this years ago. Further, during the last Olympics, this city was the number one or number two highest ratings in the country for watching the Olympics. It's true, we do love lots of sports here. And by the way, the Clippers and the Rockets? Who really cares about them? The attendance in those cities is terrible. So much for that point of the story. Finally, the city is really the best place to live. The food, the beaches, the mountains — even the people are a mellow vegetable soup of races. The best part is the city is a network of small communities with great pubs and restaurants. Every town has their troubles, so don't believe this story with it's they “cling” to something nonsense. Come check the city out yourself. I did, and I love it and moved here!
Nice weather there, without a doubt. I've been living back East for several years now, with my last three stops being upstate New York, then Iowa, and now in Detroit (single digit temps this morning, snowfall is resuming as I write this — but at least the wind has not become bad once more). My brother recently moved from Portland (OR) to Los Angeles and has finally escaped the cold, gray, damp, and Seasonal Affective Disorder (his is substantial — he gets the manic phase during bright, long days in summer, too, is delightfully happy and energetic then) and it harkens back to when I lived there and when I was younger in the Bay Area, about which I myself got homesick — I was there in early October when it flirted with ninety degrees and as I did all the time in the Old Days, so many were outdoors on their bicycles. As it now stands, my brother routinely calls me, freezing in the ice and snow here*, to report on the bicycle trip he's taken that evening, and did I ever ride or drive to or by [names latest location he's visited in the LA area where I also used to live]? grrr
In San Diego I had no car but I had a bicycle that year I was there, and routinely rode up Mt. Helix (outside Mesa, Lemon Grove, etc., the mountain with the large white cross on its summit), and even did this on a fully-loaded touring trip from LA to San Diego in 1984. (Panniers, camping gear, the works — made it a tougher hill climb).
* I actually _like_ four seasons and a _real_ winter, though I wish winter and summer ideally lasted only four to six weeks, because spring and autumn are the best. In winter, if it's cold enough to snow, I'd prefer it snow, and it transforms the landscape.
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