Matt Kemp

Like, is San Diego kind of been that? Not now where they are, but I think Preller kind of did that as he merged into the Hosmer Machado era.

Because remember, he tried it first with Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, James Shield, I think was the first big one.

And he went, oh, crap, this one's not very good.

And then he dealt some of those guys.

And he had gone all in.

If you remember, it was like that Justin Upton and Matt Kemp and Craig Kimbrell, I believe, was in that.

I can't remember who else.

But it was – that was the year when people were like, what are the Padres doing? Yeah.

They got stories about being at Dodgers games and being like, where is Chris? Wait.

And he's on the on-deck circle with Matt Kemp.

Or he's in the locker room with his arm around Kobe Bryant and Kobe's ice in his ankle.

Chris knows everyone.

And of course, there's been some examples in baseball too.

Famously, I believe in 2014, when Matt Kemp was traded from the Dodgers to the Padres, there was some leaked information about Matt Kemp's hips.

And of course, that potentially affected the deal that would send Matt Kemp to the Padres.

There was also another one in the Drew Pomerantz trade between the Padres and the Boston Red Sox.

And I guess there was some information that was not disclosed about the player.

In term, they fire Bud Block.

He comes in as the El Paso, after being the El Paso manager, comes in and is expected to lead a group that includes Matt Kemp and Derek Norris and James Shields.

There was no way he's going to win over that clubhouse.

These guys were just going to immediately respect him when he'd never managed in the big leagues before.

So I've been to plenty of Padre games where it was definitely not sold out whatsoever.

Um, but yeah, like you said, like they signed guys like Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Eric Hosmer, like [laughs] James Shields, and then you trade him for Tatis, um, thankfully.

[laughs]

But it, it, it took a while for that place to get packed out and ready to go, and they...

Obviously winning helps no matter what, like, um, you know, career you're in.

But it, it, it took a, it took a while, 'cause not everybody was sold on the oh, Matt Kemp, the Upton brothers, and Hosmer, and like Will Middlebrooks, and like those guys.

It, it took a couple years, and then like once it finally started rolling, that's when...

You know, I don't think San Diego's probably gonna look back ever to an empty stadium.