San Diego Padres

The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed Manny Ramirez back into the starting lineup, at a sold-out Petco Park in San Diego.

Dodger fans made the trip south en masse, at times out-vocalizing the home town Padre fans, to welcome back their slugging outfielder from his 50-game banishment for violating baseball's PED rules.

In his first at bat, Manny drew a walk in the middle of a Dodger five-run outburst, which pretty much ended the game as soon as it started.

Rain delays are frequent in baseball:  it rains, the game is delayed, the rain eventually stops, and baseball resumes.

However, in the series finale between the Astros and Padres at PETCO Park, Thursday, there was a different sort of delay.

Bees were the result of the 52 minute delay.  Yes, bees...those pesky insects that sting you when they're mad.

The delay came in the top of the ninth, when bees got out of control in left field.

Play was halted, and a few sections of fans were cleared out.

In case you missed it, the Padres finally broke their inter league losing streak during this past week, and actually took 2 of 3 while visiting hot and humid Texas over the weekend.

The Pads have been going through players like water, looking for a winning combination here in 2009, and seem to have found a couple players who can help. OF Kyle Blanks is the best prospect the Padres have brought up from the minors in years, and should be here for many seasons to come.

Derrek Lee hit two homers on the day today, bringing his season total to ten. Anyone who has read this blog at all knows that I am very anti-D-Lee. He had that one great year, and has basically been a good average guy with little power that ends up on the DL a lot. Matches his initials, isn’t that cute? 

He is having a pretty good season, but he hasn’t really been injured yet, and I still would not touch him.  If you have him, I would try to cash in on this time and see if you can trade him for someone a little more safe.

Ted Giannoulas, the man behind the chicken costume, may be hanging up his beak for good.

What the cluck?

The Chicken is baseball’s best-known mascot, and perhaps the most famous in all of sports.

Some have confused The Famous Chicken as the mascot of the Padres. Although he does make appearances occasionally at San Diego sporting events, he has never been the official mascot of any San Diego sports team.

The San Diego Padres defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 Thursday afternoon in the rubber match of a three-game series. The Padres (29-36) were able to avoid a three-game sweep with the mid-day sun beaming down on the crowd of more than 25,000 at Petco Park.

The visiting Mariners (32-24) got out to an early lead when Ken Griffey Jr. jolted a ball deep to left-center field to plate Mike Carp for the 1-0 lead. Young Brandon Morrow started his second game since returning from the DL for the Mariners.

A partial tear in Jake Peavy’s ankle ligament may cause experts to shred their perception of the starting pitcher trade market as the baseball season nears the trade deadline, and it’s possible that the Mariners could become the beneficiary.

Peavy’s injury, initially expected to keep the righty out for a month, could keep him out for 8-12 weeks according to recent reports.

Year in and year out, many fans wonder how long they have with their star players, and others can't wait for their teams to trade a bundle of prospects for a high-caliber player. 

The July 31 trade deadline is still far enough away, but, as we know, trades can happen anytime, and with the beauty of no salary cap, things can get wild.

These four transactions must occur before the big three-one:

He is pleased to meet you, baseball fan.

He obviously figures you must need the introduction, since not many of you caught him this spring representing Mexico in the WBC, nor have his major league-leading 20 home runs given him enough recognition to help him crack the top five in the NL first baseman All-Star ballot.

Oh, he's in the top 10 in walks, RBI, slugging percentage, and OPS in the NL too.

One-hit wonder, you say? Nonsense. Adrian's been consistently brilliant for a while now.