The San Diego Padres need a change of style in their television booth, a name that could bring the team more notoriety and bring fans back to the team .
According to Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union Tribune, that name could be Hall of Fame announcer, and San Diego resident, Dick Enberg.
Sullivan writes in his article that Enberg had coffee back in August with Padres President Tom Garfinkel at Harry's Coffee Shop in La Jolla.
When asked about it, Enberg played it down, calling it more of a "flirtation," but told Sullivan “if they're interested, I'm interested,"
San Diego currently has their lead TV man in Mark Neely, currently going into his second year in the Padres' booth. For the Padres to comment on the possibility of bringing in Enberg would be unfair to a guy that's just getting his feet wet with the team.
But, if you're the Padres, how could you not entertain the idea of Enberg being the voice of the team?
They already have long time, and colorful, play-by-play announcer Ted Lightner on the radio side of it, why not add another well known voice on the TV side of things?
Enberg is certainly taking the high road as is the Padres' brass. When reached for comment, team CEO Jeff Moorad told Sullivan,“We're fortunate to have a number of talented broadcasters on television and radio, but in fairness, it's an area of the business that we are currently evaluating.”
Not exactly a denial of interest from the club's top man.
Channel 4 Vice President Craig Nichols told Sullivan the same thing as Moorad.
“All I can say is that there's a new ownership group and they want to sit down and evaluate things and make sure it fits with their vision,” Nichols said.
Again, not exactly a denial that the Padres' ownership group isn't looking to change the team's image.
“I think any announcer that loves baseball would certainly relish the opportunity to be the voice of the team in the town where he resides,” Enberg told Sullivan. “But I'm fully employed by CBS. At this point, it's pie in the sky. . . I think it's inappropriate to make more of it than that now.”
The Padres would be foolish not to be return the flirtations of the long time broadcaster. Adding Dick Enberg would give the Padres a name that would rival long time Los Angeles Dodgers' broadcaster Vin Scully.
It would give San Diego the kind of national attention they've been craving for so long. It would lessen the opinion that no one knows a thing about them, that they're a team that plays in some sleepy little town on the west coast.
But, for now, a flirtatious relationship is all it's going to be.
But once both the Padres and Channel 4 meet, flirting could turn into a full fledged relationship.
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