The Padres, Slam Diego, Empty Stadiums and Social Anxiety

The Padres have a rich history. We won a World Series .... game. That makes the Padres the only team whose world series victories are the same as the number of no hitters thrown by a pitcher on LSD. (True story. Google Dock Ellis, 1970.)

This year we have baseball's youngest superstar and the ballpark is closed. Fernando Tatis Jr. is putting up crazy good numbers. (Check out the story at fivethirtyeight.) 

Tonight the Padres hit their 5th grand slam for the week.

Years ago the Padres had a shortstop named Khalil Greene. He was a great player but was eventually put on the disabled list because of social anxiety.

Maybe the whole of the Padres team has long suffered from social anxiety and now - free from the maddening crowds - are thriving in the empty stadiums. It could be that if San Diegans showed up the players would feel so much pressure from the crowd's high expectations that they would fold under that pressure. 

It's like an O'Henry short story: the team that could only be great when they got to play in an empty stadium.

Life is San Diego is hard.