Ken Levine stops by

I am having one of those days. Can’t seem to get the blog started or finished. A lot of middle and a lot of distraction. I knew the second Venti latte was a mistake today. Luckily, Ken Levine wandered by and was gracious enough to sit down and fill a page for me. Someone once told me to know my resources and I do and I am not afraid to use them! If you aren’t already following Ken on Twitter, you should @KenLevine . I will have more after the game…

Hi, this is Ken Levine, guest blogger for Shannon. She wanted Shawn Kelley, but he was off pitching somewhere. We’re here in San Diego. At one time the chamber of commerce came up with this unfortunate city slogan: “America’s Last Resort Community”. So if you’re looking for somewhere to go as a last resort, this is the place.

Petco Park is a lovely new stadium that has some interesting quirky features. There’s the Western Metal Supply Company down the left field line. At the time it was functional in the early 1900’s people wondered what the luxury boxes were for. Now we know. All these new parks have wacky dimensions but usually to accommodate the space. Here there is a jury box in the right field corner. Why? I have no idea. Maybe that’s the only way to get folks down here from trying to duck jury duty. Especially when the surf’s up.

And there is signage EVERYWHERE. I’m surprised the first and third base coaches don’t wear sandwich boards.

The big problem with Petco is that at night you need a howitzer to hit a home run (or Miguel Olivo). The Padres players constantly object to this. Hey, maybe that’s the reason for the jury box.

I’ll talk to you from time to time on Mariners’ broadcasts. Now back to your regularly scheduled blogger.