Upon finding the phrase "surprising San Diego Padres" in this blog post which has absolutely nothing to do with my favorite team, I became curious about how often that phrase has been employed over the last couple of months.  A google search for that phrase yielded over 48,000 results and prompted me to do some more research.  As a control, I searched for Surprising Tampa Bay Rays and found that I got 33,000 results, but the top result was actually about the Padres.  So I searched for various overachieving, underachieving, and right-where-they-should-be teams, including our division rivals and I found that we are, according to the internet and a very non-scientific research approach, the most surprising team in America.

In conclusion, an open letter...

Dear writers of the internet,

We get it.  We're better than you thought we'd be.  Heck, we're even better than WE thought we'd be.  We get why you were so surprised, but why are you still so surprised?  You expected our hitting to be bad, and it is.  The one all-star caliber performance has been put on by our one all-star caliber position player, so where's the surprise there?  It's not like Oscar Salazar is hitting .400 or something. We were 12 games over .500 through the last 62 games of last season and we're 12 games over .500 through the first 72 games of this season.  How is that a shocker?

We were the surprising San Diego Padres when we went 15-8 in April, but you had all of May to get your bearings, so why does June 24th find you still so dumbfounded?  This isn't an M. Night Shyamalan movie.  Figure it out.

We are the San Diego Padres!  We'll take the extra base when we can, we'll advance runners, we'll get a clutch hit here and there, and if we've scored more runs than the opposition going into the seventh inning, they have to score on the best bullpen in baseball. We are a good ball club and we're probably going to win more games than we lose, so get used to it. 

Sincerely, The San Diego Padres.*

PS - See you in October.

*The author of this post is not an authorized representative and does not have legal right or privilege to speak for or in behalf of the San Diego Padres organization, team, management, or concession stand personnel. The ideas presented in this post are the opinions of one fan who has neither a college degree nor a job and has nothing better to do with his time than search for a bunch of phrases on google and write about the results.  In the event that the Padres do not reach the playoffs, the author reserves the right to refer to this post as "a joke" and claim that he was "kidding the whole time."

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In 2007, the Rays won 66 games.  During the offseason, they increased their payroll to $40+ million.  In 2008, with a potent combination of prospects and no-names, they won 97 regular-season games in the most competitive division in baseball and went on to the World Series.  I see no reason why we can't be them.

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In October of 1984, the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs and won their first National League Pennant.  Nine months later, I was born.  I have been, quite literally, a Padres fan for life.

When I was a kid, I only went to a game or two a year, but those Padres games are some of my fondest childhood memories.  For my 12th birthday, my dad pulled some strings and I got to be the honorary bat boy for a game.  I got a shirt, I was part of the pregame ceremonies, and my friend and I got to hang out on the field during batting practice.  I brought a baseball hoping to get some signatures, and the first player to sign my baseball was future hall-of-famer Rickey Henderson.  I remember him being really nice.  In fact, when he noticed my friend didn't have a baseball for him to sign, he grabbed one from the dugout, signed it, and gave it to my friend.  I still have that baseball, but unfortunately, I also got it signed by a hot young prospect named Ruben Rivera, so now it's essentially worthless.

It has been a rough couple of years for a lifelong Padres fan.  From the game 163 debacle to the 22 inning heartbreak to the Moores divorce and subsequent team cash flow problems, it has been hard to watch.  It was tough when our long-time closer (and probably the second-most beloved Padre of all time) walked away because the front office pulled back their offer to him.  It sucked that we had to trade our homegrown Cy Young Award-winning ace for peanuts because the team had no money and absolutely no leverage. (Side note: new nickname for Clayton Richard = peanut?  Just a thought...)  If Adrian Gonzalez gets traded this year, it will be sad, but I really think it is the right move for the improvement of this franchise in the long run.  As a fan for life, I'm more interested in the long run success of this team than in one popular player now.

So, being a Padres fan has been tough the last couple of years, but I really believe that the organization is making the right moves for the future success of this program.  As the young players we have mature and develop, this team will win more games, get the butts back in the seats, and then have more money to invest back into the payroll.  I was a Padres fan in '93 and '94... I was a Padres fan in '02 and '03... I'm sure as hell going to be a Padres fan now.