A Long Way to Go

San Diego State's BCS championship hopes were dealt a crushing blow with a 29-27 season-opening loss to Cal Poly on Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium.

In order for the Aztecs to stay alive in the national title hunt, they now must run the table over their final 11 games -- and hope that every other school in America disbands its football program.

Oh, and note to Chuck Long: Perhaps it's time to stop scheduling Cal Poly. 

But don't feel sorry for the Aztecs. The guy you should sympathize with right now is Charlie Weis. 

Charlie Weis is the man with the toughest job in America next week. The Notre Dame coach must somehow find a way to convince his players that they'll be facing a legitimate opponent next Saturday in South Bend.

The USD Report

The University of San Diego opened its football season with a 40-22 victory over Marist on Friday night.

And that's all for this edition of The USD Report.

Join us again next time for The USD Report.

The Minor-League Town Stats o' the Day

Percentage of San Diego residents who are aware that San Diego State opens its football season Saturday:

12%

Percentage of San Diego residents who are aware that USD opens its football season tonight:

1%

The Minor-League Town Poll

In forgoing knee surgery and opting to play this season, Shawne Merriman made the right decision.
	Agree
	Mildly Agree
	Somewhat Agree
	Strongly Agree
	Violently Agree
	Disagree
	Mildly Disagree
	Somewhat Disagree
	Strongly Disagree
	Violently Disagree
	Surgery, schmurgery. Chargers rule, dude
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Medical Advice? What Medical Advice?

This breaking news alert just in to the Minor-League Town newsroom ... Shawne Merriman has decided not to have knee surgery and will play this season for the Chargers.

So, after hop-scotching across the country to get his injured left knee looked at by four different doctors -- all of whom told him to have surgery immediately -- Merriman has chosen to ignore the unanimous medical recommendation. The overwhelming view of the medical professionals was that Merriman, who has two torn ligaments in his left knee, could be risking a career-threatening injury by playing without surgery.

Yeah, that's all.

So what was the point then of that Shawne Across America Tour? Did Merriman just want a little vacation, a nice break from the mundane routine of training camp?

ESPN NFL analyst Marcellus Wiley, a former Charger, reacting to the news on Wednesday morning's SportsCenter: "I'm shocked by this decision. ... This will not be good for Shawne Merriman or the Chargers. They're not going to get the player he was. He's going to be a shell of himself."

If some people thought Merriman wasn't too bright, this episode will do nothing to change that perception. Merriman also comes off as just a tad immature with this decision. 

We have to remind ourselves that this guy is still just 24 years old, so perhaps he still has a lot to learn. 

We all like to think we learn from our mistakes. And Shawne Merriman clearly made one here.

We're No. 2!

From the They Needed A Study To Determine This? department, comes word that San Diego is the second-worst city to be a sports fan. 

Thanks to Forbes.com for that breaking news alert.

Who's No. 1, Baghdad?

What's next, a study concluding that men like attractive women?

San Diego Held Hostage: Day 16

As Charger Nation nervously awaits word on Shawne Merriman's status, we haven't seen this much anxiety in San Diego since News 8 parted ways with anchor babe Kathleen Bade nearly a year ago.

Merriman hasn't played or practiced since the Bolts' preseason opener Aug. 9, and since then he has embarked on the Shawne Across America Tour, visiting medical professionals in seemingly every state except Alaska and Hawaii. Aside from an OB/GYN in Kentucky, we think every other licensed doctor in the continental United States has looked at Merriman's left knee in the past 16 days.

But still no decision from Merriman, as he weighs his options, which seem to number in the dozens. He could try to play despite the injury; he could have surgery immediately and be done for the year; he could put off surgery until his astrologist deems it just right; he could join the cast of the new "90210" as a cool, yet no-nonsense P.E. teacher ... so what's he going to do?

Who knows?

Meanwhile, a nervous Nation twists in the wind.

As for Kathleen Bade [pictured at left], she just recently resurfaced on the new Fox 5 News, 10 months after her departure from News 8. 

And if Merriman is sidelined as long as Kathleen Bade was off the air, well ... hold onto your lightning bolts, Charger fans.

Fashion Statement

One thing we know for certain about Kevin Towers: He's nothing if not photogenic.

We discovered that again and again when we started this site nearly two years ago.

And we continue to learn that there's seemingly an endless supply of fun pics of the Padres general manager, who answers to the colorful nickname "KT."

And this latest pic [above, with KT, Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd and Red Sox GM Theo Epstein] is so entertaining, it doesn't even require any comment.

But if we were to write a caption for it, it would go something like this: "I want to wear the yellow one. No, I want the yellow one!"

Spiraling Toward the Century Mark

With Wednesday's 8-6 loss to the Diamondbacks (by the way, nice job, Jake!), the Padres reached a special milestone by dropping to 30 games under .500.

At 48-78, it's still a very real possibility that these pathetic Padres will lose 100 games this season.

But Padres fans can always look to the future, right? Uh, sure. With the questions surrounding ownership and the uncertainty brought on by John Moores' divorce, there is no reason to be optimistic about the future of this organization.

And let's not forget the highly questionable moves of general manager Kevin Towers, the man responsible for putting together this joke of a team. Towers, who answers to the colorful nickname "KT," continues to get flak for not bringing back outfielders Mike Cameron and Milton Bradley, both of whom went on to have successful 2008 seasons.

So, rather than look ahead, we prefer to look back -- back to those glorious days of March and April. You know, back when the Padres were actually regarded as a respectable team.

It seems unfathomable now, but believe it or not, there was no shortage of people predicting good things for this team in 2008:

■ It says here, 90 wins and a National League West title for the Padres.

■ The prediction here was 86 wins.

■ And of course, back in March, we had the geniusness to call this a "good team."

Does spring training turn us all into blubbering idiots?

Hammer Time

As if its talk show hosts aren't irritating enough, 1090 radio insists on adding a whole other level of annoying.

The station's sports updates at the top and bottom of each hour are often handled by a guy named Hal Brown, who recently started referring to himself as "The Hammer." Why? Apparently he decided that, without the nickname, he wasn't reaching adequate levels of annoying.

If you've never heard a Hal Brown sports update -- consider yourself fortunate -- we're trying to think of the best way to describe his insanely grating voice. Let's see ... we have no idea what the guy looks like, but based on the sound of his voice, we envision the portly, odd-looking fellow with a crew cut who works the key machine down at your local hardware store.

And we can't decide what's more irritating about "The Hammer" -- his annoying voice or the cutesy little editorializing he interjects into each news update. Come on, we get enough dumb, uninformed opinions during the rest of the hour -- just give us the news.

This must be some calculated effort by the suits at 1090 to add some flavor or personality to the news updates. But it's failing miserably. Even Adam Carolla must be embarrassed by the clown who calls himself "The Hammer."

Why can't local radio newsmen be more professional? You know, like Les Nessman.

Kenny in El Cajon, You're on Padre Talk ...

When your team is nearly 30 games under .500, you need to find motivation anywhere you can get it. Jake Peavy found it from the dorks on sports radio.

After the Padres' 3-2 win over the Brewers on Thursday, Peavy said he got some extra fire while driving home after Wednesday's game and listening to the postgame edition of Padre Talk on 1090 radio. And Jake the Fake didn't like what he was hearing, as apparently callers were questioning whether Jake the Fake was dodging the elite pitchers in the league by moving back some of his starts.

Of course, Jake the Fake denies that.

But anyway, considering Peavy's habit of openly muttering to himself on the mound during games -- and considering his history of over-reacting while in a motor vehicle -- we would have loved to have seen Jake the Fake's reaction in the moments immediately after he heard Wednesday's postgame radio banter.

The citizens of San Diego should consider themselves fortunate that a road rage incident didn't occur.

The Forgotten Former Padre

Hey, didn't you used to be Jim Edmonds?

We were watching a little of the Cubs-Cardinals weekend series and noticed a Cubs fan holding up a sign aimed at St. Louis fans. It said something like, "We Luv Edmonds!!! Don't you wish you still had him?"

We don't recall the exact wording. Chicagoans don't hold our attention for very long.

Anyway, Edmonds was having his typical heroic day, which seems to be a frequent occurrence in recent months.

But we wanted to leap through the TV screen and say, "Wait a minute, you guys do realize there's another team that gave up on Edmonds more recently than the Cardinals, right?"

Of course, you Padre fans don't need to be reminded of that.

But on the national scale, it's as if Edmonds' 26-game stint as a Padre never happened.

And come to think of it, that's probably just the way Jim Edmonds prefers to look at it.