Padres Finally Catch a Break

Chula Vista is one win away from the Little League World Series championship, and no one is happier than Dennis Morgigno.
Why?
As station manager of Channel 4 San Diego, Morgigno is the head honcho of Padres telecasts. And thanks to a quirk in the schedule, Saturday's Padres game at Florida was not a TV game, meaning no head-to-head competition against the kids from Chula Vista.
And there's more good luck for Dennis on Sunday, as the Padres' telecast will be over, or nearly over, by the time Chula Vista's championship game against Taiwan goes on the air.
When you watch any Little League World Series game on TV, the parents in the stands can be more entertaining than the action on the field. You'll see folks cheering when their kid does something great and you'll see moms and dads letting out a sigh of relief over the realization that their youngster just managed to not embarrass himself out there.
So Morgigno, like a nervous Little League parent, can breathe a sigh of relief that his baby -- the Padres games on TV -- has saved itself from some big embarrassment this weekend.
Thanks to that aforementioned fortuitous scheduling, the Padres miraculously avoided the indignity of getting pounded in the TV ratings by a bunch of 12-year-olds. And there's no doubt, the Chula Vista kids would've hammered the Padres in the ratings -- probably double what a Padres game would get -- had they gone head to head this weekend.
Then again, as lackluster as this dreadful Padres team is, we're surprised its telecasts ever get higher ratings than a test pattern.