You know you've done bad as a baseball team when the executive chairman of your team goes on the local sports radio station, calls you "miserable failures" and says in other lines of work you'd be unemployed.
Hello, 2016 San Diego Padres. Enjoy being in last place with a 20-33 record and knowing your team's top boss thinks you're an embarrassment.
The Padres rough season hit a new low when Ron Fowler, the top boss in their org chart, went on Mighty 1090 AM on Wednesday, a day after the Pads lost 16-4 to the Seattle Mariners, their fourth straight loss, and completely unloaded on the team. He even called one player out by name.
Via Fox Sports, here are some of Fowler's greatest hits:
"It's been embarrassing. I don't know how else to put it," Fowler said. "Our performance on the road trip, 1-7, was pathetic ... I'm a very competitive individual. I think I've won a lot more than lost in my life. This baseball experience has been very frustrating, very embarrassing."
There's this on Tuesday's losing pitcher James Shields, he of the $75 million contract, who gave up 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings:
"To have a starter like (James) Shields perform as poorly as he did yesterday is an embarrassment to the team, an embarrassment to him," Fowler said.
And this on how they can't just fire the players:
"It's about as frustrating as it can get. In a normal environment, if you had performed as well as we have over the last three years, you'd probably be unemployed. But it's baseball, with guaranteed contracts. We've got to get through it."
It's one thing for an exec to rip the team like this behind closed doors, but to go on sports radio and air all this publicly ... ouch! Scott Miller of Bleacher Report asked Shields what he thought of being called an "embarrassment" by the Fowler and he said:
"I feel like I've pitched well all season long. Obviously I was the guy that tipped him over the edge. It is what it is. I don't like losing either. I understand his frustration. As far as it being an embarrassment to me, I'm not embarrassed by it"
Sometimes tell us the mood in the Padres clubhouse isn't going to be happy the next few days.
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