The Padres surprised a lot of experts in beating the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And with the way things were going for this team, a team that had lost its best player for the whole season, a team whose manager had to have prostate surgery during the season and a team that lost too many games during the second half of the season, lots of fans were worried that it was 2021 all over again.
So what happened, what was the secret? Some fans say it was the luck of the goose that landed on the field at Dodger Stadium.
But the San Diego Union Tribune’s Kevin Acee writes today about what may very well have been the thing change everything for the Padres.
He recalls what the players decided to do on September 16th after a usually calm and cool manager Bob Melvin scolded them the day before after playing terribly..
Acee says players decided to line up together for the National Anthem. Apparently the Padres, like most teams, do not all stand together for the playing of the anthem with some players still going through preparations for the game.
But that day they did and Acee quotes Jake Cronenworth as saying that the decision was huge., standing together side by side, it meant a ton. Apparently.
Because after that decision, the players attitude, approach and results changed. So move over goose. It looks like the Padres standing together for the National Anthem could be what propels them to the World Series.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images