Padres' John Moores Says Team's Ownership Situation Is The "Worst-Case Scenario"

Moores said he was led to believe Padres' sale would be completed before '12 season

Padres Chair John Moores said Vice Chair Jeff Moorad's withdrawn bid to purchase the team is "kind of the worst-case scenario," according to Nick Canepa of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Moores added, "I’m shocked as we approach Opening Day that I still own this team. I had no reason to think the transaction wouldn’t be closed. I was led to believe that would happen. MLB kept me in the dark. I utterly failed." He also said, "I’ve never consistently been so wrong about anything that’s happened to me. I’m not the best-informed person on the planet … now I’ve got to be.” Canepa noted the "next thing for Moores to do is find a solution, and that means meeting with the partners." But the handover to Moorad has been "so screwed up, Moores will be introduced to some of them for the first time." Moores said, "I’m not actively shopping the team. I’m going to jump off that bridge when I come to it" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/23). In Boston, Nick Cafardo wrote, "Don't be surprised if a few of the Dodgers runner-ups get involved" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/25).

JUST KEEP WALKING: Meanwhile, Canepa wrote Moorad should "step all the way down, to street level, and walk away." Canepa: "Nothing against Moorad. He tried. He might have been a great owner. ... He didn’t get much of a chance to prove anything. But we’ve had enough of what’s fast becoming Moorad’s Folly. Time for him to get out for the good of the franchise and its fans." Apparently during his player agent days, Moorad "rubbed a few powerful bosses the wrong way." He is "poison in their cocktail." His stepping down and elevating Tom Garfinkel to CEO "isn’t going to be enough to cure the problem." Moores said, “My sense is all the air is out of that balloon. I can’t imagine anyone thinking Jeff can come up for approval. All the hollering and screaming I did couldn’t get it done. But who knows?" Moores was a "good owner," and he "saved baseball in this town." But now Moores has to "find somebody to take over this franchise and hopefully be an owner for the people" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 3/23). In California, Jay Paris wrote the Moorad era "won't be recalled for much more than him either auctioning off popular players or simply shoving them away." The result often "left the Padres fielding teams that weren't major league caliber." Paris: "Wouldn't it be grand if the Padres got a big-time owner interested more in winning than squeezing every nickel out of this franchise?" (NORTH COUNTY TIMES, 3/25).