Following the Padres' 6-3 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday
night, in which Padres fans cheered for Sammy Sosa after his
grand slam (and MLB record-tying HR No. 63) gave the Cubs
the lead, Padres OF Greg Vaughn said, "Sammy Sosa's a good
friend of mine and he's had a great year. But what the
(bleep) is going on? We're trying to do something for this
city and the (bleep) fans are rooting for this guy to beat
us. ... Everyone in this clubhouse feels like we have our
road uniforms on. Are we the enemy? ... This is just
(bleep) and you can tell the fans that" (Bill Center, S.D.
UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/17). In S.D., Braun & LaVelle write that
attorney Michael Aguirre, a co-Chair of the Proposition C
ballpark campaign, "called the Padres to register his
concern" about Vaughn's remarks, saying that "a few poorly
chosen words would haunt the ballpark measure," which will
be voted on in November. Aguirre asked a team official:
"Can we have a big meeting with the players and explain to
them the concept of killing public image? Because they are
killing us." Padres Owner John Moores said that "there
would be no such meeting," and that the "only apology would
be from the front office to the players -- for using the
scoreboard and fireworks to congratulate Sosa." Moores
"went on to blame his own organization for the
'inappropriate' fireworks." Moores: "When Sosa hit it, I
thought I was going to throw up, and then the fireworks went
off and it pissed me off" (S.D. UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/18).
