- The Tucson Padres’ final home attendance numbers put into context how much Tucson resisted GM Mike Feder’s promotional energy. The Pads drew just 200,077 this season, the lowest for a Pacific Coast League team in Tucson since 1989. That’s unreal. In three years at Kino Stadium, the Pads drew 643,000. The PCL’s Sacramento franchise drew over 607,000 this year alone. I’ve always thought the one reason minor-league baseball here struggled for 80 years is because of summer heat, no more, no less.
- The UA moved quickly, employing Feder as supervisor of the Sands Club, its suite-of-suites at the Lowell-Stevens facility. Good move.
- Jody Oehler’s departure from his sports-talk show KFFN (1490-AM) was predictable. He is a bigger-market talent who, in my opinion, wasn’t a good fit in Tucson. He chose to pursue the low-hanging fruit topics, day after day. He would bang out LeBron James, NFL and A-Rod chatter rather than do more homework and encourage conversation about, say, UA softball, Ironwood Ridge’s state championship football team or Michael Thompson winning a PGA Tour event. The best at the sports-talk craft in Tucson history is Mike Gabrielson, formerly of KTUC (1400-AM), who educated himself on local sports first, and not just UA hoops and UA football. Sports-talk radio ratings in Tucson are dreadful, with a typical audience of about 600 to 1,000. That’s less than one-tenth of one percent of the Tucson valley. Maybe they don’t want to hear about Bud Selig and Tim Tebow every day.
- Arizona 1988 Final Four point guard Steve Kerr’s daughter, Maddy Kerr, a true freshmen volleyball player at Cal, started the Bears’ first game of the season Friday, a win over Nevada. Maddy, a libero, had 14 digs. Her coach, Rich Feller, said “the team has stopped being amazed. She is very, very good.” Like father, like daughter.
Short Stuff
Short stuff: Feder's energy no match for Tucson weather
Tucson Padres vice president and general manager Mike Feder, left, introduces Pat Murphy as the Padres' new manager on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, at Kino Stadium.
