At Least The Padres Have Mark Grant

Another night, another close loss by the Padres.

But I'd rather not talk about that. I'd like to talk about Mark Grant. Listening to the Padres broadcasts night after night, it's clear to me that the Padres are lucky to have Grant as their color man. He is consistently funny, knowledgeable, nice, and a great partner for Dick Enberg. Over the last few years Grant has had to adapt to a constantly changing partner in the booth - first Matty Vasgersian, then Mark Neely and Steve Quis, and now Enberg - and has handled it all with humor and professionalism.

That's why I was so pleased to come across Mark Grant's '90 Donruss card last night. My advisor Tom Teatro was throwing away some of his old baseball cards (who throws away baseball cards?) and kept all his Padres to give to me. Included in the stack he handed me was Grant's card pictured above (yes, that's Ghostbusters 2 in the background).

The back of the card, as all great baseball cards do, contains a bunch of great facts about Grant:

- he was acquired via a trade with the Giants on July 4, 1987, with Mark Davis, Chris Brown and Keith Comstock, for Kevin Mitchell, Dave Dravecky, and Craig Lefferts;

- he served as a right-handed middle relief man for the Padres in '89, ranking 5th on the club in ERA;

- he led the PCL in victories, complete games, and shutouts at Phoenix in '86;

- he led the Midwest League in wins, strikeouts, and innings at Clinton in '82; and

- the Giants made him the 1oth player taken overall in the June '81 amateur draft.

So choice.