Nick Canepa: Baseball is baffling, which is why we should enjoy Padres’ recent relevance

Sez me…

Baseball makes no sense. Poetry without rhyme or reason. Therefore, it is the most difficult sport to understand. Because, like a drunk trying to comprehend T.S. Eliot or John Donne after they wrote on magic mushrooms, it can’t be done.

So, this coming from a lifelong resident, I believe San Diego — perhaps in large part due to a one-runway town becoming a one-team hamlet — has grown into a great baseball city. But it’s more about the only major game that is here, the wonderful location, Petco Park becoming a destination and the Padres being just good enough in a nonsensical community.

But I don’t believe San Diego knows baseball any more than any other city. Enthusiasm doesn’t add to knowledge.

As with everything else, there are San Diegans — myself included — who know enough to get by without sticking their face in a numbers machine, which is not baseball. It’s a gimmick to make people sound smarter about the sport that forces ignorance from the intelligent.

There aren’t many cities that have had such good baseball for such a short time as ours. I don’t know if we know how to handle success — other than attending. So many Padres seasons have been hopeless, losing ones, finished by May, that when we get something to rattle about, we expect continuous excellence. Which, because it’s baseball, can’t come close to happening.

We came close to losing the Padres on two occasions — and both exits probably would have been warranted.

Do baseball towns find themselves in those spots, once by a lack of interest in an awful franchise, and the other because of ballpark construction delays? If Petco didn’t get built, the Pads would’ve been history for good here 25 years ago. The NFL left San Diego not because of lack of interest or knowledge, but due to City Hall Ham & Eggers operating without spines.

The Padres are in the midst of their most successful prolonged run of good baseball in their history, but it hasn’t produced a trophy.

Their supposedly great-to-good players have hardly been consistent. And too many fans expect a win every day.

There were broken hearts in need of repair after the recent Dodgers sweep. The Pads had been playing better than L.A. But the Dodgers are better — and they were last weekend. Baseball teams lose, lose to inferior teams, all the time. How else can any club with half a roster lose to the Rockies? The Pads beat the Bums on Friday night.

I think what‘s happened here is great. The Dodgers don’t enjoy playing the Padres. No matter, those pompous asses know there’s a rivalry. Going crazy when the Padres can’t beat L.A. is not healthy. The crazy thing is that fans still come to watch.

I think I know all I want to know about baseball, certainly enough to get by. Think you’re overeducated and you’re a nerd, filling your head with useless numbers that eliminate the human side of once was a very human game.

I know it’s hard, but these are days in the sun. Days to bathe in the rays of at least a modicum of success. Trying to understand the good with the bad only makes things more painful.

Resign yourself to the fact that even baseball’s best often isn’t going to be good enough. This team activity isn’t finding the equivalent of the 1972 Dolphins.

Try not to allow the Ham & Eggers and nuances and difficulty of the sport slap around your way of life. Enjoy, then go home and hug your family. …

I will subscribe to the new ESPN baseball TV package if there are no home plate umpires. …

Speaking of ruining a sport, I saw a Cubs fan the other day with a laptop on his knees at Wrigley and a mouse on the seat next to him. Couldn’t have been a nerd. He actually was at a game. …

If you can hit a first-inning home run vs. the Padres … well, don’t think you’re so special. …

If the Padres get down by five runs in the eighth, Mike Shildt starts thinking about bunting around. …

Every time I see Dylan Cease I’m reminded of Eric Show, to me the most fascinating and mysterious Padres pitcher. The first time I met Eric, I sat next to him on the bus to Shea Stadium. He was reading Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” Not exactly “The Three Little Pigs.”…

If Jerry Jones continues to bogart sweet national attention time with the Micah Parsons circus, it soon will be stopped by presidential order. …

There should be no replays in NFL exhibition games. Coaches shouldn’t even be allowed to look at the tapes. …

The Giants have the toughest NFL schedule. Yeah? How do you know? Far, far, far too much in sports depends on last year. You aren’t playing anyone last year. …

Anthony Richardson is all broken up after losing the Colts’ starting job to Daniel Jones. That alone would be a reason to be sick. But when your 2024 puts you last in NFL passing percentage, last in passing rating, and last in touchdown-to-interception rating, there should be no surprise. …

Richardson is a raw monster given valuable physical presents. He may eventually be somebody, but this is a classic case of an NFL team in need of a quarterback drafting the athlete, not the QB. Which is why Tom Brady went in the sixth round.

When a QB quits on his team, he has no business starting in the NFL. How does one go about making that up to his entire organization? Adios. …

Jayden Daniels seems to bring fun wherever he goes. This is a quarterback who obviously loves what he does and gets it to rub off. A delightful athlete. …

Bears backup QB Tyson Bagent cried when he received a $10 million extension. When I got a $5 raise, I bought a round for the entire sports department. ….

What did I tell you? The Cardinals’ Chad Ryland made a 72-yard pregame field goal. In Denver. Impressive. But even if it counted, all records set in Denver should be ruled illegal. …

Congratulations to Carlsbad’s Julian Sayin. Just sayin’: It’s not every day a local kid becomes Ohio State’s No. 1 QB with the opportunity to throw to the best college football player/receiver (Jeremiah Smith) in the country. It’s like being a first-round draft choice. …

They’re saying Heisman favorite Arch Manning could make like democratic lawmakers and leave Texas early. He would be the first player to be drafted whose only film is from a Thanksgiving flag football game in grandpa’s backyard. …

How can potential patients not think there’s something wrong with them when they watch big pharma commercials on TV every few minutes? …

Scottie Scheffler says it’s “very silly” being compared to Tiger Woods. Why can’t anybody be what they really are? …

I am not modern media. If I attended a head coach’s press conference and he said he won nine Super Bowls, I’d have to call him out. …

Football officially began Friday night with the Lodestar, KUSI’s great “Prep Pigskin Report.” Congrats again to Paul Rudy. …

A Lee Corso TV special? As the great Jerry Magee would say, “that’s one show I will not watch.”