Im putting his philanthropy endeavors aside, whether they were associated with the team or something else. The Cancer Center and the ballpark at SDSU, have nothing to do with the onfield product at PETCO Park, thank you very much. And there are some relatively shadey reasons why Lucchino didn't stick around...its not like the relationship between him and John was a bowl of cherries. Had it been, Larry's still here, yes?. So, lets cool it with how "buddy, buddy" they were.
Everybody on here knows EXACTLY how I feel about the guy. He started slashing payroll, THE YEAR AFTER THEY MADE IT TO THE WS, DUDE. Its not supposed to be that way...if anything, an owner is supposed to be able to ADD to the payroll.
On his watch, you can name less than a handful (and thats pushing it) of players who came out of this minor league system and made a noticeable contribution to the big league club...THATS INEXCUSABLE on ANY team, let alone this one. And the guy's been here since freakin' '94/95?.
He made statements to the fanbase thru the press (because God knows he never really had the sac to say it to their faces) that this team would be more than competitive, essentially...and for the most part that was not the case.
A division title is what it is, but personally, I wasnt proud of the 2005 team that made it to the LDS...that team went into the playoffs, blind, crippled and crazy, with nothing to fend off a REAL offense and pitching staff.
Nor was I all that amped about the one that made it in 2006. That team was pretty flawed as well, and watching John Miller and Joe Morgan call those games, was as excrutiating as watching the team itself, because they spared no feelings, as it related to how offensively inept the team was...they sounded completely exasperated, with how we struggled to string hits together.
2007?...a team of vets that could've done much better if the owner had manned up and really made a legitimate effort to get a bonafide bat and another arm to help the team down the stretch. We could have and should have done better than Milton Bradley and Tomko.
2010?..Miggie and Ludwick was nice, but what was kinda creepy to me is the fact that the Padres stayed on top of the heap for almost the entirety of the season (and INCREDIBLE feat for a young team like that one was), before falling flat in the last month or so, AND THERE WAS NOT ONE STATEMENT FROM MOORES ABOUT HOW PROUD HE WAS OFTHE TEAM...Moorad was "running the show", but that did not mean that Moores could not have said something to encourage the boys. He made no locker room appearances, that we know of...Center never mentioned anything like that happening that year.
Again, I could care less about a Tony Gwyn stadium..or the retirement ceremony he gave Tony..or the extension he gave Jake..or how he doted on Trevor, Caminiti and Adrian....I could even care less about his efforts to get PETCO built. What was he gonna do?...can the plans to get the place built, and risk the team moving to DC, again?...
My focus lies with, all the he DID NOT do, once the team moved down town. And my memory is not shot. He did VERY LITTLE, to enhance the on field product, and his history, SINCE DAY ONE shows him to be an owner that hamstrung the scouting/development department, left and right, with no apparent guilt about doing so. And he blew off reporters/journalists who called him to the carpet on being that way...and he chopped off a head or two, because of being called out, as if everybody was supposed to ignore the proverbial elephant in the middle of the room.
And he got away with being that way, in large part to his team residing in a city that has always flown below the radar.
If John Moores had owned the Red Sox or the Yanks or any team of note, and had been the same kind of owner he's been in this town, Im thinking that him and his family would've been on the receiving end of an unprecedented wave of criticism and 'name calling'. The likes of which cannot be ignored or blown off.
He grew distant from the team, as early as 2005 (no wonder, when you consider who lame that team was), when the team had not been in the damm ballpark 5 minutes...we barely saw him at ANY games..and he knew when he had the place built that he had no intentions of paying significant money to keep marquee hitters here, hence the size of the place.
And I wont even go down the whole "Bush/Weaver/Verlander" road, and where we ended up in that scenario. And even if we had drafted Verlander, he'd be long gone by now.
To put it as bluntly as I possibly can put it, NO, JOHN MOORES WAS NOT A "GOOD OWNER"...not by a damm site.