Hurting for My Hometown

Tony Gwynn, Junior Seau, and the Chargers.

I went to San Diego  for the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend. North San Diego County was my home for the first 26 years of life. When I decided to come to Phoenix in 1993, I had several hometown friends that wondered why I would leave. It was pretty simple, Phoenix was a more progressive sports city. San Diego was not.

I was part of the San Diego Charger and San Diego State football broadcast. I was the play by-play voice of SDSU basketball. I was doing TV,  I was part of a terrific group of talk show hosts that made up the Mighty 690, one of the first all-sports radio stations. All good stuff. But I wanted to be around the NBA and high-end college football. Growing up in San Diego was fine, but it was time for a change.

Arizona has been very good to my family and my career, but there was more than a  twinge of sadness being back home this weekend. I drove down the Tony Gwynn Expressway, The great Padre was a friend and a broadcast partner on San Diego broadcasts. He’s gone.

Junior Seau threw me to the floor in my senior year of high school during a basketball game at Oceanside, his high school. My ankle and knee didn’t come back. In a twist of fate, Junior and I would have a good working relationship when he played for the Chargers. We did charity work and shows together. He’s gone.

I was blessed to be the hometown kid hosting the San Diego Chargers pre and post game talkshows at the ripe age of 22. Right place, right time, plus some good people who helped me along the way. The Chargers were the toast of the town and I was part of it. The Chargers are gone.

All gone too soon…