San Diego Padres Baseball Team

The three sat together in pews at Calvary C.M.E. Methodist Church in Pasadena Friday during the funeral service, trying to comfort one another and erase feelings of guilt created by their friend's death. These were three of Alan Wiggins' closest friends growing up in Pasadena, staying together from Little League to Elliott Junior High to the Senior Babe Ruth League to being teammates at Muir High.

The message has reached the San Diego Padres' clubhouse loud and clear: Win. Or else. "We're the Cleveland Indians in the movie 'Major League,' " closer Heath Bell said. Second base David Eckstein nodded and laughed when asked about comparisons with the fictionalized version of the Indians, who had to win a division title to avoid a move to Miami. "That has been going around, yes," Eckstein said. "We know we need to win if we want to keep these guys here."

Major League Baseball suspended umpire Mike Winters without pay for the remainder of the regular season Wednesday for the umpire's conduct during a heated Sunday confrontation with San Diego Padres outfielder Milton Bradley that closed with the volatile player suffering a season-ending knee injury.

Heath Bell reported to the San Diego Padres' camp this spring weighing 25 pounds less than he did at the end of last season. His secret? He played video games. Baseball's current saves leader had put together an off-season training program that included many hours playing Nintendo's Wii Fit game, which runs a series of interactive exercise programs.

An investment group of 10 Los Angeles and San Diego businessmen, led by television producer Tom Werner, signed a letter of intent Monday to purchase the San Diego Padres baseball team, club owner Joan B. Kroc said. Terms of the agreement were not released, but sources have set the price at $75 million. The deal still must be approved by the other 25 major league baseball owners.

The voice on the other end of the telephone, trying to stay vibrant and robust, starts to tremble. The speaker wants to apologize to his son, the one he neglected most of the past five years. He wants to tell him that he is sorry for the suffering he has caused. Most of all, he wants to let him know that he has a father again. "I'm so sorry for everything I've done to him," Leon Roberts says. "I cry at night, thinking how I've hurt him. There were a lot of things I did that weren't very nice.

Comedian Roseanne Barr was full of contrition at a crowded press conference Friday as she told how panic set in four notes into her now-legendary screeching of "The Star Spangled Banner" before the start of a San Diego Padres baseball game Wednesday night.

Let's play a game. What if some real smart people with a sense of humor--people who know nothing about baseball--one day decided to invent a very good baseball pitcher. But after giving him an elbow and shoulder and all the usual stuff, what if they decided to get tricky? What if they gave him a love for physics? A love for studying philosophers, historians and theorists? A love for writing classical jazz?

To understand San Diego Padres pitcher Bruce Hurst, friends say, is to look at his game face. Such a face for such a devoutly religious guy. "Nothing personal, but the day that I pitch is my day, and I want to be left alone," said Hurst, baseball's hottest free-agent prize last winter. He came to San Diego from the Boston Red Sox for $5.25 million and the trust that he can help the Padres win a pennant.

Accustomed to defending their team's dismal play this season, San Diego Padres officials found themselves facing an even bigger public-relations nightmare Thursday as strident criticism of TV comedian Roseanne Barr's rendition of the national anthem at a baseball game here poured in from around the country.

BEIJING -- Driving balls toward the empty metal bleachers behind the outfield wall during batting practice Saturday, Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp was admittedly worried. "Really, I was," Kemp said. "I was like, 'What's going on?' " But a crowd that was officially counted at 12,224 gradually flowed into the Wukesong Baseball Stadium over the first two innings to watch the first major league baseball game in China, a 3-3 tie between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres. The two-game exhibition series concludes today.

As her decorated Stanford women's basketball career winds down, Candice Wiggins still can't sit through an interview without being asked about her late father. Alan Wiggins was a fleet-footed second baseman who helped lead the San Diego Padres to the 1984 World Series, only to have his career dissolved by drug use, an addiction that ultimately led to his death at age 32.

Randy Wolf's stint with his hometown Dodgers proved short-lived. The free-agent left-hander has agreed to a one-year contract with the San Diego Padres, pending a physical, a major league source said. The oft-injured Wolf, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, gave the Dodgers a hometown discount in November 2006 by signing a deal that was guaranteed for one season. He won seven of his first 10 decisions, posting a 3.68 earned-run average through June 1.

DENVER -- Matt Holliday was on his back, staring into an October sky the likes of which he had never seen. For the first time in 12 seasons, the Colorado Rockies were headed to the playoffs.

Major League Baseball suspended umpire Mike Winters without pay for the remainder of the regular season Wednesday for the umpire's conduct during a heated Sunday confrontation with San Diego Padres outfielder Milton Bradley that closed with the volatile player suffering a season-ending knee injury.

The San Diego Padres gave rookie Justin Germano a big job Sunday: beat All-Star Brandon Webb and avert a three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Germano responded by driving in a run and giving up none to help the Padres beat the Diamondbacks, 4-0. "I was very proud of him, going against an All-Star on the road, a team that had a lot of momentum, and he held them down," Manager Bud Black said. "A great job."

Three years after he started at third base in the Angels' "infield of the future," Jack Howell became a part of the Angels' past. Howell, who lost his starting job when Gary Gaetti was signed last winter and then saw his utility role vanish, was traded to the San Diego Padres Tuesday for outfielder Shawn Abner. Abner, 25, was chosen by the New York Mets as the first overall pick in the 1984 draft. He was traded to San Diego in 1986 after he hit .266 for double-A Jackson.

Maybe the best measure of how far Phil Nevin has rebounded as a person and a player isn't the lineup card that lists him as the San Diego Padres' regular third baseman or the statistics illustrating he is one of the major leagues' most productive hitters. No, maybe the best measure of how far he has rallied when all the promise and potential seemed to be evaporating is the tears he doesn't try to hide as he sits in the clubhouse and talks about what he almost lost before adjusting his focus.

A national law firm involved with religious issues joined a local Christian minister Friday in decrying what they termed support by the San Diego Padres' management for the "homosexual lifestyle." The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center said the baseball team is encouraging homosexuality by allowing a gay group to attend the Sunday game at Petco Park featuring the Padres against the Atlanta Braves. At the game, the Padres plan to distribute free floppy hats to children 14 or younger.

Vin Scully provided the perfect lyrical accompaniment to history, as always. As Trevor Hoffman floated changeups toward the Dodgers four days ago, daring them to take a mighty swing without taking a mighty fall, Scully empathized with the boys at bat. "It's like swinging at a soap bubble," Scully said. The Dodgers went quietly, and Petco Park went nuts. As Hoffman earned the 500th save of his career, fireworks exploded, fans roared and teammates carried him off the field on their shoulders.