San Diego, CA

Nick Canepa: Hard to believe AJ Preller’s on the hot seat given the work he put into ’24 club

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2 years ago

July 20, 2024

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Nick Canepa: Hard to believe AJ Preller’s on the hot seat given the work he put into ’24 club

Sez Me …

Baseball was founded on two things: Failure and rumor.

Gossip is much more fun, although in this era of Unsocial Media, the grapes from the vine can be stupid-bitter and much more toxic than anything Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper came up with during Hollywood’s golden age.

Anyway, as the second half of the MLB season begins, one has caught my eye, the snowballing rumor that Padres GM A.J. Preller’s seat is white-hot, that he will be out if his team doesn’t make the playoffs (a distinct possibility) and spend his time scouting Latin America, where he can find players to trade away.

It’s not surprising. But I’ve heard this all before, and I remain hard to convince.

It’s not a Manhattan Project secret that I’m not a fan of Preller, nor him of me. That’s fine. I have managed to get by without his bon mots during his time in charge, and somehow — thanks largely to late owner Peter Seidler’s loyalty to his GM — so has he.

He’s working on his fourth manager (Mike “Rose Colored Glasses” Shildt), and has yet to do much of anything more than spend hundreds of millions of Seidler’s money. His record is almost 100 games below .500. I can think of no GM — outside of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — who could get away with losing for so long.

But, I have been thinking this team may be Preller’s best work. As it is at this moment, it isn’t even a good club, terribly uneven, with awful elevator moments of good, just enough, and zilch.

San Diego Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar and right fielder Fernando Tatís Jr. laugh together in the dugout during their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park on Saturday, July 6, 2024 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

While I’m certain the current ineptitude of the game as a whole has helped them remain hovering at .500, they have managed to remain in playoff contention despite their foibles.

Consider:

• The Pads’ top two starters — Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove — have been absent forever. Yu, citing personal issues, may be gone for the season. Joe could be back in a month. What Preller has done with the starting unit during their absence has provided enough buoyancy to keep their heads above the waves.

• Fernando Tatis Jr., their best player, the game’s best right fielder and up there among the most gifted athletes, has a stress reaction in his right femur and hasn’t played since June 21. There remains no timeline for his return.

• Manny Machado’s offseason elbow surgery damaged him at the plate for many weeks and he’s just now coming around to being a threat with the bat.

• Preller’s signing of left fielder Jurickson Profar prior to the season seemed like a $1-million afterthought to most (not me). He’s been their best player and his enthusiasm brings fun to the dreary.

• Expensive Xander Bogaerts hasn’t been near what he was in Boston, but he missed a lot of time with a busted shoulder and has just returned. Maybe he’s not as advertised, but there is threat there. He isn’t a stiff and you start because you’re better than your replacements.

• Robert Suarez has been a find as the closer.

• Ha-Seong Kim is a fine fielding shortstop with a Gold Glove, and yet through most of the first half he was far too unreliable. He’s improved, but he’s been a run-saver in the past. Saving runs can mean wins.

• Preller drafted Jackson Merrill as a shortstop, and lacking a center fielder — so important in Petco — he put Jackson out there. Success. He’s a Rookie of the Year candidate and an All-Star.

• Preller made a trade with Miami for Luis Arraez, a batting champion in both leagues. He can hit a baseball with great regularity, although he isn’t very good at doing anything else. His production has dropped recently due to a jammed thumb, which makes me wonder why the hell he’s been playing with it.

I can just guess how much weight baseball managers carry. Shildt, who doesn’t seem to believe the media and fans have eyes, is a strong candidate for World Optimist Hall of Fame, who all too often sprays cologne on crap. But somehow he’s been a captain managing to throw enough lifesavers to keep his team afloat.

If Preller holds to form, he will buy, not sell, at the trade deadline — even if his team doesn’t appear playoff-worthy.

Alas, if the Padres play into October, the fishes will be sleeping alongside the rumors. …

Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández poses with the trophy after winning the Home Run Derby on Monday night in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Nerds say home plate umps blew nearly 17,000 ball-and-strike calls during the first half. So I don’t want to hear the blue men aren’t getting better. …

A Dodger won Home Run Derby. Now I like it even less. …

Derby TV ratings were the lowest since 2014. America (partially) wising up. …

Baseball’s All-Star Game is the only one of its kind that can do it. Players should wear their team uniforms. The ones they wore last week were designed by people who were asked by MLB fashion geniuses to come up with something swell after spending their entire lives in caves. …

Great news for the rest of the AFC East. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is dumping his other business interests to focus on the team. …

Billions of dollars are being spent on quarterbacks. And yet Patrick Mahomes is the only active NFL QB under 35 who has won a Super Bowl. …

Caleb Williams wanted more money from the Bears than he got in NIL at USC. Barely exceeded it — $39 million over four years. …

Baseball sign: “Nobody cares how hard you throw ball four.” …

San Diego sign on a car: “Dodging potholes. Not drunk.” We have so much to be proud of. …

RIP, brilliant Bob Newhart. When he arrived at Johnny Carson’s palatial Malibu home: “Where’s the front desk?” When asked why he never corrected his stammer: “What do you think got me my home in Beverly Hills?” …

RIP, Abner Haynes. There are backs in the Hall of Fame who weren’t Abner. …

RIP, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten everything you taught me. …

RIP, Richard Simmons. I never tried to do anything you taught me. …

RIP, Joe Bryant. I liked Jelly a lot, a marvelous talent who, unlike son Kobe, couldn’t consistently put it to use. …

Princess Kate went to Wimbledon and a big deal was made of it. Just because she had to pay for tickets. …

Rafael Devers home-runned so hard it broke a seat in Fenway. Know what that means? Bad seat. …

Fans broke through security prior to the Copa America finale when they heard it was possible a goal might be scored. …

Ingrid Andress admits she was drunk during her All-Star Game butchering of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” There’s never been a clear explanation as to why it’s sung prior to our sporting events. But, patriotic as I am, I have to say that, if it were not, anthem problems would be few. …

I don’t know how many people go into work anymore, but if you do, does the anthem play before you sit down at your desk? …

If you “almost” did something, you didn’t do something. …

I know enough about politics to believe that, if you’re passing the torch, you’d better be sure the person you’re passing it to can grab it.

Originally Published: July 20, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.

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San Diego, CA

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Published

5 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Todd Martens
| Los Angeles Times

San Diego — Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to face with destruction, only the wreckage is beautiful. A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints.

The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.

“It starts,” says Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care for the Safari Park, “by telling the story that elephants are ecosystem engineers.”

Elephant Valley will open March 5 as the newest experience at the Escondido park, its aim to bring guests closer than ever to the zoo’s eight elephants, which range in age from 7 to 36, while more heavily focusing on conservation. The centerpiece of the 13-acre-plus parkland is a curved bridge overlooking a savanna, allowing elephants to walk under guests. But there are also nooks such as a cave that, while not previewed at a recent media event, will allow visitors to view elephants on their level.

In a shift from, say, the Safari Park’s popular tram tour, there are no fences and visible enclosures. Captive elephants remain a sometimes controversial topic, and the zoo’s herd is a mix of rescues and births, but the goal was to create a space where humans are at once removed and don’t impede on the relative free-roaming ability of the animals by keeping guests largely elevated. As an example of just how close people can get to the herd, there was a moment of levity at the event when one of the elephants began flinging what was believed to be a mixture of dirt and feces up onto the bridge.

“Our guests are going to be able to see the hairs on an elephant,” Burtis says. “They can see their eyes. They can see the eyelashes. They can see how muscular their trunks are. It’s really going to be a different experience.”

Elephant Valley, complete with a multistory lodge with open-air restaurants and bars, boasts a natural design that isn’t influenced by the elephant’s African home so much as it is in conversation with it. The goal isn’t to displace us, but to import communal artistry — Kenyan wood and beadwork can be found in the pathways, resting spaces and more — as a show of admiration rather than imitation.

“We’re not going to pretend that we’re taking people to Africa,” says Fri Forjindam, now a creative executive with Universal’s theme parks but previously a lead designer on Elephant Valley via her role as a chief development officer at Mycotoo, a Pasadena-based experiential design firm.

“That is a slippery slope of theming that can go wrong really fast,” she adds. “How do we recognize where we are right now, which is near San Diego? How do we populate this plane with plants that are indigenous to the region? The story of coexistence is important. We’re not extracting from Africa, we’re learning. We’re not extracting from elephants, we’re sharing information.”

But designing a space that is elephant-first yet also built for humans presented multiple challenges, especially when the collaborating teams were aiming to construct multiple narratives around the animals. Since meetings about Elephant Valley began around 2019, the staff worked to touch on themes related to migration and conservation. And there was also a desire to personalize the elephants.

“Where can we also highlight each of the elephants by name, so they aren’t just this huge herd of random gray creatures?” Forjindam says. “You see that in the lodge.”

That lodge, the Mkutano House — a phrase that means “gathering” in Swahili — should provide opportunities for guests to linger, although zoo representatives say reservations are recommended for those who wish to dine in the space (there will also be a walk-up, to-go window). Menus have yet to be released, but the ground floor of the structure, boasting hut-like roofing designed to blend into the environment, features close views of the elephant grazing pool as well as an indoor space with a centerpiece tree beneath constellation-like lighting to mimic sunrises and sunsets.

Throughout there are animal wood carvings and beadwork, the latter often hung from sculptures made of tree branches. The ceiling, outfitted with colorful, cloth tapestries designed to move with the wind, aims to create less friction between indoor and outdoor environments.

There are, of course, research and educational goals of the space as well. The Safari Park works, for instance, with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya, with an emphasis on studying human-elephant conflict and finding no-kill resolutions. Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Studies of the zoo’s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. “The data that we collect from elephants here, you can’t simply get from elephants in the wild,” Burtis says.

One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.

With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to “observe safely in luxury — whatever that is — but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It’s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn’t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant’s home.”

And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests.

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San Diego, CA

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

Published

18 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

A man in the Mission Bay Park community of San Diego was fatally struck Sunday morning by a hit-and run vehicle, authorities said.

The victim was also struck by a second vehicle and that motorist stayed at the scene to cooperate with officers, the San Diego Police Department reported.

The initial crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the area of West Mission Bay and Sea World drives.

The pedestrian was in the southbound lanes of the 2000 block of West Mission Bay Drive when he was struck by a silver vehicle also in the southbound lanes. That vehicle fled the scene, continuing southbound, police said.

A 28-year-old man driving his vehicle southbound ran over the downed pedestrian.

“That driver remained at the scene and is not DUI,” according to a police statement. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

Anyone with information regarding the initial crash was urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

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San Diego, CA

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

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Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

San Diego County is known for having wet, cold weather in February. But it had numerous hot spells this year. And when the month ended on Saturday a high pressure system produced heat that broke or tied temperature records in nine communities from the desert to the sea, the National Weather Service said.

The most notable temperature occurred in Borrego Springs, which reached 99, five degrees higher than the previous record for Feb. 28, set in 1986. The 99 reading is also the highest temperature ever recorded in Borrego in February.

Escondido reached 95, tying a record set in 1901.

El Cajon reached 92, three degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Ramona topped out at 88, five degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Alpine hit 88, four degrees higher the record set in 1986.

Campo reached 87, four degrees higher than the record set in 1999.

Vista hit 86, four degrees higher than the record set in 2020.

Chula Vista reached 84, one degree higher than the record set in 2020.

Lake Cuyamaca rose to 76, four degrees higher than the record set in 1986.

Forecasters say the weather is not likely to broadly produce new highs on Sunday. Cooler air is moving to the coast, and on Monday, San Diego’s high will only reach 67, a degree above normal.

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