If there’s one thing my Dodger-blue-bleeding roommate Joaquin and I can agree on in the sports world, it’s that we hate the Padres. My disdain for the Dodgers has been well documented, but I cringe at the thought of the Padres representing the so-so NL West in the playoffs. And I’m sure any Dodger fan would agree with me.

For once.

Growing up, I was never overly exposed to the Bums/Gnats rivalry as a die-hard Giants fan living in Sacramento. That is, until I came here. Last year the rivalry hit its peak. I loved it. Sure, I hate the Dodgers, but I’m a level-headed Dodger hater, as in, I still love to talk baseball with my southern Californian counterparts. This season was supposed to be about the re-kindled rivalry between ‘Frisco and LA.

And then Eric Gagne got hurt.

And then Armando Benitez got hurt.

Barry Bonds failed once again to find that illusive Fountain of Youth.

Milton Bradley was … well, Milton Bradley. That honeymoon ended pretty quickly.

Hell, I barely even got to don my black and orange “Dodgers Suck” shirt I bought on ihateLA.com.

And then the Padres snuck in there and won it,

The Padres? Those sneaky little bastards. One hot month aside, the Devil Rays had a better record than the Padres.

So at this point you must be wondering who the avid baseball fan with no teams remotely close to an allegiance pulls for? Well that’s easy. The Padres.

The Padres? Gadzooks! You just proclaimed your dislike towards them, idiot!

Hold off on the lynching, well, at least for a few minutes. All year I had to read the babblings of professional scribes about how bad the NL West was. How no team from that sorry division even deserves to play in the postseason. Fuck them. No one talks about my division like that, regardless of how much – or little – I care for the other teams in it. Maybe the reason every team had such a crappy record at the end of the year is because they all had to play each other so many times. Maybe the reason that the Padres won the west only two games over .500 is because they play the mighty Giants 20 times a year.

Hey, it’s possible. Plausible? Probably not. But either way, I’ll pull for the Pads and their 4-3 record versus the Cardinals this year.

But I’ll still have my Giants hat on.

Daily Nexus sports editor Sean Swaby pisses in orange and black.