New Orleans is flooded out. We’re still at war. Gas prices continue to rise. But I want to talk about the San Diego Padres and why they are the most awesomest team in the history of sports.

“I hate baseball,” I hear you say. Yes, I heard that. I’ve hidden tiny microphones throughout your house - so think twice the next time you pass gas.

Well, hate baseball or not, you will want to read about the Padres because they are on the cusp of going into the playoffs - the ultimate place for baseball winners - with a losing record.

For those of you unfamiliar with baseball, four teams from the National League and four teams from the American League advance to the playoffs every year. Each League has three divisions, so the winner of each division goes. A fourth team, called a wild card, goes if it has the best record in the rest of the league.

However, since the three divisions all play each other, it is possible for an entire division to have a winning or losing record. Such is the case with the National League West, home to the once mighty Dodgers. Everyone in the West has a losing record. The Padres have the distinction of being the team that has lost the least.

Every team in the National League East has a better record than the Padres. The top two teams in the National League Central also have better records. This means that, at the moment, at least four teams with much better records than the Padres will stay at home while the Padres will go to the Playoffs.

Now, many of my fellow baseball fans think that this is somehow a travesty; that it destroys the integrity of the game. I say “big plates of B.S. fellow baseball fans!”

Frankly, I think this is awesome. Even though I am a Red Sox fan (sorry John) I am going to be rooting for the Padres in the post season. I would love it if they went all the way and won the World Series.

In American, more of us are losers than winners. Sometimes, however, we can be in the right place at the right time and end up doing better than people who are smarter, stronger or better at things than we are. In this sense, the Padres are the most American baseball team ever. They represent every guy, like me, who opted to sit at home and play City of Heroes instead of going to the gym and still won at one on one because our friend pulled his muscle while he was working out; every guy who scored the hot chick because she mistook him for his rich friend; every guy who got the promotion instead of the more qualified person because he went to high school with the boss; every young man who became president because he was born into a rich family.

The Padres. Big losers and, as a result, even bigger winners. God bless us, every one.