FanHouse JohnMoores

Thursday, a new era quietly, yet officially, began for the San Diego Padres franchise. Sandy Alderson officially stepped down from his post as Padres' CEO, and Jeff Moorad is now in charge of the day-to-day operations for the NL West squad. Moorad heads up a group who now owns 40 percent of the Padres, and his title is CEO and vice chairman of the board.

Despite the transition, Padres fans shouldn't be getting up their hopes for the short term. There are no plans to increase the payroll, and John Moores -- the one who wanted payroll trimmed in the first place -- is still in charge.

The news yesterday that the San Diego Padres had withdrawn their offer to closer and all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman wasn't exactly a huge surprise.

With San Diego having what basically equates to a fire sale in hopes of cutting costs for next season, anybody who makes over $5 million a season should probably start packing their bags. Especially when you're a 41-year-old pitcher who's losing his effectiveness.

Still, Trevor wasn't very happy with the way the Padres handled the whole situation. When they offered Hoffman a one-year deal for only $4 million -- Trevor made $8 million in 2008 -- he basically knew then that it was the organization's way of saying it was time to move on, but that doesn't mean they had to toy with him.

Note to self: Make sure and include the ownership of my future sports team in the future pre-nup for the future Ex-Mrs. Brinson.

Why? Because the future Ex-Mrs. Brinson could be like Becky Moores, that's why. Moores, the wife of San Diego Padres owner John Moores, has let their divorce proceedings get a little bit nasty by making sure her former husband is aware of how much she likes baseball. And attending baseball games.

On July 30, Becky Moores had asked for a court order in which she and John Moores would share the future use of the owner's and commissioner's boxes at Petco Park "until we reach an agreement for the ownership of the team." She proposed either alternating home games, flipping a coin or taking turns bidding on games to attend. Those proposals were rejected then, she said in court documents.

I wholeheartedly "Boooo" Moores' refusal to engage in childish games of chance to determine the fate of his millions of dollars. There are only so many ways to respectably salvage the end of a marriage, and frankly, flipping a coin -- or, preferably, rock-paper-scissors -- seems like a perfect way to decide who gets to own a Major League Baseball team.

Or, in really great news, maybe this will become a huge public spat and Bud Selig will just take the team over in addition to his sleeping commissioner duties.