Published by
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
PEORIA, Ariz — Meet the Mea Culpa Padres. They knew their bullish potential in 2023. They reveled in it at the mosh pit known as FanFest, playing along with the boundless sense of it all before learning that winning requires, well, the winning. Yes, there was noise. Unprecedented noise. Relentless noise. Juan Soto! Josh Hader! Machado and Tatis and Bogaerts! Check out that pitching rotation! All of it, draped in the intoxicating scent of a fresh NLCS run. Call the jeweler. Size up those rings. Oops. This spring, it’s not the baseball Beatlemania of a season ago, when the country fawned over a …