Bandwagon Beach

Darren Smith and John Gennaro are out of their depth when it comes to the San Diego State Aztecs football program, which kicks off their 2025 season against Stony Brook at Snapdragon Stadium tomorrow night, so (after discussing the Padres' comeback win in Seattle last night) the guys brought in the big guns: Jon Schaeffer from the Jon & Jim show, the radio voice of the SDSU Aztecs, gets the gu...

On today's podcast episode, Darren Smith and John Gennaro laugh a bit at the San Diego Padres losing the Vedder Cup to the Seattle Mariners and quickly move on to the business of football. With (American) football kicking off for the San Diego State Aztecs on Thursday, and most of the rest of the college football world on Saturday, the guys talk about why they appreciate the cadence of sports that...

After a busy weekend of San Diego sports, Darren Smith and John Gennaro get together to talk about the San Diego Padres taking 2-of-3 from the Los Angeles Dodgers and then spend a ton of time debating whether manager Mike Shildt screwed up by bringing in Jeremiah Estrada in the 7th inning of a tie game on Sunday. Later, the guys talk about San Diego FC being the first MLS team to clinch a spot in...

Darren Smith and John Gennaro are trying to temper their excitement for another weekend of Dodgers-Padres, this time at Petco Park. Both guys agree that the home team needs to show a bit more mental toughness and sharpness than what we saw at Dodger Stadium a week ago. With the Portland Timbers coming to San Diego, the guys chat with Adam Susman about the similarities in the two cities and how Por...

Darren and John traveled back downtown to Bottle Rocket Bar & Grill and talked about the San Diego Padres picking up a win against the San Francisco Giants last night, what's affecting Fernando Tatis Jr. (and why he's still great) and what changes Mike Shildt might make to the lineup this weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The guys also talked about how we, as San Diego sports fans, migh...

The San Diego Padres are back in the win column, but Darren and John spend most of the time talking about the kid who ran on the field or Fernando Tatis Jr.'s apparent mood because the game was rather unremarkable. Instead, the guys turn their attention to the Savannah Bananas, who are coming to Petco Park in about two weeks. The Bananas have a history of bringing former MLB players back to their...

Darren Smith had a very eventful morning at San Diego FC training, which delayed today's podcast some, but he still jumped on with John Gennaro to talk about the San Diego Padres losing their 4th consecutive game (this time to the San Francisco Giants), the intricacies of fan interference calls, and Mike Shildt barking back at a reporter who questioned his lineups. The guys also talked a bit about...

Darren Smith and John Gennaro get together to recap an incredibly frustrating sweep of the San Diego Padres at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers. It felt like the Padres made every possible mental mistake while bumping into some bad luck as well. Will they be able to move on from this series and get back into a rhythm for (at least) the homestand that starts tonight against the San Francisco Gi...

After a disappointing offensive performance by the San Diego Padres against Clayton Kershaw on Friday, the guys came back and scored even less against Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. John Gennaro hosts the live post-game show on YouTube, which Darren Smith joins about halfway through, and they talk about how disappointing it is to see the Padres tighten up in this situation an...

After last night's 3-2 Padres' loss to the Dodgers in Los Angeles, Darren and John jumped on a YouTube live stream and had a half-hour long postgame conversation about everything that happened and how lifeless and disappointing the whole thing felt. Section 1904 is a community-supported media company. If you like our content, considering subscribing at Section1904.com to support our work for as li...

Darren and John ventured downtown to Bottle Rocket Bar & Grill and previewed an incredible sports weekend with the owner of the establishment, Eli. The Padres face the Dodgers in LA for first place in the division, SDFC is in San Jose triyng to hold onto first place in the Western Conference, and the EPL season is underway. There's no shortage of sports to watch this weekend! The guys talk abo...

Darren and John woke up with the San Diego Padres all alone in 1st place of the NL West division, so they talk a bit about the team sweeping the Giants in San Francisco and the struggles of the Dodgers, who they will face in Los Angeles this weekend. Later, Darren chats with USA under-20 men's national team head coach Marko Mitrović about how he ended up in the role and the six players from San Di...

A longtime favorite guest of The Darren Smith Show , MLB Network's Adnan Virk joins Darren and John to talk about why he gave up the Cinephile podcast, why he wrote a Cinephile book, some of his favorite TV shows and movies, and how Manny Machado is the Brad Pitt of his generation. Before Adnan joins the show, Darren and John talk about the San Diego Padres taking a share of 1st place in the NL We...

Recently, San Diego FC rookie (and #1 overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft) Manu Duah sat down with Darren Smith and Adrian García-Márquez to talk about being cheered on by his family in Ghana (despite the time difference), switching from midfield to center back in his rookie season, getting energy from the home crowd at Snapdragon Stadium and being challenged by the SDFC coaching staff. Credit: SDF...

Darren Smith and John Gennaro are still trying out some new technologies for the Section 1904 community, and they talk about that at the top of the show before jumping into the Padres' 4-1 win over the Giants and Yu Darvish's brilliance. John raves about Darvish looking like "the old Darvish," Darren appreciates every single Darvish start, and guys agree that Darvish is something of an artist on t...

On this week's weekend recap, Darren Smith and John Gennaro talk about the San Diego Padres taking 2-of-3 from the Boston Red Sox over the weekend and San Diego FC getting an ugly 2-0 win against Sporting KC, but not before the guys spend some time talking about swimming in the Pacific Ocean and sports media analysts who don't actually like sports. The guys also spend quite a bit of time talking a...

Chef Emily Brubaker, Executive Chef at Omni La Costa, recently won NBC's "Yes, Chef" competition and joined the show to talk about her experience on the show, what made her want to become a chef, how she and her husband balance parenthood with their careers, the significance of plating in the age of Instagram, and the mental health struggles that almost every chef goes through. But first, Darren a...

Darren and John kick off the show by talking about possibly dipping their toe into making this podcast more of a (live?) video show and the benefits, and drawbacks, of building the plane while flying it. Also, John talks about the struggles of trying to stay healthy as the parent of a young child. The guys then turn their attention to the story of fans throwing dildos on the court during WNBA game...

Darren Smith and John Gennaro kick off today's show by talking (briefly) about last night's win by the Padres in Arizona and San Diego FC's home win against Mazatlán before welcoming to the show Joseph Lowery from Backheeled.com , who recently wrote about the historic expansion season that SDFC is in the midst of and what the future of the team (and Major League Soccer) looks like. After Joseph sa...

Darren and John start the podcast by saying they don't want to talk about sports and then spend the entire 75 minutes talking about sports. First, the guys discuss what San Diego FC's game tonight against Mazatlán means and what fans should be looking for. There should be plenty of opportunities for some of the guys on the bench to get real playing time and impress the coaching staff for the stret...

It's Monday! That means Darren and John are recapping the weekend in San Diego sports and that this is a completely free episode for everyone to listen to. Tell your friends! The guys recap their thoughts on the Padres' trade deadline moves and what it means for the (short-term and long-term) future of the team, as well as why A.J. Preller might have been motivated to push in some of his chips to...

John Gennaro is joined on this episode by a Section 1904 subscriber, known on Padres Twitter & Bluesky as "mensrea" or "mensie", who has lost his love of the San Diego Padres due to how A.J. Preller has handled the team. That's a fascinating position, losing your love of your favorite team during the winningest stretch in the team's history, so John turned that into an idea of interviewing Sec...

John Gennaro is joined by Dylan from the Letters to A.J. substack to talk about all of the moves the San Diego Padres made yesterday and what it means for the future of this year's team. The guys also talked through some roster crunches and hard decisions that A.J. Preller and Mike Shildt will be forced to make, but these are good problems for the Padres to have. Tune in to find out why Freddy Fer...

John Gennaro walks you through all five of the trades the San Diego Padres made today before the MLB trade deadline, giving his thoughts along the way on how these pieces could fit in the roster and if they make the major league team better. Then, Darren (again) checks in poolside from Cancun, this time after a few shots of tequila, and talks about how much fun it is to be a fan of this team when...

John Gennaro gets you updated on the news that the Padres have traded four of their top prospects to the A's in exchange for closer Mason Miller and LHP JP Sears. On it's face, it looks to be a pretty dramatic overpay for San Diego, but maybe it's leading to something more. Darren Smith chimes in poolside from Cancun, Mexico to talk about how no prospect is ever untouchable for AJ Preller and the...