One on One on 3… plus, the Wasabi Salmon Cakes Recipe!

The season debut of One on One has been fun – getting to know three homegrown guys from the Padres farm system. For Will Venable, as you know from the previous Blog entry, we went to the bay area. Here’s a little background on how we profiled Nick Hundley and Josh Geer.

Nick was between Dallas, where his parents were living, Orange County and San Diego. With the holidays busy for everyone, we coordinated shooting Nick here in San Diego at his fiancée Amy’s apartment in Mission Bay. It was a beautiful mid-week morning. The sun was shining. The sky was blue, and by the time we found the apartment, we also realized we had the lovely sounds of the city public works crew working on the sewage line outside Amy’s apartment. Banging and pounding do not make for good sounds when you’re doing a heart to heart interview. I asked the crew – very nicely and with a bit of desperation in my voice, I’m sure -- if it would be possible to work on something “less noisy” for awhile. Thankfully, they were almost done with one part of the project, and it was lunch time, so we only had to stop taping a few times when the construction was too loud. And in the end, turns out everything I used in Nick’s interview, didn’t have any pounding in it. We got lucky.

The other part of the day was cooking! Nick said he was learning to cook and would be happy to demonstrate. I got in the kitchen with him. He had the ingredients and the prep already done. We chopped veggies and squished salmon to make his brother’s Wasabi Salmon Cakes. The recipe is below.* Turns out his brother Jake tells me he got the recipe from a healthy eating website somewhere, so he can’t take credit for it. But, it sure is good!

His family was wonderful, too. His dad was coaching at SMU so the school production department helped me out by interviewing his parents using my questions. Turns out his dad landed a new job back at UCLA, so now they’re all back in So-Cal again. At spring training, Nick was so accommodating to play a little guitar for us. He’s still working on it, so we just popped a little in to give fans a taste of his many interests.

Josh Geer is near…
Josh was spending the winter near Dallas. I hired someone in Dallas to zip over to their home and do the interview with his parents and shoot Josh and his dad working out at the high school. They usually throw outside, but it was in the 40s that day, so they went inside. I supplied the questions and saw his parents on tape before I had even met Josh!

At spring training, I finally met Josh after talking with him and emailing him. What a great kid! Dan Roper and I went to his apartment one night while we were there at camp. You can just see how enthusiastic and appreciative he is. Super easy-going and confident with a cute sense of humor. Just listen to him talk about his major league debut, and you can’t help but love this guy.

He didn’t make the team out of camp, but he should eventually. He’s a little bummed, but he’ll bounce back. The Padres are confident. He is confident and after you hear about how he was a “troublemaker” as a kid… you’ll see why you want to see this guy pitch in the big leagues, too.



*Wasabi Salmon Cakes

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons wasabi powder
½ teaspoon honey
1 pound salmon fillet, skinned
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Whisk soy sauce, wasabi powder and honey in a small bowl until smooth. Set aside.

With a large chef's knife, chop salmon using quick, even, straight-up-and-down motions (do not rock the knife through the fish or it will turn mushy). Continue chopping, rotating the knife, until you have a mass of roughly 1/4-inch pieces.

Transfer to a large bowl. Add scallions, egg, ginger and oil; stir to combine. Form the mixture into 4 patties. The mixture will be moist and loose, but holds together nicely once the first side is cooked.

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the patties and cook for 4 minutes. Turn and continue to cook until firm and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Spoon the reserved wasabi glaze evenly over the burgers and cook for 15 seconds more. Serve immediately.

(Be sure to invite Jane and the crew over to taste!)

Venable: Sounds like…

The dictionary says: “venerable” refers to someone who commands respect because of great age or impressive dignity; worthy of veneration or reverence, as because of high office or noble character: a venerable member of Congress.

Will Venable isn’t old and doesn’t hold a high office. He’s young and on the move. But considering the words sound alike, I thought I’d just double check the meaning in the dictionary. So, now you know.

As one of my trio for the season debut of One on One, I had to really coordinate to catch up with Will. He was playing winter ball in the Caribbean and had plans to be out of state after the holidays, so his time at home in the bay area was pretty tight. Plus, turned out he was having his wisdom teeth removed the Monday he was home in between trips and his mom was having dental surgery too! So, looking at the calendar, the only time we could go there while he was there and no one had Novocain residuals, was Sunday January 5th. I got the okay to travel, and Dan Roper and I headed north that Sunday morning.

Just when you think you’ll have plenty of time, our plane was delayed because there was ice on the wings of planes at the Oakland airport! Brrr. So, just a few hours behind, we got the rental car, grabbed a sandwich in San Rafael, and then met up with Will and his parents Max and Molly at their very cool bungalow house in town.

To make sure we did the outside stuff while it was still light, we caravanned to his little league field, then the high school, through town and back to the house. Shooting them playing catch, reminiscing about the impact of events at these places. With a fire in the fireplace, and a few Christmas decorations up, we had a nice interview and I learned, at the end, that he was an artist. It explains, in part, his low-key personality and gentle soul. That didn’t come out, though, until almost the end of the interview when I asked what else he liked to do. It was a little of an “ah, I get it” moment for me. And it helped me “paint his portrait.”

At spring training, we spent some time with Will who drew for our benefit, so we could capture that artistic side of him. You’ll see plenty of great pictures from the family scrapbook, video from when he played at Princeton, and hear from his parents who have some great insight, of course.

Will didn’t make the Opening Day roster in 2009. He’ll start in Triple A. But the Padres have no doubt they’ll find a way for him to roam the outfield. He’s a good kid, and I know you’ll enjoy getting to know him One on One.

"Lucky" Season #13 Debut

They say the number 13 is unlucky. I’m not superstitious, so I’m not buying in to that. Instead, I’m looking forward to my 13th year covering the Padres… and the 13th season of One on One.

We’re kicking it off with a One on Three, actually, with Will Venable, Nick Hundley and Josh Geer. They’re three young guys the Padres are optimistic about… three guys to watch. In this show, we learn how Will is an artist and his father was in the majors; Nick shares his brother’s salmon cake recipe and his father is a college football coach; and Josh loves his home state of Texas and promises to stay humble as he progresses in the game.

Just to give you a little background, the evolution of the show started at the end of the 2008 season. I asked the Padres insiders to give me a list of some of the young guys they have high hopes for, guys who fans should expect to see “soon” in big league uniforms, who we and the fans should be kind of excited about. These three home-grown guys were among some names. So, the phone calls and emails began to coordinate what I could in the off-season.

Blog entries to follow will give you an idea of how we went about each segment.