For Neely and his employer, Channel 4 San Diego, that's a good thing.

People tend to take the time to complain far more than to praise, so if Padres fans had problems with Neely, someone likely would have heard.

My e-mail count has been low, and station manager Dennis Morgigno said Channel 4 hasn't exactly been forced to upgrade its servers to keep up with angry missives.

In fact, Morgigno termed the amount of e-mails as “a smattering . . . mostly positive.”

Added Morgigno: “Most of the e-mails we (usually) get are complaining about something, which is normal. If you've been with us (previously) and you turn it on and you like it, you say, 'That's great; that's what I expect.'

“Of course there are some people who say they don't like him as much as Matt (Vasgersian), but he's not Matt. He's a totally different style of guy. There have been a great number of comments saying he and Mark Grant seem to work well together and we like them.”

I would agree with those comments. The chemistry between Neely and Grant wasn't great in spring training, but that was to be expected, and there's been noticeable improvement. I got one e-mail during spring training from a viewer who was bothered by Neely's habit of extending the “s” at the end of some words (like Padres or runs), and the scattered additional complaints I received said Neely was “boring.”

OK, so his personality is not Vasgersianish, but he's far from Sominex. There's been more banter with Grant, and as this recent road trip showed, when the games are exciting, Neely is more than up to the task of conveying that excitement.

“We're very happy,” Morgigno said. “There's always an e-mail here and there, 'We like the old guy.' Of course. Change is hard for people. But the majority we've gotten have been positive and there's been no reaction to make us think that we made a bad decision.”