It's only natural. While the team has a hard-core fan base, ratings are driven by wins and losses.

As a baseball fan, I still watch as many games as I can, and have had half a season to evaluate Mark Neely (left) ---- the team's first-year play-by-play voice.

There is no question that Neely is the polar opposite of the departed Matt Vasgersian.

Vasgersian was hip. He threw out lines from movies and expected the audience to know them. And he had great rapport with color analyst Mark Grant.

Neely, who worked at ESPN and the Big Ten Network and called games on the radio for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers for a dozen years before getting the call from the Padres, is a strong play-by-play man. He has Midwest feel about him ---- less nonsense and more baseball.

That's not a knock on Vasgersian, who is as good as there is in the broadcast business. But with a bad team on the field, Vasgersian would go off on tangents and Grant would follow.

Despite a team equally as bad as the one Vasgersian endured last season, Neely is less inclined to stray off the path.

From the calls and e-mails I've received from fans, some of you pine for Vasgersian's return, and some are glad the door didn't hit him in the rear end on his way out.

When Neely was named the team's TV play-by-play man, Channel 4 producer Ed Barnes asked me to wait 30 to 50 games before writing a review. Barnes said it would take about that long for the production crew ---- himself, director Tom Ceterski, cameramen and the guys in the truck ---- to get in sync.

I waited 88 games or until the All-Star break ---- the season's unofficial midway point. I'm glad I did.

Any early-season production problems have vanished. Games on Channel 4 had been, and continue to be, network quality.

Neely knows the game. He does his homework. I know that because I see him working on the field and in the clubhouse before games. I was impressed with his work ethic in spring training, and he hasn't backed off.

Clearly, however, Neely and Grant aren't always on the same page.

I honestly believe Grant, who's in his 13th season calling Padres games on Channel 4, could be one of the best analysts in the game. He knows the game, he knows players, coaches and managers, he does his homework, he's glib.

But there are times when I wonder if he drove to the game in a Volkswagen packed with a dozen clowns, and is calling games adorned in big floppy shoes, face paint and a fake red nose.

Yes, I understand a large number of the team's games disintegrate early. Yes, I understand it's difficult to make chicken salad out of chicken droppings.

There are times, however, when Grant tries waaaaaaaay too hard to be entertaining instead of letting the game ---- good or bad ---- tell the story.

It's OK to have a personality. It's OK to inject humor into a game.

But there is a line, and Grant often crosses it. Still, the Neely-Grant pairing works.

My biggest knock is that Neely gives viewers a radio call on long fly balls down the line.

It works on radio. On TV, viewers can tell by the flight of the ball and the hitter's reaction if the ball will stay fair.

If that, however, is the worst critique, then Neely is doing a good job.