Padres' relief pitcher Mike Adams believes in this team.

In fact, he was the first one to put it in writing.

This t-shirt is insiring the Padres.

^{Courtesy photo}

"It's just basically been my motto the past eight or nine years," Adams says. "It was something that even when I was in college, under my hat, I would write 'believe. Believe you are the best. Believe, believe, believe.'"

So a couple of months ago, Adams took the writing from under his hat, onto a t-shirt. He printed one up for everyone in the clubhouse: players, coaches and staff.

"We went through a little rough stretch early in the year where we were having trouble scoring some runs and wins were kind of coming hard," Adams explains. "But it was more of a thing to get the guys to believe in themselves. Not so much worry about all the negativity and people not believing in us.

"When you see another guy wearing the 'Believe' shirt, the thought starts sticking in your head to believe and it kind of caught on a little bit. We are in the position we are in now because we believe in ourselves."

Closer Heath Bell is trying to make Padres' fans believers too. He says he printed up about 600 blue t-shirts with the word "Believe" on the front as well as t-shirts with a design for "The Penitentiary", the nickname for the Padres' bullpen. He has organized people to sell the t-shirts for $15 before Thursday's game against Arizona, with the proceeds going towards the Stand Up 2 Cancer program.

The fight against cancer is especially important to Bell because his father is battling lung cancer. Adams also he lost his grandmother, Hilda Adams, to cancer on August 19, after she battled the disease off and on for 20 years.

"We all know cancer touches a majority of people who are around," Adams says. "Whether it be a friend, family or somebody you know, cancer affects all of us in some sort of way, so we wanted to do what we could to give back."

The Padres have given San Diego fans several reasons to believe this surprising season. They stand in first place in the National League West, with the best record in the NL. The Fox network has even taken notice, picking up every Padres' Saturday home game for the rest of the season and changing the game times to 1:10 pm (on September 4, 11 and 25) in the process.

"Fox likes us. We like Fox," Bell says. "We had fun in San Francisco (August 14th) when we were in that Fox game. Guys make sure their uniform is a little cleaner. Maybe get some haircuts and shave, like I need to."

But with that network broadcast comes more national attention. Some of the players say, it's about time.

"I know a lot of the guys wanted to have that respect," second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. says. "But I'm one of those under-the-radar guys. As long as we keep winning games, that's all I care about."

"Having the opportunity to play on a National Stage, it's fun," Adams says. "Finally we're getting the respect that we all wanted. Hopefully we can continue into early November."

And make everyone believe in the process.

(To find out why Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton believes the Padres are playoff-bound, please read: 1-Man's Opinion.)