Needless to say, there were no Floridians in the joint and the snowbirds packed the bar. It struck me curious that so many people flocked down here to my sunny state during extended winter and spring with their time shares.
"Do you own here?" a man asks.
"I own a car,"
He laughed out loud and bought us a round of shots.
The thought persisted in my mind...can a baseball franchise survive in a city where it's full to the brim of northern transplants and North American commuters? What were the initial owners of The Devil Rays franchise thinking when establishing a Major League Baseball team in St. Pete? If they build it, they will come.
What a load of shit. We don't live in movies, we live in reality. Wake up and move the god damn team to Tampa. Tampa and St. Pete have two different feels to it. Tampa is more blue collard and rougher on the edges. St. Pete has more of a sun burned beach'd out vibe to it. Where the two places differ, is that Tampa is split into two worlds and St. Pete three. Tampa has suburban sprawl around and the core being odd and tattooed. St. Pete has it's bustling downtown then South St. Pete with all of the crime and the novelty of its beaches (where the general population there are tourists, geriatrics and college students). Salt life. Clearwater is lost in residential purgatory.
"These rum runners sure are great," Strawberry cheered.
The TV displayed the game and thus we go:
Blake Snell took to the mound against Charlie Morton. I knew virtually very little of Morton but was impressed by what I saw. My expectations of Snell followed through. Snell is one of the oddest pitchers on the Rays staff. His repertoire is superb. Top 1st. Strikes out George Springer then gets Beltran and Altuve to fly out. Altuve sure is fun to watch. Bottom 1st. Charlie Morton mows them down with an excellent fastball. He kinda reminds me of Angels' Garret Richards with his delivery. STUD. Top 2nd. Former Brave El Oso Blanco cranks one near the Rays tank. Astros 1-0. Dude wears no gloves and crushes. Walks Bregman then gets Gurriel to ground out. Sweet. Bottom 3rd. T-Beckham triples off the right field wall but the Rays come up short as Dickerson grounds out. Top 4th. Jose Altuve cranks one out near Ducky's. Good thing I didn't get the chicken sub tonight. Astros up 2-0. This is usually where Blake begins walking dudes but calms down and works through. Learning in motion. Bottom 4th. Longo doubles then Souza singles after a B-Miller strike out and Lomo walks. Bases juiced. D-Nor up and grounds out. Came up short bubba. Bottom 5th. T-Beckham and C-Dick single then Ducky's finest Longo doubles them in. 2-2. Tie game. Sup? Top 6th. Lead off four-pitch-walk to Jose Altuve. Snell was picking around the zone. Altuve steals second. On Evan Gattis' ground out to Lomo, Lomo sluggishly gets to the bag as Altuve flies around third to score and makes Lomo look REAL bad. Embarassing. At the same time Tommy Hunter is walking around in pain. Great. He gone in comes Austin Pruitt. Astros up 3-2. Bottom 6th. Unleash the offense. Souza doubles. Lomo walks. Chuck Norris grounds out (again). Shane Peterson singles in a run. 3-3. T-Beckham singles in Lomo. 4-3. Pinch hitting Peter Purjos for birthday boy/sick man Kevin Kiermaier (who struck on three times) and singles in two more run. 6-3 Tampa Bay. Snell finished the night 5.0 IP 3 H 3 R 3 ER 5 BB 4 SO. It's maddening watching him because he'll get a quick 0-2 count then creep it all the way back to 3-2. Common dude. Pitch counts matter sucka. Meanwhile, Austin Pruitt has found his stride. Kid came in and went 2.1 IP with a couple of strike outs to a notable VERY good Carlos Correa. "Just gotta pitch strikes," he'd later say in the post game show. Amen bubba. Top 9th. Alex Colome comes in. Gets Correa to fly out deep to center. Gattis flies out. Bregman singles but Gurriel grounds out ending the game. Shane Peterson made a couple of marvelous plays out in LF. DEPTH Y'ALL.
Feeling good.
"Another rum runner please,"
Strawberry was in good form. A couple of her buddies from Mermaid's just down the street came to join and were dancing. We ordered cheeseburgers and watched the sunset.
No comments:
Post a Comment