Players' Weekend at The St. Louis Cardinals and Meth...

I get this feeling, inside my bones...there's something special when watching a game at Busch Stadium. It must be nice to actually live in a baseball town. St. Pete is where the transient go to dry out in the sun and where Floridians get lured into some form of addiction albeit substance mentally or metaphysically. For reasons unknown, I was in some shit squalor off Central Avenue in St. Pete rubbing shoulders with this dude named Chuck.
"Hey man, come out back," he demands.
"Why? Game is about to come on,"
"It'll be worth your while," he chuckled.
Whatever that meant.
He escorted me into this dark alley and pulled out a little silver pipe.
"I don't have any bud,"
"Oh this is totally different," he laughed.
It smelled different and my intuition told me not to hit it.
So I hit it.

The weekend was for the players and they were wearing bright yellow hats and those funky jerseys that rip off the old Padres uniforms. As corny as they look, I dig them. They had all of these funky nicknames too.
For some reason, when Jake Odorizzi plays at Busch Stadium, he seems to bring his A game but not that Friday night. Only went 3.2 IP and gave up 3 hits, 3 runs (all earned) and walked four. Ouch Odo. Souza launched one into Big Mac Land. It goes without saying Steven Souza Jr. has shown was he is capable this year and hopefully will translate this into the next season. He could be a very big tool in the outfield (if not traded). The Rays pen held the down The Cards offense with a brilliant performance from Sergio Romo. This is how a winning team should look. Rays went on to win 7-3. Saturday went not-so-well. Hech and Duda knocked some runs in until the 9th inning when Boxy did what he's been doing all year and suck. Cards went on to hit a walk off two run bomb. Demoralizing.
Sunday Chris Archer took the bump against Lance Lynn. Arch went 7.0 IP, struck out 8 and gave up 5 hits. There is also rumors he could be traded too. With an affordable contract like his and a lot of talent, who wouldn't want Arch? The Cards are a team speculated to be interested and they have the prospects to give up for Archer. Lomo went deep twice and in the 10th to put The Rays ahead for the win. Why do I feel there are dark times ahead for these Tampa Bay Rays?

"So a big Rays fan are you?" Chuck snickered sarcastically.
"You could say that,"
The meth had me buzzing a bit and the neon yellow on their hats was glowing.
"I went to a couple of Devil Rays games growing up," Chuck announced.
This town did not deserve this team.
"Oh?"
St. Pete is where the old come to die and the northerners come to escape their brutal realities up north leaving a sociological purgatory of filth, religion and drugs throughout the land.
"I gotta go,"
He seemed even keel with his high and I barely escaped Central without driving straight into a wall.

Friday Evening with The Orioles...

"You got eight bucks?" Strawberry snapped.
I checked my wallet and surely enough, there was twenty. Looks like I did not blow it all on that pack of Natty Ice last night.
"Yes, I do,"
"It's the last Friday night game of the season. Wanna go?" Strawberry asked.
It seemed like a good deal.
The Baltimore Orioles probably felt the woes of another wretched season like us but at least we finished off with a better record. Going for us was Odo who had a pretty Odo-like year. Going for The O's was Wade Miley who had a pretty awful year.
Honestly by September, I was so disappointed with the team and how the offense dried up, I resorted to new horizons with baseball cards.
We drove over the beautiful bridge of Gandy as the sun set into the Gulf.
"Do you love me?" Strawberry asked.
"Yes,"
"Should we try for another baby?" she moaned.
This talk again.
"Are you sure about that or are you just feeling nostalgic?"
"Maybe it's the bud," she laughed.
Or your friends talking the maternal noise.
Earlier in the day I rolled up to my dude's house off Sligh. It was a deteriorating house that the state paid for and the kid was deemed "mentally unfit for work". Why couldn't I snag that title?
I'd known Twit since he was a little kid and nothing had really changed about him. Timeless one could say. His situation has never altered nor his mentality. Sometimes nature has ways of showing her marvel.
"Going to another game huh?" he snicked.
Sports let alone baseball did not exist in his world.
"Odorizzi is pitching for us and it's only seven bucks to go, so why not?"
Twit seemed taken aback for this.
"Can I go?" Twit questioned while taking a rip off his bong.
I couldn't bare the idea of having him alongside us tonight when Strawberry wanted "quality time together" that translated to getting obliterated, swerving on Gandy Bridge back home and bringing the inertia to her.
"I gotta spend time with my chick, you understand,"
He didn't even seem to fathom what English words went into his ears.

We arrived to a whopping Friday night crowd at Tropicana Field with barely 9,000 people in the fold.
The best spot on Friday nights here was at the Porch where the beers were only five bucks.  Wade Miley was a lefy who'd given The Rays a lot of troubles over the years, even with his time at Seattle and Arizona.
Odo barely got past four innings, gave up two hits and four punch outs yet had that pitch count creep up. Watching him leave the mound, something tells me he might be out the door this offseason. There's an endless flow of rumors of "rebuild" for this team. Is that even possible for a team that has a Sixty Million Dollar payroll? They brought in Cishek, Boxberger (disappointing year), Stank and Kittredge came in to hold down the shut out. All in all, a brilliant performance. I wish they would hold onto Cishek. That sidearm slider he throws is nasty.
Lomo went deep twice. What a year he had. Never thought he would do it. They should keep him around. Plays a solid First Base and seems to like playing in Florida.
Miley was sent home humiliated and shut out. A weird thought swept over me watching the win tonight, yet again this team showed a lot of promise and fell off. Why do I even bother with them? Night in, night out, this stadium empty to the brim and the lighting sucks. Every player we seem to obtain we get rid of. I saw Alex Cobb in the dugout full-well-knowing it was his last weekend in a Rays uniform. Almost feels like when seeing David Price in a Rays uniform for the last time. Odo finished his season 10-8/4.14 ERA/143.1 IP. It's pretty sub par and wouldn't say his value is very high per se but some team would be willing to trade some pieces for him.

Rays 7, Orioles 0.
"Despite us falling off the second half, I would love a sweep this weekend,"
"I love you," Strawberry retorted.
We drove across Gandy.
"You wanna hit this?" Strawberry asked.
I took a puff and contemplated the upcoming winter. Fall doesn't exist in Florida. It lives hot or hotter. Premature summer aka "spring" didn't seem too far away.
"You are weaving in and out of lanes baby!" Strawberry roared.
In the bay I could see a school of dolphins swimming gingerly.

Encountering Kevin Kiermaier one night in the offseason...

I took up to being an Uber driver again because it was easy and the perpetual hang over that plagued me every morning was easier when I could go to/from work as I please.
The night took me into deep downtown Tampa territory. The day will come when the Rays will be down here. I had these people in my car who were leaving Bar Taco and seemed slightly buzzed, probably costed them more than my net worth (not very much).
"God I love these margaritas!" one of them announced.
WOOF.
They were going to Harbor Island, which was once actually a landfill that now gave way to the elite and wealthy here in Tampa ergo the wealthy live on shit. Are the wealthy so intelligent after all? We rolled up on a series of townhouses that seemed relatively moderate and humble.
I will never own anything this expensive in my life.
"Goodbye!" one of them said.
I got a ping from someone just down the road and headed toward the house and it read Kevin. A dude in a hat came out and this other guy came hustling out behind him.
"What's up man?" one them said.
Their conversation drifted and my mind wandered.
"So this beer is so good bro," one of them announced.
"Oh yeah?" the other voice said.
"My boy from Durham was telling me about it," the other voice said.
The destination was set to Soho.
For some odd reason, the word Durham resonated in my mind and I looked into the mirror, which was odd considering I never did that. Burning right back at me were a pair of eyes I was all to familiar with on TV.
"Hey, are you Kevin Kiermaier?"
Silence.
"Er...yes," Kevin said softly.
I got slightly excited.
"I tell ya buddy, there's no way you can tell me you like playing at that dump for a stadium,"
He chuckled at the remark.
"Yeah, they could definitely have a change of scenery," he said.
Amen.
"So what do you think about the Tim Beckham trade?"
Random.
"You know man? Tim was one of my best friends, I do not really get why they did that," he replied in disappointment.
"What about Marc Topkin?"
This I was obliged to know.
"Dude, FUCK Marc Topkin. Bro, he is so fat. He always tells the same story every year about my van that I don't own anymore," he laughed.
Cool. I loathe him too. Just like Pinellas County.
Coming out of Spring Training the outfield situation looked really prospective with Mallex, KK and Rasmus and Souza. When that actually did fall into the fold, it was the time I really loved the chemistry of that Rays team.
"I am bar tending tonight. The off season gets boring," he explained.
In reality, I didn't give a fuck about what these players did off the field, it's what they did on the field that mattered.
"That second half killed you guys,"
He gasped out of disappointment.
"Seems to happen a lot to us these past years," he snapped.
"What about Kevin Cash? Do you like him?"
I couldn't help but fire a bunch of questions.
"I like the guy but there are guys who definitely don't like him," he explained.
There was no elaboration but I felt like there was some implication without words.
"You guys play hard, hopefully you get the fuck out of St. Pete sooner than later,"
He laughed and said, "goodbye!"

I drove around Soho momentarily and replayed a couple of images in my mind. If KK didn't get hurt that one game he slid feet first and miss a large chunk of time, how different would the season have been? There was this clown at Tropicana one day harassing KK when he was signing balls for charity and name calling and slandering his character/playing abilities. Most people get jealous of others' success. No wonder I look in the mirror in total resentment of who I am. Mallex seemed like a good fit but he definitely needs more time to season at the Major League level. Dickerson, Souza, Mallex and KK could be a really nice outfield. Peter Bourjos was OK and I really thought it was weird they dumped Shane Peterson and that Brad Miller really is not the answer. They dumped Patrick Leonard who was the minor league's MVP. Logical right? There is word they may enter rebuild mode but what does this actually mean? We play essentially with AAA players as it is, so does this imply we trade off every prospective player? Honeywell? Bauers? Ciuffo? Fox? Genesis? It seems difficult to fathom this team rebuilding because it seems that there are only a handful of Major Leaugers on our club to begin with. They should resign Lomo. He plays good here and seems to like being a Ray. Why don't we trade all of Durham roster for Giancarlo?
My mind wandered as I drove around aimlessly.
So I called Strawberry.
"Baby, I just had Kevin Kiemaier in the car," I explained.
"That's good and all about KK but you better get home and smoke me out. I wanna get high and bang," she demanded.
So that's exactly what I did.

Season Ender and Prison...

I was charged with three accounts of domestic violence and verbal abuse. This is all started when I was at this Irish bar off Dale Mabry and Euclid. It was your typical scene in Tampa where the opposing fans outnumbered the home fans. This is a real rare incident for me but all in all, this is typical here in a transient place like Florida where the northerners come down to colonize and deem Florida home after "ten years I call it home". Whatever the fuck that means. These two clowns in Yankees gear kept antagonizing me and repeatedly mentioned "how many championships do you have?" Sorry bubba, we weren't around since the dinosaurs. Eventually it escalated and I stabbed one of them with my fork in his neck but nothing fatal. The city of lights was turned down a notch. I was only given a three month sentence and Strawberry bailed me out in a bond for a meager 300,000$. Back to the motel for me. The Cubs series was even worse, if not arguably, THE worst scene in humanity. One buffoon after another showed in Cubs gear but could probably not name you their 2014 Opening Day Starter nor could probably tell you how Chris Archer came over from them for Matt Garza or how David DeJesus wound up here? I saw one moron after another with a Cubs shirt on with a Rays jersey over it or the other way around. Riddle me this, riddle me that...have you ever even been to Chicago or the FUCKING STATE OF ILLINOIS? There is no such thing as a lovable loser. The Devil Rays were awful and there was nothing to love about that except Lou Pinella's rage, Wade Boggs crushing 3,000 and just watching Crime Dog do his thing. Maddon was great but our owner let him walk and lo and behold he takes another trash team and goes all the way.

This town...

Needless to say, I was going over the trades from the trade deadline and the front office. They dealt Tim Beckham for a pitching prospect. At first I was jubilant about this until he kept crushing with an AL East opponent. Surely Kevin Cash had a foot in getting rid of him. Word is on the street from this fat dude who writes for the Rays there was some bad blood in the mix. That trade will probably come to haunt us. Alex Cobb is now a free agent and will probably end up a Cub. They shipped of Erasmo Ramirez too, which also seemed like a questionable move but in return our pen really looked prime for October until the offense completely vanished. Colby Rasmus retired from baseball because he probably missed hunting and whisky too much, Lomo, Longo, Mallex, Dickerson and Souza kinda dried up and Wilson Ramos just seemed to never figure out his timing. The addition of Cishek and Romo was cool. Blake Snell looked good in his last outing. The biggest blow is probably losing Jim Hickey. Kyle Snyder should slide in nicely but Hick really has a way of developing pitchers (hence why The Rays have been relevant for sometime). Not sure where Rocco is going. There are rumors swirling of Longo being dealt. Can you say Atlanta Braves bound? They have the prospects and money. Honeywell and Archer could be a nice duo. By far the best thing going this offseason is the newly proposed stadium site. I literally cried out of joy when seeing the site Hagan proposed in Ybor and to know that the possibility my team would get out of the worst fucking town in this region would solidify the fact I would never have to set foot in Pinellas County again, where the rich stay rich and baseball does not work in an oversized Sam's Club also known as Tropicana Field. Amen.

"Strawberry, let's go up to McDonald's,"
"Ice cream?" she cried.
I loved this woman.