Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Underwhelming Over Slot


Gassing up the Barbersled today, I opted to throw down a couple bucks for a lottery ticket. Rarely do I support the government's tax on stupidity, but commuting, working for a dozen masters doing something I don't exactly love; who's stupid now? Anyway, the Barbersled and I sped away, windows down and sunroof open with the angry & angular sounds of the new Coalesce record blasting out at odd intervals. (I apologize for reaching deep into the record reviewer cliche bag for angular, at least I didn't use the go-to prefix "post.")

Reaching highway speed I noticed my precious ticket to freedom floating towards the window. Holy shit! My Blue Jays-influenced thinking immediately took over:
Had that ticket blown away, it would have been a winner for sure. I don't know my numbers, so come Friday's draw I will only be able to picture my ticket as the grand prize winner.
Sick as it may be, there is an element of human nature at play here.

My thinking then turned to Jake Eliopolous and James Paxton. What if they become the ones that got away? What if they go back to school and get hurt, or life throws them a curveball they can't hold up on? What if, had he signed, the tutelage of Arnsberg turned Eliopoulos into something great? Not Steve Carlton, but Andy Pettitte say?

Worse yet, what if they go on to become super duper stars for another team, the Orioles or Rays even! What if, as reported, the Jays and Eliopoulos weren't that far apart in negotiations? WHAT IF????

Needless to say, this depressed me. I quickly replaced Coalesce with The Loved Ones, turning my car into a anthem-ey pop punk conveyance of joy. The "What if" game is a fool's errand, but I've been accused of worse. I'm sure it's nothing and the young left hander with intimate knowledge of T&B Convenience and Whipper Watson Park has an outside shot at a solid if unspectacular career. But still, what if?

11 comments:

  1. As Mike Wilner would say, "we're talking about a whole different space-time continuum here". Ultimately it's now useless to play the "what if" game, as you said. Unlike your situation, the Jays had really fast closing power windows and apparently let the tickets fly off without a fight.

    By the way Drew, you may want to start putting your lottery tickets and Jays gift cards in some kind of mobile safe that is permanently attached to your body.

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  2. Don't think about them. Think about Chad Jenkins and Jake Marisnick.

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  3. You can't criticize these decisions because you don't know the parameters they were dealing with. Was Paxton asking for an impossible amount so he could return to the draft next year? Did Eliopolous decide he wasn't signing no matter what and refuse to even negotiate?

    stuff like that happens all the time

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  4. I don't know that I was criticizing them, more fretting over them. You've now added an extra layer to my neuroses though: what if they didn't even want to be Blue Jays???

    Great, now I'll never sleep.

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  5. Alex, scouts and scouting agencies are near unanimous in saying the Jays blew signing day. If those guys backed out, we would've heard about this. Instead, Law said we lost Eliopoulous over a trivial amount and never even went hard after Barrett.

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  6. Keith Law hates the Blue Jays and he hates J.P. Ricciardi. I can't take anything he says about the team very seriously.

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  7. Im with Eyebleaf.

    The whole situation is what it is. We didn't sign them which really sucks and I wish we did, but the Rays didn't sign their TOP 2 picks. This sort of stuff happens. It just really sucks that it has to happen at a time where all of Canada is jumping at JP because Hockey hasn't started yet.

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  8. I think even Law realizes that JP isn't to blame for this. And Tampa is on an even tighter budget. The point is, the Jays said the "gloves are off" in February and when it came time to take them off, they instead put an extra pair of oven mitts on top of the gloves.

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  9. SP: Just because they said the "gloves are off," they're supposed to overpay?

    We got two high-ceiling guys out of our top 5. Fuck the three who didn't sign. They clearly had their reasons. We went overslot, they didn't take the money. Even the Jays have to draw the line somewhere.

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  10. Yeah I've said it before, had we overpaid you can bet the same writers that are thrasing the Jays now would be thrashing them still... Just for a different reason.

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  11. Law and JP talked at last year's GM meetings. I think they burried the hatchett, because since then, Law has lost that bitter tone. He hates on everyone somewhat, but gives JP and the Jays a lot more slack than he used to.

    I too use to hate Law for his anti-Jay rhetoric, but I definitely think those days are behind him.

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