Christmas Comes Early to Anaheim
Yeah, I heard.
My first reaction to this was a sort of mental gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair. Reading Dave’s article there calms me down a little bit, but not much. I think I’ll need to see Pujols in action against constant American League pitching to truly settle down, and there are other teams we play on a fairly regular basis, so really it’s not like this is the end of the world. At the very least, we can hope that Safeco Field’s walls have an Adrian-Beltre-like effect on Pujols’ batting. At the opposite end of the spectrum, well, everyone likes a good home run, right? I know the numbers aren’t really comparable, but I gotta grab on to something.The Mariners were never in on Pujols, but the crazy fan part of me just feels awful about this. I should be looking at all the bright sides of the situation; I’ve only ever seen Pujols on TV. Now I can drive downtown and see him whenever the Angels are in town. Plus, I get to be annoyed by the Angels again, which seems more appropriate than being annoyed by the Rangers. Or the Marlins. Or even St Louis. I feel like our natural rivalry has returned, after a few years of rest. Sorry, San Diego.
The Angels also wound up with now-former Ranger CJ Wilson. I am not upset about this for the Mariners’ sake, but for the sake of Rangers fans. I know Wilson was well-liked in Texas, and I know how it must feel for one of your beloved players to go to a direct rival, especially now that that rival has one of the best hitters in the game today. It feels like this. And I appreciate that Micah’s post is heartfelt but professional; I don’t know that I could have done that. I still root for old Mariners, even if they’re on other teams. Especially if they’re on one of my other three. It feels a little wrong sometimes, but I still do it, especially if they were guys I liked back in 2008, when all of this mess first started. But her post does give me some perspective on things, and maybe next time, I won’t be so terribly upset when we lose someone I love. Everyone’s gotta grow up sometime.
I’m not even going into the Rule 5 guy. I’m sorry, Rule 5 guy. I will, however, make a concerted effort to remember your name; Lucas Luetge. It’s like Josh Lueke, but with a Josh and a few other letters thrown in. I think I can manage that.
