Pour One Out

I'm sitting in the last of my four, hour long meetings that I've had today. My eye lids feel like they have sand bags weighing them down. I got an HR guy going through a presentation that I gave up on 25 minutes before this moment. I'm too busy spending all my energy fighting the urge to close my just one of my eyes. Maybe for a second I think to myself.

My phone vibrates, alerting me to a text message. The struggle between my brain and my eyes is now on hold as the text message has distracted the two battling parties. Who could it be? I wonder what it says? Nothing more world consuming for my imagination than a text message I can't immediately access.

After a few moments of pretending I could ignore it, I succomb to the seductive calls of my phones vibrations. As soon as the HR guy looked away, I eased my phone out of my pocket, and glanced at the message.

BW: ICHIRO HAS BEEN TRADED!!!

Cue the sound of my world shattering.

In all honesty, this should've happened last year. Maybe even the year before that. Shit, the Mariners all time hit leader (2533) theoretically could've been traded any time after 2007 and it would've made sense. The team was going no where, and Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong (dickheads) aren't opperating a franchise in LA, Texas, Boston or New York. They run a team in Seattle. The logical plan is to be building a team with prospects, rather than playing the Free Agency game.

Over the last decade this team hasn't quite commited to a strategy. They pound their chest and say they want to spend wisely, but they give huge deals to Richie Sexson and Carlos Silva. Then they say they want to build with prospects, but trade immediate All Star shortstop Adsrubal Cabrerra to the Indians for Herpes.

The only constant with this team was it's steadfast refusal to consider dealing Ichiro.

Which was fine by me. In my fan lifetime the Mariners have traded away 3 first ballot hall of famers (ok 2, since A Rod will get the steroid bitch slap), and I was ok with letting the 4th play the whole career patrolling right field.

But his numbers were suffering. He was no longer racking up 230 hits in a single season. He was no longer running down gapped fly balls. He still looked like 2001 Ichiro, only if you replaced his cleets with cinderblocks. Basically, if he was a computer his descrease in speed would have me googeling free Anti Virus software.

The only thing that stayed consistant was his inabillity to get injured, which of course kept any potential prospects from getting a crack at demonstrating his talents.

All that is over now. The bandaid was ripped off and Ichiro is now the 4th 1st Ballot Hall of Famer to get traded by Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrongs (seriously, these two are giant Dickheads). Ichiro, the last Mariner to win MVP, is now a New York Yankee while he sits 447 hits away from 3000 ( a number he wants to get to). No matter how I have felt about his play the 18 months or so, I will miss Area 51.

Oh and on a serious note, if Ichiro gets to 3000 while wearing Pinstripes I'm going to eat a bullet.