(YAWN) Morning, how'd our Rays do?
At 1 this morning, I woke up for a late-night pee. Also? The Rays officially notched another win by tomahawking the Atlanta Braves, 10-4 after a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay. But even the lopsided victory was not without moments of butt-puckering frustration. David Price, who became the first pitcher in the American League to earn a 10th victory this season, managed to give up three runs and pitched 113 times to get through the 5th inning. But, true to gritty form, he also succeeded in bailing himself out of deep doo-doo with the bases loaded and no outs in the second. The feast or famine bats stuffed their faces early off of Atlanta pitcher Kenshin Kawakami, including a two-run homer by Evan Longoria and a couple of doubles by BJ Upton and new stud-getting-studlier Sean Rodriguez to open things up in the first. After the game, the team celebrated with a couple of chili-dogs at The Varsity and visited the sight where on January 1st, 2000, NFL linebacker Ray Lewis did absolutely nothing.
Bucs blind to blind-side value
The second most important position on a football team is arguably the one who protects the first most important position. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees wouldn't be making too many trips to Disney World if they spent most of their careers getting grey matter splattered through their ear-holes by defensive ends. Introducing the blind-side tackle. Donald Penn, the Buccaneers' version of Michael Oher, refused the Bucs offer of three million a year. Already I hear the knee-jerk reaction of Joe and Josephine 6-pack piling on the old and tired "overpaid athlete" complaint. I too, find myself dreaming of how comfortably I could live with 3 mil in the checking account. I could totally have like 17 HBOs and toilet paper I didn't steal from public restrooms. But one cannot ignore the market. When you're one of the bright spots on a shit-stain 3-13 season and one of the most important cogs on the most important wheel of the offense, an offer of more than a million dollars less than the average pay of said position is a bit of an insult. Especially from a group of tight-ass owners that still manage to throw money at WR Michael Clayton to miss footballs as if they were covered in red ants with herpes.
Quicker hits:
This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.