Look, I'm no hibernating bear; Richie Sexson goes out on a 6-game hitting streak, hitting the walk-off home run in the victory over the Twins last night ... I ain't hiding! I dump on the bad, I gotta take my lumps when he finally gets around to force-feeding me crow. Much like Principal Skinner said after unintentionally blurting out that the school children have no future, I've been demanding Richie Sexson prove me wrong and - until this point, to a point - he's been a dropping of birdshit on a freshly cut head of hair.
I hear the fans have been booing a lot more lately; guess Santa got my letter. Here's the thing, according to the quotes I've been reading - coming from one Richie Sexson - it sounds like the fans are booing the Mariners as a collective for poor performance when it's really not justified, considering we're 16 games over .500 and have the Wild Card lead at the moment. But, I know the truth. I know that the fans are just booing Richie Sexson because - when he's not hitting game-winning home runs - he's striking out in crucial situations. And, make no mistake, with his .210 batting average, that means we're talking about infinity more bungled opportunities than heroic ones.
They're not booing Richie because he's a bad guy or he's been caught cheating the game or on his wife or whatever. They're not booing him because he's an asshole. They're booing because he makes $15.5 million and he's hitting .210 with 18 homers. They're booing him because they can't directly boo John McLaren for not instituting Ben Broussard at first base. They're booing him because they can't boo Bill Bavasi for the gaudy contract. They're booing him because we've heard all year long, "He's a second half hitter; just wait until he gets on a roll and starts carrying this team," and he's yet to pay out.
He's that same slot machine you keep pumping twenties into after you've already lost $400 because you're frustrated and your only sense of logic stems from, "sooner or later, I'll recoup all that I've lost." Well, we're down our $400, and with last night's score we've managed to get back $30. We can either take that as a sign of improved fortune henceforth, or we can cut our losses, throw that $30 on playing Ibanez at first base (with Jones in left, Vidro as DH, and Richie facing only the lefties), and hope we double our money for a run at the playoffs.
Time is wasting, and I just hope this little fluke doesn't compensate for the months of futility