Standings as of May 3, 2010

Anybody got a really big ladder?  Well the Blues have dug themselves quite some hole.  And it is going to take some super effort to get out of this cellar we have dug.  Going to take some truly skillful managing….well, there is the trouble, isn’t it? No new manager on the horizon for the Blues, they are stuck with what they have. Being the constant optimist that I am….I say it can be done.  The season is still young…it is a marathon, not a sprint and any number of other clichés.  Yes, We Can! Says us Obama followers and us Blues fans. Yes, we can!

We joke a lot in the League about the classic draft day lament:  “I hate my Team”.  But in my usual , stupid, clueless, naïve manner after every draft, I thought about my team, what I think about my team pretty much every year:  “Well, if so and so can come through, if such and such can bounce back..if so and so can break out this year, if I stay away from injuries..if someone has a big year..if they can just do what they did last year…well, this team is not too bad..I kinda like it.”  And frankly, I suspect that is what most of us think at the draft.  No-one is walking out of there thinking to themselves: “This is it the team for the ages..I am destined to win this thing.”  Nor is any one saying: “No way I can win this thing, my team sucks.”  No, I think we are all somewhere in the middle…thinking that with a few breaks, this could be the year of the “_______”  (fill in the blank.)  (And then, like, with the Blues, the wheels fall off and it becomes painfully obvious that my optimism was a just a dream and I did draft a really bad team..and oh yea..all the good free agents  are already gone.) But I refuse to give up.  I am going to build that ladder and start climbing out of this hole today!  (With some help from the Tigers and Senators).

Random shots  Mouse……buddy…Can you say over managing?  I know from my perch many notches below you, advice is probably unwarranted…but Gil Meche, Mitch Meier and John Buck???  I know you are not that desperate yet.  You are still looking good.  Don’t panic on May 1.  I should be the one doing the panicking.  A true sign of panic, would be , for example, to change your team name, right Big Guy?

That  Ubaldo Jiminez was a pretty good 5^th round pick, Jim.  Almost as good as that Barry Zito 27^th round pick for the Cubs.  Last I checked Zito was in the top 10 for starting pitchers.  That is the stuff of championship teams.

I am pleased to announce my new position…with the arrival in the Kansas City metroplex, the world renowned attorney and swordsman, Mitch “Magpie” Pirnie…”Mitch’s Wingman”.  I know that it is going to be tough duty.  But I think I am up to it.

It must be the “Curse of the Blues”  I hitch my wagon to the Red Sox, with Pedroia, Beltre and Ellsbury and Ted’s  beloved Sox get off to one of the worst starts in recent memory.  Sorry about that Ted.  Please reassure me that they are going to turn this thing around.

Please allow me to echo UB’s sentiments expressed in the last “Belly flop.”  It continues to be one of the great pleasures and privileges in my life to be involved with this group of guys.  It continues to amaze me how much fun we have doing something quite silly. I am always amazed at how much fun I do have doing this and sharing this small bit of our lives together and how long we have kept at it.  Thank you all for letting me a part of your lives for the past 24 years.  See you in August.  McBlunder.