Saturday, July 25, 2009

We're all conflicted

Just as the Tao traipses about Toronto, taking in the final start of our lord and saviour Roy Halladay, here I sit drowning in a combination of melancholy and back-of-the-fridge beers while contemplating the inevitable. It's a sad state of affairs, friends.

Compounding my infinite sadness (see what I did there?) is the weeks-long tug o' war playing out in my mind - should they, or shouldn't they?

Yes! Jays' brass should be shopping Halladay! He can't be re-signed, so dealing him now will bring back maximum value! Strike while the iron is hot! Nothing lasts forever! All that bullshit. On the other hand.....

No! Hell no! Even contemplating trading Doc is a ridiculous notion! He means too much to the team! To the city! To the country! To me, goddamnit!

If I can take solace in anything, it's that I know I'm not alone in dealing with inner turmoil. The Roy Halladay Depression has completely overwhelmed the blogosphere, with an emerging blood feud playing out right before our eyes.

(As an aside, am I a part of this? Are the teams drawn on blog loyalty, or is this an individual blogger thing......I'm confused.)

But wait - is it possible that the virus has spread beyond the lowly ranks of civilian bloggers? Yes, yes it is possible. As evidence, witness the following from the frequently ill-tempered (I kid, Jeff, I kid!) Jeff Blair:

In some quarters, it’s been suggested that this week’s whole semantics lesson – Halladay either gave the Blue Jays a list of teams he wanted to be traded to or he didn’t give them a list; Ricciardi can’t remember when Halladay told him he was not going to sign an extension, etc. – is an organizational plan to sully Halladay’s reputation and make his exit more palatable.

That’s an odd assertion from the grassy knoll group, since no sports figure in this city has less currency among his teams fan-base. I mean, really: if you want to spread nasty rumours about the most popular kid in the class, you don’t send out the least-popular kid to do it, right?

Couple this with the Tao's epic takedown, and I humbly offer the following advice:

"Just stay down, Griff! For the love of God, stay down!"

Late add
I see the article linked above has been re-written to incorporate Doc's post-game comments - a fantastic recap of which can be found here via the Post's Bruce Arthur. It's a must-read, but I am way too drained of any positive energy to give it a proper analysis.

Suffice to say, Doc loves Toronto (still warms my heart to hear it), didn't say he wanted to test free agency, but did say he wanted to wait until his contract is up to decide (which is, to be fair.....pretty much the same thing, no?).... has spoken with Beeston and feels there is "a plan" in place, but not sure if it's enough of a plan....wants to stay, but wants to win......in short, he is, wait for it - Conflicted.

That's probably about all that I have in common with him.

Late add, take 2
....just because it's a great read.

13 comments:

Darren Priest said...

"since no sports figure in this city has less currency among his teams fan-base"

Is that sarcasm --or should it be more currency? Isn't currency a good thing to have?

QJays said...

less currency - referring to JP's small amount of currency with the Jays' fans base. And yes, currency is a good thing to have - JP lacks it.

Darren Priest said...

Yes, it makes sense that way. The first few times I read it, I thought he was referring to Doc.

I think my inability to think of the GM as a "sports figure" goes back to the Gord Ash days.

QJays said...

I can see why you asked - it made me give it another look too.

I still think JP had an intended message on Thursday, and I think Griffin (despite his massive shortcomings) came closer to giving a credible explanation for what happened that day than anyone else, but I can still understand all the different positions people are taking on this.

At the end of the day, we just have to wait and see if we get Doc for 2010 or not.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

ESPN's Gary Wise said it best:

With a heavy heart -- because I love my boy Roy -- I have to set him free.

Mattt said...

So there is hope. Hope is something to cling to, right? Right?

MK Piatkowski said...

Thanks for the links, Ack. All I can add is that after coming home from the ballpark, trying not to think about it being the last time I saw Doc, I saw clips of the interview (thank you, Sportsnet West) and I felt a lot better. Seeing Doc so obviously affected by how we greeted him last night really, really helped. He knows how much we love him and for me, that's enough. I still don't know what I'll do if the worst happens, but at least I'm now at peace about it, knowing that he doesn't really want to go either.

The Ack said...

I need to stay away from the computer for awhile. My next post is going to be fucking brutality.

Anonymous said...

link in the post didn't work for me...here's one for same story that did work...

http://www.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=wise/090724&sportCat=mlb

excellent article that pretty much captures what I'm going through..."if you love something, set it free", and all that...

and yet I still wonder why this has to be a foregone conclusion...couldn't a combination of The Franchise being ready next year, an upgrade in the heart of the order (Overbay out, Delgado or another thumper in?) and an extension for Halladay that allows him to opt out at the end of each season work?

There I go with that silly hope again...

The Ack said...

sorry about the bad link - fixed. It was actually a link to the very same article. good stuff.

I'm still furious though, and you will read my bile later....

Darren Priest said...

Furious about the extra innings loss, I presume?

Bruno Von Rottweiler said...

DP< ACK, that really sucked beyond belief. Even when they wre up 9-1, I said they will find some way to fuck it up...and they obliged me. Thank god, it was nice out here in the NYC area or I'd go bugfuck. Doc is probably saying to himself: the ship isn't sinking, IT SUNK! what a shitty loss and to those new mini-mites the Rays.....Burrell fucking contributed, why didn't Rogers let them get a proper fucking DH? THis team is a joke, I give up.

Mattt said...

Giving up is for the weak...