I admit I may have reached a little too far into the jar of depression over Izzy, but it was what I was feeling and I've found that it's better to acknowledge your emotions and work through them rather than try to ignore them or cover them up. At any rate, it doesn't really matter how I feel or what I want, because St Louis was not Izzy's home any longer. In reality, it was probably best for everyone involved that he did move on to another team. I hope he can get his stuff back together and earn a spot in the Rays' bullpen, and I wish him all the luck in the world. (I can say that without prejudice because we don't see Tampa at all during the regular season. No qualifiers necessary. Besides which, even if he were pitching at Busch for the road team, I'd set aside my Cardinals loyalties long enough to see him sit down three straight, just because I think there are some "fans" out there who need to see what he can do. Obviously I'd still want the Cards to win, just not on Izzy's back. Wow, that sounded a lot more vindictive than I'd planned. Oh well.) I hope I didn't offend anyone with my ranting. :)
Now on to other things.
Every time I start to write something about Carp, I get this ominous feeling, like I'm pushing the limits or tempting fate, and I certainly don't want to do that. But the news coming out of camp about his progress is just so ridiculously encouraging (I mean, seriously, "tickled pink"? Who knew Dave even had that in his vocabulary?) that it seems equally wrong to neglect the subject entirely.
I really do feel good about this season. Maybe it's the "kool-aid" as everyone says, or maybe it's the sunny, happy pictures full of batting practice and infield drills and players working on writing their upper-case alphabet with baseballs. Or maybe it's the months of baseball-less-ness that has eaten away at the important parts of my brain.
Have you ever played that game where you stand in a doorway, arms out (as far as they'll go) and push out and up on the door frame for about 30 seconds (as hard as you can without actually doing structural damage)? Then you walk away and relax your arms and they just kind of float toward the ceiling? You should try it.
That's what it feels like (after months of no baseball) when we finally get baseball back. It's like floating. I can't wait.
