Someone has a sense of humor

I saw losses eight and nine in the current streak with one of my best buds. He's a Rockies fan. I wanted to make sure someone left the stadium happy. Anyway, Lannan finally gets pulled last night and Mock comes in (and was just as bad as Lannan). They're playing the music during Mock's warm up and my pal goes, "Uh, who is in charge of music here?"

It was Korn's "Coming Undone." Apparently it is Mock's theme music because they played a couple of notes when he came to bat. Still seemed like an odd choice on a weekend when it became clear that everything was undone.

The team is playing like crap, Crow is unsigned and my pizza was cold. Oh, and they were out of souvenir cups so I had to drink my Coke Zero out of a regular cup.

And though I am a (partial) season ticket holder and spend gobs of money on this team, I do not qualify for one of those stadium replicas because I signed up during spring training. Too late. I did get an official team yearbook/massive advertising vehicle. It has a different birth date listed for Austin Kearns than the roster on Nationals.com AND what shows up on the video board. Kearns is 28, not 30. I'll edit the thing for them in exchange for full season tickets in the club section. AND a replica. I'm a little ticked that I don't get one. I paid five months ago. Not enough time to make one? My money doesn't count?

I'm trying to find reasons to be happy and upbeat other than all the obvious ones (still alive, it is only baseball, all that rap). I'm not doing very well. I'm tempted to start another laugh to keep from crying thread.

To make my weekend complete, there was this last graph in Chico the Writer's story: Indeed, the tag on Flores at the plate resulted in Washington's latest injury. After the game, the team determined that Flores has a strained right calf. He status was described as day-to-day, but he was scheduled have precautionary X-rays.

Just freaking great. He'll be "days-to-days" for a week or so, forcing Manny to play two men down (Guzman? Hello? What's up with him?). Then he'll go on the DL. We'll see him in the spring. And I thought he was safe, by the way, but I didn't have a good angle. Was it foolish to send him? I vote for yes.

While I'm venting:

*I'm curious whether Ayala is allowed to take his gas can with him on the team plane or if he has to buy a new one in each city? It has gone beyond ridiculous. We were having a fun back-and-forth about a comeback. When Ayala trotted in, I said, "Well, that ends that hope." Shell, at least, continues to look good. Nineteen pitches in two innings last night, 14 of them strikes. Amazing the difference that makes.
UPDATE - AMF Mr. Ayala, enjoy New York. Maybe they'll let you take that gas can on the train to your new team. Now watch him turn into the Ayala of 2005.

*I put in a call to the post-game show on the way home. They took two calls. First guy was raging mad over Crow. I shared the same thoughts I've been sharing here. I'm frustrated, angry, you name it, too. It is particularly important now because us suffering saps need ANYTHING that will provide some glimmer of hope. But I'm sticking to my guns. A $3.5 million offer was plenty fair. I don't buy the what's another 700 large argument. It is 700 large on top of 1.4 million over slot and it would have doubled the slot. It was a fair offer. I'm stunned that an agent would advise a kid to turn down that kind of money with NO guarantee it will appear again in a year. Take it and earn that 700 large and then some later.
Oh wait, didn't I say I wouldn't talk about that anymore?

*Work beckons later this afternoon, so I won't be able to watch the whole game and that may be a good thing. My brother and I were talking about it on the way back to the car - next nine are against the Phillies, Cubs and Dodgers? A loss today and this losing streak could become epic.