Jesus, Mary And Aaron !

As some of you know, when I visited spring training, I hoped this was going to be an easy year.

Sure, Bird would need surgery before opening day but he has never made it healthy to an opening day.

It is no co-incidence, by the way, that a foot ( ankle ) problem can cause poor timing with the bat.  Hitting requires balance and co-ordination ( eye, hands, feet, hips thyroid, etc ) at an intense level....with rock hard balls being hurled toward a batter at 95 mph and more.

 Bird's dismal hitting was directly related to his nagging pain.  We all know he can hit.  We just don't know if he can ever stay out of the infirmary.  For some, it becomes a sick kind of psychological compulsion ( reference; Nick Johnson, and people who stab themselves at night in the kitchen).

Which brings me to today's news and dismay.  On the day when you know who got out of the bat cave and headed skyward, our own biblically named icon ( Aaron ) went into it.  One friggen day of meaningful baseball and he is gone.

 He has what we call ( in Swanese) " an intercostal...not coastal....muscle strain."  You can get it from paddling too hard and too fast around the lilies, or running out infield singles.  Aaron got it, somehow, in doing the latter.

Never mind that in this morning's box score he was 2-4.

So the injury replacement parade begins.  The depth of the miracle, and highly over-rated farm system is tested.  McKinney comes up.  One underperforming first round pick substitutes for another ( neither of which were originally selected by your GM ).

So what is today's line-up?  We know Gardy moves to CF.  I hope Judge stays where he is.  They will never start McKinney, particularly in LF ( he is a RF).  That can only mean one thing:

The Italian Stallion ( named after an English nobleman....the Stanton family of plymouth rock ) will be in left.

Double trouble.

I already need a break.