For some reason - I really couldn't tell you why - the Marlins have recently gotten me thinking of Edward Gorey's magnum opus, The Gashlycrumb Tinies.
For those of you who don't know it - it is a lovely, illustrated tale of the wondrous and alphabetical deaths of many hapless children. Go check it out - it is really quite humorous, if you are into that kind of thing. Some are more bizarre than others, but my favorite has always been -
I just love the way that all you can see is the poor kids' eyes, and yet you can see so much sadness and emptiness...
It cracks MY ass up.
That may be why I've been thinking of this recently. As I've pointed out (endlessly) before, this season will be a long one - very sad and FULL of ennui. We will have players playing who are not ready for the majors yet - players who may never BE ready for the majors...
We'll probably have numerous roster changes as the season goes on, bad play from fielders, many of the pitchers will not be stellar (to say the least), hitting will be weak... in fact I imagine one would be hard pressed to find any real strengths on this team, other than its youth and "payroll flexibility." This will be ugly and painful.
However - I don't imagine we will have anyone wasting away completely from it. I, myself, have even recently realized that there may well be a good deal of fun to be had from all of this, and a lot of these players will indeed turn out to be quality major leaguers! We might even have a few bright spots this very season!
That being said - I still think we may well have a good few of us fans who wind up like poor Zillah...
Here's to Zillah!