Poblanotes 50.8- Alba #2

[chicoruiz]

Two years ago at this time I was hitting .217 for Beirut in the UMEBA. Last year I hit .185 for Sioux City in AA ball. This year I was struggling for playing time in AA as a backup catcher. Until all of a sudden, I’m starting every other day for a major league team that’s got an actual chance at the postseason. I’m OPS-ing .826 for that team. I’ve hit an actual home run and driven in six runs in six starts. Is it any wonder I feel like I’m experiencing a bit of vertigo?

El Paso may not be everybody’s dream destination, but you’re never going to hear me say a word against it. They don’t have much positive to look back on, but they’re above .500 in August, and they seem like a great bunch of guys. And the pitching, which was supposed to be rotten, is actually improving. Pitching in that park, you have to have some stones, and they’re slowly developing them.

My six-year-old daughter expressed it this way when I talked to her on the phone the other day: “Daddy, you’re just like Sophia The First!”.

“Sophia The First? Who’s that?”

“It’s my favorite show… Sophia was really poor and lived in a little cottage, but then something happened, and now she’s a princess!” All my daughter’s sentences come with exclamation points.

And to top it all off…my agent, Swifty, called me to tell me that our GM, Chico Ruiz, had called him about a contract extension! “You know who you are, kid?” he said. “You’re Shirley MacLaine!”

“I’m Shirley MacLaine???”

“Yeah… You know, Shirley MacLaine was a nobody, dancing in the chorus of Sweet Charity on Broadway. Then one night, the star, Gwen Verdon, can’t go on. Shirley takes her place, and wouldn’t you know it- there’s a big Hollywood producer in the audience that night, and before you know it, she’s a movie star.”

“Well, thanks, Swifty, but I don’t really think that analogy holds up to my experience. Besides, I can’t be Shirley MacLaine… I’m already Sophia The First.”

[Jwalk100]

Two mules for Sister Sophia?