Poblanotes 51.2- Stymied by Spring

[chicoruiz]

Spring fever. It’s hitting me hard this year.

I’ve always been susceptible to it, but this year is really bad. I don’t mean I’m longing to be running through a field of daisies (not that we have that in El Paso), just that instead of doing the stuff I need to do as GM of the Chilis, I keep finding reasons to goof off instead. It may be because with the team in better shape than it has been, there’s less pressure on me to do stuff, even when there’s stuff on my desk that needs to be done.

For example: We lost Hao Hang, our right fielder and DH, for the first half of the season. I really should be scouring the free agent lists for a warm body who can fill in for a half season, then be cut without us taking a big cash hit. Instead, I spent the afternoon using a pair of rolled-up athletic socks and a bent coat hanger hoop over my office doorway to re-create my high school basketball team’s thrilling march to the championship- except with me in the starring role.

Then, as fate would have it, we lost Gary Goodchild, my old buddy, also for a half season. I had claimed an arm from Las Vegas who looks okay, but he’s more of a bullpen guy. Yesterday my staff thought I was making a spreadsheet of available starting pitchers; actually I was creating a bracket of 16 for my “hottest women” tournament (I got down to the final two- Ana de Armas and Ksenia Buzina- before the assistant GM called me into some dumb budget meeting).

Spring fever can affect you in odd ways. I recently signed a rookie 2B with the somewhat unusual name of Anangam Goenka. For some reason, I keep reading his first name as “anagram”, so of course I had to spend an hour finding anagrams for the name “Goenka”. My best so far: “A keg? No!!”.

I know I’ll pay for my inactivity down the line, but I can’t help it. I can only hope that lots of other GMs are experiencing the same thing

Spring fever…Catch it!!!