Why in the hell do I continue to get fooled by that rock-head Gil Meche? I know exactly what he is - the Ryan Leaf of major league pitchers. Million dollar arm, ten cent head.
I know this and yet I continue to periodically get drawn into a "oh my God, he's finally putting it together" mindset. Every time he strings together five of six dominant starts in a row, I start to believe again only to have my hopes crushed like a bobcat skull in a grizzly's mouth.
This year, I really fought it. I was one of the last holdouts on the blogs and message boards - a lonely voice of reason cautioning that we had seen this act before. That Gil would soon revert to form. But start after start, he was brilliant and my protests became weaker and weaker. Then came the Yankee game and even I started to believe.
Don't trade Gil, we all reasoned. Sign him to a fat extension right now, some people said. Don't let this dude get to free agency. Don't let the Yankees get their hands on the golden boy. We were all fools.
Now Gil is in free fall again - with an era headed toward 5 with a bullet. He has no control of his pitches and seems to have no idea where the ball is going to wind up when he releases it. f**k. Any hopes that the Mariners had of making the post season were riding on Meche's right arm, or maybe I should say his frontal lobe. f**k[*] idiot.
And I'm not the only one either.
Jeff, from LookoutLanding:
I'm almost ashamed for drinking a half-glass of the Gil Meche Kool Aid a few weeks ago, because I should've known better. In fact, I think I did know better, but I let my heart get ahead of my brain, and now I get to feel like an idiot for the rest of my life, all my optimistic thoughts about Gil's season stored away in the site archives for the world to see. So I'm here to say, never again. Never again will I let myself buy into the Gil Meche hype, because every time I've so much as considered viewing him as a reliable pitcher, I've been burned.
After a win in New York a few weeks ago, I said the following:
I didn't think I'd ever be one to write these words, but somewhat against my better judgment, I'm beginning to turn into a Gil Meche believer.
I was wrong. Gil Meche sucks, has always sucked, and will continue to suck for as long as he dares to step onto a mound with a ball in his hand. The only solace I can take from all this is that every bad start he makes right now is costing him at least six figures on the open market this winter and reducing the likelihood that he ends up on a playoff contender. We've all had to put up with this assclown since he was drafted in 1996. Now it's Gil's turn to suffer through a decade of misery and disappointment (and that's a part of his career I can take pleasure in watching).
Jbob from SportSpot sums it up nicely:
Fool us once - shame on you.
Fool us twice - shame on us.
Fool us five times - who are the real rock heads?
class 1996
