Cardinals Replace Albert Pujols With J.C. Romero

Does everyone remember J.C. Romero?  Well I sure do.  He was vaulted directly back into my direct consciousness during a Reading Phillies game I attended last season while he was wallowing in pitchers hell (Colorado).

While standing in line to buy Dippin’ Dots, I saw a morbidly obese man amble by wearing a Romero shirtsy.  I quickly purchased my astronaut ice cream and sprinted in front of the man to determine if perhaps he had the shirt personalized with his name.  As I was unable to determine his ethnicity I actually asked him if the shirt in question was in tribute to the baseball pitcher J.C. Romero.  “Yes,” the man replied, “Romero is my favorite player.”  Shocking.  Reading is a strange place.

Regardless of the feelings of a man waiting in line for food at a minor league baseball stadium, Romero’s role as a left handed relief pitcher renders him, at best, forgettable.  Add to that his fifty game suspension from baseball for using banned substances and his subsequent ineffectiveness and Romero teeters on the vilification borderline.

It is downright silly to assume that last year’s world series champions would attempt to fill the gaping line-up hole left by the departure of Albert Pujols with a journeyman, left handed reliever.  It would also be just as asinine to counter Pujols leaving by signing Skip Shumaker and Rafeal Furcal to two year deals.

I, for one, am choosing to believe that the Cardinals, rendered delirious by Tony LaRussa’s retirement and near insane with grief after Pujols left them have turned to J.C. Romero to lessen the damage.  I am also questioning why Dippin’ Dots are only available at baseball games.