Apr 04 2019 11:31 AM
Hi, I'm Mets lefthander and famed Vaudevillian master of ethnic comedy, Ryan O'Rourke.
You don't know who is going to be your lefty specialist at times. So you pack in a pile of them and tell them they've all got a chance to make the team. A good chance.
And we all believe it too. And then we get to our lockers, and look around and suddenly we see a half dozen or more lefthanded journeyman relief pitchers, and we hear rumors of two more getting tryouts. And then we get mad and start treating each other meanly. As if it's the other players fault when a team jerks me around. But when we start piling up, somebody who was hoping to go to Flushing is going to end up in Binghamton, and that's a big fat reality check.
Didn't happen to me though. Ávilan and Wilson are lefthanding it with the big club, and me and Zamora started in AAA. Nobody's quite sure what happened to Roseboom, but I think he got left behind in extended spring training, the poor dude. The poor dude who I HATE.
Not really, but it's a competitive world. And so I don't exactly celebrate when Luis Ávilan bombs out trying to finish last night's game, I figure, if it's got to be somebody, it might as well be the guy whose job I want. I'm not made of stone. Besides, the Mets won. It's a win-win. Unless you're Ávilan.
I'm from Worcester, which produces a lot of hard-living white people, seeing as the jobs mostly left about two/two and half generations ago, but don't make too much of that, as my folks sent me off to the fruity St. John's High School in Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury is the sort of name that almost makes it's population want to beat themselves up.
I've got my TJ surgery behind me, missing 2017, and the Twins club had to bear with that, and then I rehabbed back in 2018 with the Orioles. But now I'm over the bump and ready to bring it. I throw from a 2:00 angle (that sidearm shot above is me making a play), which has the lefties bailing out. I pitched to a 1.74 ERA this spring, and stuck around until, like, within a week of the end of camp.
Fun fact: In my 54 games with the Twins, I got to appear in every American League park except T-Mobile(?!) in Seattle and Fenway. And the Mets aren't going to Fenway this yeah either. Gahdammit, I wanna pitch in Bahstin! WoostahSTRONG, baby!!
So, that's how it adds up: I got a repaired arm, a lefthanded orientation, 54 games of experience, and I'm a step away from The Show. How's it going to roll out?