Love, Hate and Adam Lind



Adam Lind taught us a valuable lesson this week about sticking with your studs.



I am not a well man. I'll prove it to you.

Rewind to March of 2009. I had just purchased MLB The Show for PS3, and boy was I hyped. I traded in my Xbox just for this game, and I played it non-stop. There was not a night, weekend or weekday, that I wasn't playing until at least 2am. In my travels through the game I came across this outfielder on the Blue Jays named Adam Lind. "Who the fuck is Adam Lind?" I said to myself. "Is this some guy whose name they had to change because he isn't in the player's union?" Was this another "Gary Player" (Michael Jordan) situation all over again?

No. No, it was not. No real player could be as good as Adam Lind was in that game. He won the MVP and became one of my favorite video game players not created in my own image. A serious bromance had begun before I ever saw him actually swing a bat in real life. I took Adam Lind in my '09 fantasy drafts with amazing results, making me realize two things.

1. Simmed seasons in MLB the show NEVER lie.
2. Adam Lind is fuckin' good at baseball.

Flash forwad to this past weekend....

Last Friday, June 3rd, I was hanging out at some lounge in Union Square with a few Jets players (seriously) when I looked at my phone and realized that Adam Lind was finally coming off the DL. I needed to make sure I got him in for the weekend games. Now, your first thought after reading that sentence is probably, "Why the hell is the Guru even checking his phone while drinking Patron shots with NFL players?" You'd be right in thinking that, so let me try to defend the undefendable.

I'm obsessed.

I live for this shit. I eat, sleep and breathe Fantasy Baseball. I know what every player is doing at every given moment in time, and I can't go five minutes without checking every single big league boxscore. In fact, Coach recently pointed out that obsessed is probably an understatement. Either way, the next morning I noticed that I had a bit of a problem. Because my team is so beastly, I had no where to put Adam Lind. I did my daily check to see when Michael Young could be put at second base to open up a spot, but of course he was still sitting one game short of eligibility. Just my luck. So I say to myself "Hey, Lind is great, but he has been shelved for over 3 weeks. He is going to need to shake off the cobwebs before he starts hitting again like he did before he went on the DL."

Big mistake. Not surprisingly, on his second day back Lind double cheesed, scored a pair of runs and drove in three more. Fucking heartbreaking. I was sitting at my sister's confirmation party and I was acting like it was a funeral. My day was ruined, a tell tale sign that I am way too into this shit. I lost the week 3-9 because of the Lind benching. Things were so close that if he were in my lineup that Sunday the matchup would have ended 6-6.

Keep going to Monday. Okay, new week. I try to put that miserable Sunday behind me and focus on the matchup at hand. I'm still in first place in my league and have a tough oppenent, so there is no reason to dwell on the past. I again do my check.

1. Mike Young nine games at 2B, needs one more start there.
2. No room for Lind.

But wait! I can learn a lesson with the best of them! There is no way I will sit Lind again. He is going in the lineup. Wham, 0 for 4. Tuesday comes along with Mr. Young still at nine games. Again hit with a tough decision, this time I don't start Adam Lind. BOOM. Another cheese. I honestly can't believe it. Burned yet again. After the game I say to myself "How can I be so dumb?" Maybe I can't learn a lesson after all.

But then on Wednesday, I got great news out of Dallas. It seems the seed of Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler is strong, as on Wednesday his wife gave birth and the club put him on paternity leave. This wonderful stroke of luck meant that today my lineup would be complete and I will not be faced with these gut wrenching decisions anymore. I originally had Lind in the lineup but said to myself "What's one more day?" Lind remained on the bench against a lefty and I went out to pictch another R.A. Dickey-like gem for my softball team.

Of course, the inevitable happened, and Adam Lind hit a grand slam while firmly planted on my bench. I found out the news at the bar after the softball game and I couldn't have been more upset. It felt like a bad dream. I have now been burned 3 separate times by not starting Adam Lind, and got an Ohfer the one time I did choose to start him. Life sucks. It was to the point last night that people were coming up to me and asking if something had happened between my girlfriend and I.

I'm fucking sick, I tell ya.

The moral of this rant is simply start Adam Lind every single day. For the love of god start him with confidence. He is a supreme power bat that should never see the bench of any teams roster for any reason at all. With Young gaining 2B eligibility, I will now never have to sit him. Adam Lind rakes and there is nothing worse then seeing 4 HR, 9 RBI, and 5 R sit on your bench over a 3 day span. Literally, nothing worse. I have learned my lesson.

Adam Lind, you are the man. I know tonight you will go 0 for 4 again, but at least you won't be on my bench.