by NeilT
So I wanted to talk to Ms Lola Laloush tonight about our 2014 Astros. The Disneys were in town, and the Stros had started the season 2-1. I was just a wee bit pumped, and I suspect a lot of the TC’s crowd was just a wee bit pumped too, one time or another.
You know about Ms. Lola. She knows baseball, and she hangs out at this gay bar in Montrose. If you want to talk baseball statistics there’s no place like Montrose. She’s a beautiful woman with some odd interests: drag racing and baseball. I never talk to her about the drag stuff because I don’t know anything about it, but nobody knows baseball like Ms. Lola.
But she wasn’t there.
I asked the bartender and he said that Ms. Lola was so mad at our mayor that she was holding a candlelight vigil over on Westmoreland. “Do you know what she did?” I didn’t, and I wasn’t sure whether the “she” was the mayor or Ms. Lola. “She proposed a civil rights ordinance that covered the GLBT community but didn’t apply to private business. Ms. Lola was so mad she made a sign.”
I wasn’t quite sure what the GLBT community was, but I would have liked to see Ms. Lola holding up a sign. Just saying.
Anyway I went back and sat at Ms. Lola’s usual table and ordered a Shiner and watched the game. Things don’t really kick in at TC’s until after 10 or so, so I figured I could finish the game and get out before the big engines started revving and they started the drag racing. Then I heard this weird conversation from the woman at the table behind me. Don’t tell Kris, but this was a woman I thought was mighty attractive–there are always a lot of attractive women at TC’s–and I thought maybe I knew her. I’ll try to transcribe the conversation.
“You fuck, I don’t care what Detroit gave you. I didn’t care you quit baseball as long as it was for surfing, but you’ve left me here to deal with Angel and I’m getting the shit kicked out of me and you’re not helping. What do I care that Detroit is playing some damned bird?”
Things weren’t going well for that woman, and they weren’t going well for my Astros. Harrell started and didn’t vaguely resemble the 2012 Harrell. Harrell looked exactly like the 2013 Harrell. I suspect Harrell is on a pretty short leash. First inning Trout homered to left. By the second inning there was a coaching visit to the mound. Ibanez singled, Kendrick singled, Iannetta walked, Trout walked. Do the math. Meanwhile the Angels’ pitcher Richards was dealing. He even struck out Chris Carter.
“Don’t tell me it’s over. You just think of what I gave you all those years. You just think of what I did for you and don’t you talk to me about Detroit . . .”
I snuck a glance at the woman. I didn’t want to stare—she was clearly having a parting moment with some guy in Detroit named Brad–but really, she was a pretty woman, but she just kept looking more and more . . . what? Frazzled? Beat up? And the same thing was happening to the Astros. They gave up three runs in the third, and Harrell pitched about 175 pitches. Meanwhile Dominguez, Gonzalez, and Presley went three up, three down.
She was crying now. “You know I can’t handle Angel alone. I need you Brad . . .” She was pleading. I felt sorry for her.
Jerome Williams came in for the 4th, and it was about time. I like Williams. I like his pink glove, I like his crazy history. I like him so much that I may be willing to put up with a lot. In the fifth Altuve walked in Dominguez. That would be it for Astros’ runs. In the 6th Williams gave up a three-run homer to Hamilton. The Astros filled the bases, but didn’t score.
“So you want me to talk to some guy named Nolan? What the hell kind of name is Nolan?”
Williams gave up three runs in the 7th, and I was reckoning that there were reasons for Williams’ history. Altuve was stranded at 3rd. Bass finished out the game for the Astros and got 2 1/3 innings with no runs. BASS! End of the day, Disneys 11, Stars 1, and Astrolena left TC’s looking pretty bedraggled.
