Enemy

Meet my nemesis. Eric O'Flaherty, a left handed relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. A guy with some ok stats for the year.

But he is also a litterbug. He likes to throw trash around the bullpen. Even though there is a trash can a couple feet away, Mr. O'Flaherty could not take the 10 seconds to get off his ass and walk toward the garbage receptacle. His teammates could. He coaches could. They could amble on over to throw away the Gatorade cups once they were empty. But O'Flaherty thinks he can go around dumping his garbage in bullpens around the country.

I had a small problem with that. OK, it wasn't really a problem. I was looking for something to make the game a bit more interesting. Our seats at Miller Park were right above the Braves bullpen. I felt it was my duty to see if I could get in the head of a relief pitcher. When O'Flaherty got up to get a drink and then tossed the cup on the ground by the wall, I knew I had my opportunity.

I started yelling at him to pick it up and put it in the garbage can. Every couple of minutes I would toss out another comment. I called him a litterbug. I told him Woodsy Owl would be out to get him. I shouted his pitches were garbage. I am sure I yelled more stupid comments than I had in a long time.

But it worked.

At one point he walked over to warm up. He stopped to talk to another pitcher and started pointing in our direction. He kept his back to us- coward couldn't even face me!- but his friend laughed as he looked right up at us. Victory!

Or so I thought. O'Flaherty would have the last laugh. I don't know if it was to piss me off or not but that bastard did it again. He walked up, got some water and threw the cup down the stairs that lead to the field. Yeah, I think he did it to mock me.

You may have own this wrong O'Flaherty but this ain't over.