B. J. Ryan, 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man #213

A wise man once said, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone". Or maybe it was '80s hair band Cinderella. No matter. Everywhere I looked today, I found examples of this adage:

-It seems like just yesterday that the Blue Jays had a stud closer, having lured 30-year-old lefty B. J. Ryan from the Orioles for a ridiculous $47 million. He was an All-Star in 2006, his first season in Toronto (1.37 ERA, 38 saves), but blew out his elbow the following year. He bounced back in 2008, but lost his ninth-inning job early this season and was just released today after putting up a 6.53 ERA in 25 games. So now the Jays have no B. J. and they still owe him the $15 million left on his contract. Sad for them.

-My week in Ocean City went way too fast, and today I was fully re-baptized in the horrendous waters of mass transit. My morning train ran into delays involving a broken down train ahead of it, and it took nearly two hours to get from here to D.C. In the early evening, a gas main broke north of Baltimore, and I had to get off of the train at Penn Station and take a bus to the park-and-ride, which added up to another hour of travel. If I ever take another job in Washington, I want someone to shoot me.

-As if I needed bad news, I learned that Andy's, my favorite bar in my college town, is closing forever in a week and a half. I'll talk more about this later. For now, I'm desperately hoping that I can make the drive down there on Saturday to pay my respects.

-Of course, in all of my exasperation, I finally got into my car at 7:15 tonight just in time to listen to Mariners closer David Aardsma try to slam the door on the O's. I groaned and griped as announcer Joe Angel described just how the Orioles found themselves losing 3-0: the major culprits were a scoreless seventh inning, when former Bird Garrett Olson escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam, and an Oscar Salazar throwing error that led to an unearned run in the eighth. But the O's just wouldn't give up, capitalizing on two Jose Lopez errors, a walk, and some timely hits to piece together a five-run, game-winning rally. The Mariners were three outs away from their second shutout in three games and a series win. So much for that. Instead, I had the pleasure of listening to Baltimore complete their fourth improbable comeback in the past few weeks!

So as far as today goes, let's call it a wash.