Charlie Crist Screws Around With The Astros and Mike Hampton Ain't Happy

You know, if a frigging politician can't show up in time for a baseball game, then don't hold the damn game up. The people who come to see the game don't give a damn about frigging politicians, they're there to see baseball.

Of course the fans aren't really something that Drayton McLane gives a damn about.

If you're wondering what I'm bitching about, well...

The Astros spring training opener was supposed to start at 12:05 Houston time yesterday. And Mike Hampton was pitching, and he's got a bit of an injury history, so it's not really good to go about screwing around with his pregame routines. But Florida governor Charlie Crist was supposed to throw out the first pitch. And he was running late. Instead of finding someone else, they decided to hold off the start of the game. Which screwed around with Hampton's routine.

Crist finally got his act together and arrived about 15 minutes late.

Mike Hampton wasn't happy: "They said, 'the governor's running late so we'll start at 1:20,'" Hampton said after throwing two scoreless innings. "I was like, 'I don't care if he's running late. Let him pitch the third inning.' Don't mess with my game plan. We're here to play baseball."

But who cares about Hampton and the fans. Charlie Crist got to stop all action so that he could throw out the first pitch for a meaningless spring training baseball game.