Let Tim Smoke!
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My recent return to the Bay Area has made two significant impacts on my currently bland life. For one, I have been able to enjoy some of the finest herb that this world has to offer, at an incredible discount from what I have become used to paying on the east coast – literally a half-off sale on buddah – and second, I have been able to reconnect with my other true love, the San Francisco Giants, in a way that only being in your own city can bring.
The intersection of the ballpark and the bong came with my first visit back to the hallowed ground by the bay that is AT&T Park. The standard pre-game parking lot fare of orange and black beads, cheap sunflower seeds and knockoff team apparel was joined by a relative newcomer; a bright orange t-shirt with a giant weed leaf behind the words “let Tim smoke!.”
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention lately (or not so lately for that matter) the Giants two-time Cy Young winning pitcher Tim Lincecum was recently caught in Washington state with 3.2 grams of marijuana and a pipe, he was cited for possession and released. In what I assume was an eighth from a dealer Lincecum will never be visiting again (that’s 0.3 off and not acceptable) or the bottom of a much more substantial sac one would expect a professional athlete to be carrying, Lincecum cemented himself as a hero among not only Bay Area sports fans, but stoners world wide.
I had heard about the shirts from a dealer friend who lost his cotton flag of solidarity in some hazy post-victory celebration a few weeks earlier, but did not think of its significance before seeing it myself hanging on the fence at the gate of Parking Lot A. It was at this game, an embarrassment to say the least, in which Lincecum got shelled by the Rockies, and looked, for the first time I’ve ever seen, outmatched by Colorado ace Ubaldo Jimenez.
This was the most recent in a series of outings by Lincecum in which he hasn’t pitched with his Cy Young-winning dominance. While I may be stretching for connections that don’t exist or even making a larger matter out of a fantastic pitcher simply going through a small slump, something that literally every great athlete has gone through at least once, but to me, Lincecum’s weed charge and his loss column are directly related.
For someone who grew up in Washington state, went to college in Seattle, has played all of his burgeoning professional years in San Francisco, and wanted to spend his first major league paycheck on a VW hippie bus, I imagine weed has been at least somewhat of a presence in Tim’s life for quite some time now. And as any longtime smoker can attest to, weening oneself off the pipe (or joint, or bong, or blunt) can often be harder than it sounds. Speaking from experience, this usually leads to more stress, less focus and an inability to sleep – all detrimental to a professional athlete.
Now I’m not suggesting putting a Volcano in the dugout (although I’m certainly not discouraging it) I do think that Lincecum may benefit from smoking some weed, if only to bring him back to where he was before.
So as a life-long Giants fan with nothing but the teams success in mind, I beg of you Giants management and front office, please let Tim smoke! At least if all goes well with the November elections, Tim will be able to toke up legally in the great state of California, hopefully bringing with it a World Series trophy to the city by the bay.
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