David Price Saddens World Over James Shields Trade

These distant titans of sport, both colossal when the doctors measure their height and weight and colossal in the most adhesive sense of human hero worship, have only a select few like David Price. He strikes the keen observer as neither too distant or too comfortable. He seems like just some tall man you might have known in college or while working as a meat slicer in a deli sandwich shop.

When not engaged in typical Rays dugout hijinks, David engages in atypical Rays dugout hijinks. He is a 6-foot-6 Jim Halpert.

And so on Sunday evening when David had to say goodbye to his long-time friend, now-Royals pitcher James Shields, and the jester giant’s veneer cracked, you will forgive your humble author for blinking back a tear and smiling for that clown, the one who laughs when he means to cry.

First David denied it:

Lies!!!!! RT @ken_rosenthal: Source: #Rays will send James Shields and Wade Davis to #Royals for Wil Myers and other prospects.— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) December 10, 2012

Then he mourned it, retweeting:

GONNA MISS THIS SO MUCH. CRYING SO HARD. ILL MISS YOU SHIELDS!!!! @davidprice14 twitter.com/danifb55/statu…

— Danielle Brener (@danifb55) December 10, 2012

Then, like I hear the grieving mother will do when the most terrible of news arrives in a doctor’s helpless mouth, he denied it again:

Guys guys guys there’s been a huge misunderstanding…whenever we all wake up tomorrow Shields and WD40 will still be my teammates…— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) December 10, 2012