Okay, we’ll admit it — things have not been easy around here at FJM. I mean, we were cruising along just fine for years, goofing on the Tampa DEVIL Rays and their idiot manager, Joe Maddon. We had links galore, we had a regular group of hilarious commenters, we even did up some sweet t-shirts and mugs on Cafe Press. Looked like easy street for us…2.0 style.

I mean, the sky is the limit for you when your satirical baseball website blows up. You get mad amounts of hits on your webvertising, providing enough for one or two crazy Quizno’s runs a month; you get cease-and-desist emails from the schmucks you’re making fun of; you might even break the bank by getting picked up by a sports powerhouse like AOL or Yahoo. Every once in a million years, you’re the new TrueHoop. Heady stuff indeed.

Well, we haven’t exactly gotten there yet, but we saw the path ahead of us this year. It was looking good for us, too — no one, not even us, thought we would escape the cellar this year. That would have been sweet for us, as we could have complained about how the Rays had to Fire Joe Maddon all year!

And the pre-season was just gold for us. Elliot Johnson, a little-regarded outfielder trying to make the Rays, brutally dispatched Yankees catching prospect Francisco Cervelli in a meaningless 9th-inning collision at home plate; a few days later, Shelley Duncan went in Ty Cobb-style on Akinori Iwamura, Jonny Gomes came flying in like Superman, and it was on. We wrote like 15 satirical posts in two days. It was gonna be the season of our dreams.

And Maddon was in fine form, too, belching out one of the finest quotes of all time (speaking about Joe Girardi):

“I’ve always liked Joe. If he would like to have a conversation, I’d like to talk about politics. I’m good with global warming. I’m good with a lot of different topics on a daily basis. I like iTunes; I download some stuff off iTunes, I like different restaurants. I like red wine. I have a lot of different areas I can go conversationally.”

Informally, we estimate that quote was responsible for about 10,000 hits. IN ONE DAY. We were stone cold pimpin’, y’all. It was beautiful.

But then things started going to hell. I mean, it’s been great for us as fans of the Rays to be in contention at all, much less the unthinkably long spell in first place ahead of the Yankees and the Boston Overrated Sox. Come on — our team’s never been more than four games over .500, like, ever — now suddenly we’re thrashing BOTH Evil Empires? It’s been Christmas, actually, and Hanukkah, and the Muslim one, and Buddha’s birthday, topped with a Very Merry Winter Solstice Festival. (We’ve been so happy we’re shouting out Wicca Nation!)

In fact, we have been so enthralled that we haven’t had the time to adequately smack down Joe Maddon himself. Sure, we kept up, making fun of him for talking smack to Coco Crisp and helping that June Red Sox brawl situation flare up like acne on prom night — but our hearts weren’t in it, not really. Deep down, we thought the first brawl actually must have worked, so why NOT stoke the flames of another one?

And we were gonna bust on Maddon for benching B.J. Upton for lackadaisical baserunning, figuring it was just one-time grandstanding…but then the son of a gun did it AGAIN just a couple of months later! We started thinking that maybe, just maybe, the idiot in emo glasses had some kind of integrity…and might be some kind of genius after all. What could we do, in the face of all this? When the Rays came out of the All-Star Break and went 22-9, even without the services of Carl Crawford, we hopped on the bandwagon — and shuttered our site. It hurt, but we felt it was necessary. Besides, traffic had dwindled to a trickle, and the AOL Sportsline guy stopped taking our emails.

But things have changed in the last few weeks. While we haven’t exactly been stinking up the joint, we’ve started to lose a few more games — which wouldn’t be a problem except that the Red Sux [sic] have been pulling a Steve Garvey and started banging everything out of the place. We’ve seen our lead flit out of sight, rise up again, then disappear once more. This would have been beautiful had the Rays had been a butterfly, but it’s not as great for fans down here in Tampa.

On the other hand, it’s the best possible news for two young bloggers trying to make a buck by insulting a major league baseball manager. Suddenly, the bloom is off the Joe Maddon rose. Moves that seemed wise earlier in the summer now seem unconscionable, idiotic, anti-managerial. We used to be furious about the rapid ascent of Evan Longoria — now we’re furious about the coaching staff coddling him through an injury at the most crucial point in franchise history. We loved Maddon’s faith in his ballplayers, but now we think he’s an idiot for sticking with Troy Percival as a closer. Has he alienated the free-spirited Upton with his rigid insistence on discipline and order?

And now, last night, we lose to the Red Sox, again. Joe Maddon’s glasses suck, his whole head sucks, he sucks, he should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY.

Aaah. That feels about right. Go, Sox, go!