Rays Rants (and more):

I watched the Rays work out at the Naimoli complex last spring and knew I was looking at something special. This group of guys was not cut from the same cloth that as the groups from the previous 10 years. I sensed the change and I started writing about it. Yesterday I checked back on my Rays blogs from the past year and was shocked as to how accurate some of my observations were. 

Last fall the Devil Rays for the 9th time in ten years finished last in the league and I wrote a blog that stated that it just didn't feel like last place. I guess it was then that I officially jumped on the band-wagon that bloggers like so much to talk about. 

On January 5th, I stated that Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett would make everyone forget that Delmon young ever played here. On the same day I stated that Andrew Friedman's plan for development was almost flawless. (Correct)   

On April 14th, I wrote that the Rays pitching staff would have to be reckoned with this year. On the same blog I said that the Rays would win 88 games and the pitching would be the reason. (They won more than 88) 

On April 25th, I said that the Red Sox would win the AL east with room to spare but the Rays had the ability to catch the Wild Card. (Got this one backwards)  

On April 28th, I stated that Stuart Sternberg was in the same class as John Henry and George Steinbrenner when it came to his desire to put a successful product on the field. He just didn't have the same cash flow. (Correct)   

On May 1st, I wrote that the Rays had too many quality pitchers. There just wasn't enough room for all of them. As a result of that statement being correct, the Rays lost reliable relievers Gary Glover, Kurt Birkens, Scott Dohmann and Al Reyes. Jeff Niemann got called up for 2 spot starts but couldn't stay when others got healthy. David Price, Wade Davis and Mitch Talbot never got called up during the season and Price, Niemann and Talbot only got called up in September. (Correct)   

On May 19th, I stated that the Rays and the Red Sox would play in the American League championship series. I also said that the Yankees were done mainly because of the suspect pitching, their age and the fact that Girardi was not now, nor was he ever going to be Joe Torre. However, on that same blog I said that the Indians would get it together and win the Central and the Tigers couldn't stay that bad for much longer. I guess nobody is perfect. To prove that point, It was the very next day that I implied that "Merlot" Joe Maddon wasn't the guy who should lead this team. turns out (Almost correct; the Indians and Tigers never got started and Joe Maddon turned out to be the guy)  

On May 27th I wrote that the Rays were for real and no matter what the "experts" said, they were not going away. (Correct) 

On June 23rd, I complained that the Rays' success was interfering with my creature comforts, as the increased attendance was causing me to have to remain in the seat I paid for rather than roam around and sit wherever I wanted to sit; to wait in lines when making a pit stop; and trying to get a warm hot dog without missing a whole inning. (Absolutely correct) 

I should stop here because so far I look like a genius. The real fact is that I did make some statements that didn't turn out to be correct. 

I stated that Ben Zobrist was a waste of time when he turned out to be the "Super-sub" that Maddon had predicted he would be. (Wrong)  

In a moment of frustration, I did say that the Rays wouldn't compete in the post season because they didn't have a legitimate star to carry them. (Very Wrong)   

In June I said that the Rays would only have one all-star representative and that would be the token one because every team had to have at least one player on the team. Boy, was I wrong there. They had three. Kazmir got the win and Longoria and Navarro played about 8 innings each and were both significant contributors to the AL victory.  

If I had to grade myself for all of the statements I made during the year I would give myself a B-. And the minus only gets there because I started to lose faith during the 7 game losing streak around the All-Star break. I think I am most proud of myself because I saw this coming last spring when none of these guys had even thrown a ball or swung a bat in anger. 

The fabulous Cindy and I attended the Rays Playoff Rally at Straub Park in St. Petersburg on Monday afternoon. I'm generally not inclined to take part in this sort of event but Cindy wanted to go. It was just another reminder of how much joy I would have missed in my life if I didn't have Cindy to get me off my dead ass and participate in life.   

The event was thoroughly enjoyable. It was easy to get there. The parking was affordable and getting out of town was easy. My only regret was that the line to get a "Rayhawk" haircut was so long that I couldn't wait for a free one. I guess I am going to have to pay for it.   

Todd Kalas did a great job in player introductions, Duane Staats and Joe Magraine were terrific in recapping the year and even though some folks stared at the Red Sox tattoo on Cindy's leg, nobody said anything because of her Rays hat and tee shirt. My Sox tattoo is high enough on my arm so the sleeve of my Rays tee shirt covered it. We didn't stay for the Survivor concert but friends who did said it was great.  

My friend, New Jerseys own Blue & Orange has been baiting me all year long to make a definitive statement as to who I would root for when nuts came to bolts. It's about that time so here is the statement.   

I never ever thought that I would get to see the Red Sox win a World Championship; but they did in 2004. They did it again last year but that couldn't come close to the elation that I felt after the first one. I have experienced something that my father, my brother Bobby, my uncles Irving and Charlie and my father-in-law, Bob Cobb never got to experience. I got to experience a Red Sox World Championship. I can live the rest of my life in peace. 

However, this year has to belong to the Rays. When the White Sox visit Tropicana Field tomorrow, I will be displaying the Blue of the Rays. And if the Gods are just and the Red Sox come to the Trop for the American League Championship series, I will still display the Rays Blue shirt.

Rays Rants (and more):

I was reading the St. Pete Times this morning when I came across a story that had the following quote in it.  

"We don't have anyone to throw out the ball for our first playoff game," Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman said. "MLB asked us who it'd be. We realized nobody in the history of the franchise had done anything to be worthy of the honor."  

This is what it has come to. The improbable Tampa Bay Rays are about to engage in the American league Playoffs for the first time in their eleven-year history and there is nobody from the organization's past worthy enough to throw out the first pitch of the opening game. I was taken aback when I read this quote. How can there not be somebody from the past eleven years to be worthy enough to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the playoffs?   

I decided to do some research in order to help Mr. Silverman find somebody with the proper qualifications to perform this prestigious task. Alas, I discovered that he has a major problem on his desk. The Rays don't have Babe Ruth's daughter to fall back on. They don't have a Yogi Berra; a Rod Carew; a Yaz; a Ken Brett; a Johnny Bench; a Tom Seaver; a Bob Gibson; a Ron Santo or any one else who might have helped get them to the promised land in the past; mainly because they have never been to the Promised Land in the past and in fact, have never been close. 

They don't have a revered "Hall-Of-Famer" to fall back on unless you consider Wade Boggs to be that and most folks don't even remember that he finished his career with the Rays. Even venerable players from the past don't qualify. Vinnie Castilla had five 30+ home run seasons and four 100+ RBI seasons, but none of them with the Rays. Jose Canseco has 462 career homers and is famous but nobody would be stupid enough to pick him. 

There is nobody from the front office that deserves the honor who isn't currently affiliated with the team. Vince Naimoli thankfully brought the team to the Bay area but in eight years did more to alienate the community against the Rays than any of their bad baseball teams did. Naimoli is definitely out. Don Zimmer would seem like a great pick with his 60+ years of being in baseball. But he is currently on the payroll. 

It's amazing! In the whole history of this team there is no one who stands out enough to qualify for this position. I guess Matt will have to look outside of the organization. Now there we have some qualified people. Governor Charley Crist is a relatively frequent visitor to the Trop. Paul Azinger just won the Ryder Cup for the United States and is a local. My choice however would be for Dick Vitale. Dickey V has been a season ticket holder from day one. His shiny baldhead can be seen in the first row next to the visitor's dugout about fifty times a year. He could even be seen there during the ten dreadful years before this one. He does in-house promotional spots on the big screen. Yep...Dicky V would be my choice.

Of course I'd prefer that they select Duane Staats to make the historical toss. Staats has been the TV announcer for the Rays for most of the dismal years and wouldn't you know, when the Rays clinched a spot in the playoffs, he had the night off. FOX did the game and there was no local broadcast. Announcers are an integral part of baseball marketing. I can still hear Curt Gowdey broadcasting the Red Sox games when I was a boy. What Yankee fan my age does not remember Mel Allen or Dodger fan, Vin Scully? What Red Sox fan does not know whom the "Rem_Dog" is? There are a lot more of them that I never got to hear but it would be the right thing to do for Duane Staats.   

As I was researching this I thought of the movie "Major League". There is a scene where two Japanese groundskeepers were speaking and made the comment (which appeared in sub-titles), "Who are these guys?" That is the same thought I had when looking over the current roster. 

Has anybody outside of Milwaukee ever heard of Grant Balfour or Gabe Gross? Has anybody except a statistic geek Dodger fan ever heard of Dioner Navarro or Edwin Jackson? Has anybody outside of Minnesota ever heard of Jason Bartlett or Matt Garza? Did Andy Sonnanstine catch anyone's eye when he was drafted in the 13th round of the 2004 draft? Does anybody from Atlanta remember Willy Aybar? Did anybody notice that at the same time the Red Sox signed Dice-K, the Rays Quietly signed Akinori Iwamura? Did anybody in Kansas City miss J.P. Howell when he came to the Rays last year for Joey Gathright? Did anybody in Baltimore blink an eye when Chad Bradford was released? Did everyone feel that when the Rays reacquired Dan Wheeler that it was going to be more of the same old, same old? Do you think that the Phillies, Dodgers, Red Sox, Reds and Astros wished that they had Trever Miller in their bullpens this year? They all owned his rights at one time or another.   

The fact is, the only Rays anybody ever heard of before this season was Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena, and the Rangers, Athletics, Tigers, Yankees and Red Sox cast off Pena at one time or another.  

During the off season last year the names most people knew on the Rays were David Price and Evan Longoria; and neither of those guys had played even one inning of Major League baseball. 

"Recognizing his nearly six decades of service as a player, manager, scout, instructor, and goodwill ambassador, the Red Sox yesterday announced they will retire Johnny Pesky's No. 6 before Friday night's game against the Yankees, the eve of his 89th birthday."  

 http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185143625/bctid1813547254    

You can't imagine how elated I was when I read the above item in the Boston Globe the other day. Johnny Pesky is one of the special people who have ever worn the Red Sox uniform and will be the first Red Sox player to have his Uniform number retired who was not a member of the hall of Fame.. About a year or so ago I wrote a blog about Pesky and got some great comments on it.

Way to go Red Sox! 

Rays Rants (and more): 

It always amazes me how the best-laid plans can get sidetracked. I thought I had my schedule all set for the last month of the baseball season. I was going to watch the upstart Rays cruise into the American league playoffs and I had my seat picked out for every game. I even had my subjects picked out for my Rays Rants blogs for about a three-week period.  

Family matters in Boston caused me to table those plans but I assure you that my arriving in Bean Town last week on the same day as the Rays was just a coincidence. The trip had nothing at all to do with the fact that I got to see the Rays take 2 of 3 games from the Sox and hold them off for a while longer. It had to do with attending to family matters.  

It was fascinating to watch my friends in Boston walking around with a look on their faces that screamed, "This is not supposed to happen". At least it is not supposed to happen at the hands of the (Devil) Rays. Maybe the Yankees, maybe the Blue Jays, but not the Rays.  

I arrived back in Florida a few days ago with just enough time to get my affairs in order and go back to the airport. This time I had to pick up my daughter and her husband who were coming to town to see the Red Sox play the Rays in the final series of the year. Now if you want to talk about Red Sox fanatics, you need to talk about these 2 people. We have 3 games here and my daughter brought 8 Red Sox shirts with her. She even brought me a pair of gardening gloves with the Sox logo on the back. 

It is always great to have them here and this trip had been planned for a long time. However, I expected to attend the games at the Trop as a family firmly attached to the Red Sox Nation. I hadn't figured that I would be the one to go over to the "dark side" and become a member of the Rays Republic. But there it was; my wife, my daughter and her husband all decked out in their Red Sox gear and me with my James Shields Rays t-shirt. And to make matters worse, Sox fans surrounded us. I was the blue shirt amid a sea of red. And to make matters worse than that, the Red Sox came to play. On Scott Kazmir's second strike of the game, Big Papi hits a 3-run homer and it was all down hill from there. It got so bad that I had to leave my seat and sit under the stands for about 5 innings eating hot dogs and ice cream, smoking cigarettes and watching people. I would have gone home by the 5th inning but I was driving and they weren't budging. It was a long, long night. 

Every morning the sun rises and yesterday morning was no different. The sun rose and it was a new day. Yesterday was yesterday and the fact that the Sox hit 6 home runs and Dice-K was almost unhittable the night before didn't matter so much. The Red Sox were sending Josh Beckett to the bump and the Rays were countering that move with the formidable Andy Sonnanstine. On paper, that meant that the Red Sox would be in first place this morning. But I guess that Sonny doesn't read the paper. He matched Beckett pitch for pitch for six innings before giving way to the Rays' (I'm sorry, but I can't come up with one adjective to properly describe perfection) bullpen.  

The game was tied going into the bottom half of the ninth but there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to have the bragging rights when the game was over and the Rays didn't disappoint. A bloop hit, a walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases when Dioner Navarro hit a ball to center field deep enough to score the run from third and give the Rays the win. The Rays stay in first place, 2 games up in the lost column. If the Red Sox do manage to overtake the Rays for the AL East championship, they won't have done it on head to head match ups.  

Tonight's game won't be nearly as stressful for me as the first two. Even if the Sox win they will still leave town in second place. It will be sad to see the kids go home on Thursday but I think my son-in-law will go home with some hope for the post season. He said last night that if the Red Sox don't make the World Series he at least has someone to root for in the Rays. The Rays Republic is growing by the minute. 

I need to offer an apology to my friend B&O languishing in frustration up in New Jersey because of his beloved Mets' failure to close out the National League East in the last two weeks. It was just about two weeks ago when I assured my friend that I could write enough words on the Rays to divert his attention from the struggles his team was having to just stay in the race. But take heart B&O; there are 12 games left and I've got a feeling.... 

I find it fascinating that in the year 2008, the most stable franchise in baseball seems to be the Rays. The Yankees have been old and confused all year. The Red Sox haven't been physically healthy all year and their mental health was suspect until they shipped out Manny. The Dodgers mental health was suspect until they acquired Manny. Go figure! The Indians haven't made sense all year; they are not a last place team. The Jays, Mets, Brewers and Mariners all changed managers and 3 of those teams still have playoff chances.  The Tigers were the team to beat in the spring and managed to self-destruct from the beginning. Are the Twins there because everyone else is so bad or are they for real? How can the White Sox look stable with Ozzie at the helm? The Cubs seem quite stable but we keep reading about their potential sale. The Pirates have mastered the art of rebuilding. How did the Rockies get into the World Series last year? Or better still, what the heck did they do to miss it by so much this year?   

I have to admit it. I have jumped on the Dustin Pedroia bandwagon for MVP. Up until about 2 weeks ago my pick would have been Justin Morneau or Carlos Quentin. Quentin got eliminated with his injury but Morneau has only continued to deserve consideration. However, after seeing the Red Sox 5 times in the last 2 weeks, I am convinced that the Red Sox are what they are because of Pedroia. He makes them go. He may be the most exciting ballplayer in the American League.  

 I saw a video from the Red Sox clubhouse yesterday. It had David Ortiz doing an interview with Jonathan Papelbon while they showed the videotape from his high School days imitating Patrick Swayze. I found the whole thing entertaining except the part when Ortiz referred to Pap as Cinco Ocho. It somehow offended me that anybody buys into Chad Johnson's crap. 

Rays Rants (and more):

Another game, another victory and another "first" for Rays fans to celebrate. Friday night the Tampa Bay Rays beat the seemingly hapless Baltimore Orioles by a lopsided 14-3 score. The victory was the Rays 82nd of the year. 

Now I have never claimed to be a mathematician, but the way I figure it is this. There are 162 games in a MLB regular season to be played by each team. If a team wins half of them, they will have won 81 games. The Rays did that last night with a win over the Blue Jays. Tonight, by beating the O's and getting their 82nd win of the season, the Tampa Bay Rays are GUARANTEED to have the first winning season in the 11-year history of the franchise. I, along with many others who have followed the Rays since the beginning, began to doubt whether I would ever see this day. 

It only took the Marlins 5 years to get a winning season. It took the Mets 8 years. It took the Rangers and the Blue Jays 9 years.  It took the Brewers and the Padres 10 years. It took the Astros and the Expos 11 years. In fact, the only team to go longer than the Rays without having a winning season is the Mariners. It took them until their 15th to finally produce a winner. (This of course only includes those teams that came into existence after 1961. It does not include any of the teams that have existed since before the Wright Brothers invented the airplane. It also doesn't include the Royals, Diamondbacks, Rockies or Angels who all had winning seasons in their first 2 or 3 years because they must have been doing something underhanded.)   

I've got to tell you, I don't know how they are doing it. My friend Dwindy1 did a great piece on the Rays the other day and he told us whom they were doing it with. But I still haven't figured out how they are doing it. Five good (but not great) starting pitchers have started all but 7 of the Rays games. All but one of the relief pitchers were either discarded by their former teams, dealt for low level prospects or journeyman players who all thought they were better than they were. Only three of the everyday starters have spent their entire careers in the Rays organization, and two of them are on the DL. And they are not paying any of them a ridiculous amount of money.  

Maybe it is time to take my own advice and stop trying to analyze it and just enjoy it while it lasts.   

I can't help but to think that the off season trade that sent Delmon Young to the Twins for Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza might be one of the best Rays trades of all time even if I didn't like it when it happened. Even better than the Kazmir for Victor Zambrano deal with the Mets. Even better than the Dan Wheeler deal for Ty Wiggington deal with the Astros.  

Time to eat some crow! I thought that Ben Zobrist was going to continue to be the biggest waste of time that the Rays have invested into any player. I thought Carlos Pena should have been dropped way down in the order or benched about 2 months ago. I didn't think that Jason Bartlett's defense was enough to make up for his lack of offense; and now I have both. I thought that they should have kept Aki at third base and made Longoria a second baseman. I thought that Seth McClung would ultimately be a better contributor than Gabe Gross. I thought that giving up Ty Wiggington for Dan Wheeler was too much. I thought they should have paid Julio Lugo in 2006 and kept him. I thought that I was smarter the Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman. Wrong on all counts! Maybe that's why I am a caterer and not a baseball executive.   

The following quote is from Fridays St. Pete Times.   

[Upon further review, umpire Doug Eddings was wrong about the controversial obstruction call involving Willy Aybar in Sunday's game at Chicago.  

Mike Port, MLB's vice president of umpiring, told the St. Petersburg Times on Thursday that it was "a missed call" and that in making the split-second decision, Eddings thought he saw runner A.J. Pierzynski "impeded more than he was" by Aybar, the Rays' third baseman.  

"Looking back at that occurrence, for the first and last time, it was a missed call," Port said. "And it was not because Doug Eddings, an umpire with 10 years' experience and 10 before that in the minor leagues, didn't know the application of the rule, but just that in the moment in applying the rule, he saw something he thought was more than it turned out to be."  

Pierzynski, in a rundown between second and third in the 10th inning, stuck out his left elbow at Aybar. Eddings ruled there was obstruction and awarded third base to Pierzynski, who later scored the winning run for the White Sox.  

Port said that after watching replays, Eddings was "the first to admit" he was wrong and said so to MLB officials who regularly review controversial plays. There is no recourse, however, for the Rays.]    

It's nice to see the umps fess up every now and again when they blow a call. Everyone seems content that the event has been put to bed, but what if the Rays were tied for the Wild Card spot after 162 games. How content would everybody be then?

I have been to hundreds and hundreds of Major League Baseball games in the last fifty years, but this past Tuesday night I experienced a first time event. I can now say that I have lived a fantasy. I have experienced something I only dreamed about as a 9 year old attending a Giants' game with my brother-in-law at the old Polo Grounds in Harlem, or as an 11 year old attending my first game at Fenway Park with my Uncle Irv and my cousins Dickie and Charlie.  

The fantasy was with me in the early sixties when I attended a game at Comiskey Park in Chicago and then again at County Stadium in Milwaukee when I was doing time at the Great Lakes Naval Station. It was still there in the early seventies when I stole some time from a business trip in Windsor, Ontario to cross the Detroit River and take in a Tigers' game at that old park in Corktown. The fantasy was still with me when I went to Candlestick Park in San Francisco during a business trip in the early seventies. It has been with me through dozens of games at Minor League fields in upstate New York and Pennsylvania and Georgia and Florida.  

Tuesday night I walked out of Tropicana Field with indisputable proof that Bud Selig's real first name is "Allen". You see, I walked out of the Trop with an "Official Major League Baseball" for the first time in my life.  

Unfortunately, it did not happen the way I had always thought it would. In my fantasy I would make a daring one-handed grab of a scalding foul ball, saving severe injury to a child or a senior close by. I could see my effort so appreciated by the home team that they would send the batboy to my seat with a new ball autographed by every member of the home team. In a gesture of good will, I would give the ball I caught to the person I saved from injury as a gesture of something. I would keep the autographed ball myself of course. After all, it is my fantasy.   

Another scenario had me sitting in the outfield with a beverage and a hot dog in my hands when someone hit one in my direction. I would put the dog in my mouth and use that free hand to spear away the ball from the drunken guy next to me who was reaching for it with his $100 Wilson A-2000 baseball glove. It would be glorious watching the replay of that catch over and over on SportsCenter's "play of the day"; especially because I made the catch without spilling a drop of my beverage.  

Some years back, I realized that for every lie I told, I would have to look over my shoulder 10 times to see if it was catching up to me. And it seemed that almost every time I told a lie, it eventually caught up with me. Since I have chronic neck problems, it would serve me well to not have to jerk my head around for no good reason. Therefore, I stopped lying.   

Here is Tuesday night's saga (the way it happened).  

My wife and I arrived at the Trop real early for some reason. They wouldn't let us in the ballpark yet so we went over to the east side of the building to get out of the sun. After a couple of minutes, they opened the door and let us in to the area around the Rays Store and the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of fame.  We went into the museum and wandered around for about 15-20 minutes when they finally took down the barriers and let the fans into the ballpark. We entered the park in left field and immediately discovered that the Blue Jays taking were taking batting practice. There was only about a dozen people in the stands at the time so we decided to stay. After a few minutes, a Blue Jay player with the ability to hit it out came to bat. He hit a couple out way off to my left, but nothing close.   

After a couple of more minutes he hit one to my left and a kid about 12 years old made a great catch of it. I started applauding his effort when suddenly a loud crashing noise occurred to my right. I quickly looked that way and noticed activity down in the seat next to me. Lo and behold, there was a new white baseball rattling between the upright seat and the back of the blue chair. While I was applauding the kid's effort, the hitter plunked one about 15 inches to the right of my groin and I never saw it. The guy in front of me said it was too far over his head to make an attempt at it.   

I have no idea what the force of a ball hit on a line drive about 400 feet would be but there is no doubt in my mind that if the batter had hit the ball 15" to the right, I would still probably be in the hospital.   

I don't know who the guy was that hit the ball, but my imagination started working on a story that would really make me look good when I showed people the first baseball I ever got at a professional baseball game. However, a little while later we ran into a friend and I made the mistake of telling him how I actually came about getting the ball. I soon realized that I just lost any opportunity of developing a story that would make me look like a star as I told it.  

All that being said, I've got a ball. I incurred no injuries in getting it. My neck will not be aggravated having to look over my shoulder (my wife knew the truth) and I am grateful to have my first ball after more than 50 years of going to baseball games. Even if it wasn't the way I imagined it, I have lived a fantasy.