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.

Rays Rants (and more):

So Wednesday morning I logged on to the Tampa Tribune web site to read more about how our home town Rays beat up on the Angels the night before. What do you think I found? I'll tell you what I found. I found one small article on the game and five articles on B.J. Upton's alleged lack of hustle. I say alleged because I don't really believe that he has a lack of hustle but more on that later.   

Tuesday nights win put the Rays in a tie with the Cubs for the best record in Major League Baseball.  They had a 77-48 (.616 winning percentage) record on August 20th with only 37 games left to play. They were 29 games over .500. They had a 5 game lead (in the lost column) over the Red Sox. They had won 8 of their last 10 games making them the hottest team in the American League and they did this without their best 2 players (Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria) and their closer (Troy Percival). That's the stuff I want to read about.  

 But nooooooo! That's not what I get to read. I get to read how B.J. Upton is dogging it. I get to read how B.J. Upton is loafing. I get to read how B.J. Upton is putting himself at a higher plane than the team. I get to read that B.J. Upton is an arrogant, cocky, prideful and a self-centered malcontent. Forget about the game. I guess it's more fun to talk about the vultures circling Upton's corpse. Even the comments that readers add to the forum are disturbing. Most of those are calling for Upton to be traded or sent down to Durham as punishment for his behavior. 

Now I have had some issues with the way Upton plays the game. He is just learning the center field position and too frequently throws to the wrong base. He over estimates his own abilities and tries to throw out people when he has no chance. I think he plays too short relying on his speed to get to balls hit over his head. And I don't think he is the smartest guy to ever play the game.  

Some guys have a natural instinct for the game. They know exactly what to do with the ball even if they don't do it quite as well as the next guy. They change the way they think with 2 strikes on them. They don't try to lay down the perfect bunt every time. They don't give away the fact that they are going to steal by adding a half step in their lead. They realize that you can't hit a five run homer. B.J. doesn't seem to have these instincts. He has all the natural ability in the world but he keeps short circuiting himself with his lack of mental instincts. I think that if the Rays could ever teach him a little prudence in his decision-making and outlook on the game his natural physical abilities will make him one of the better players in the league. 

I don't think B.J. Upton is a punk. I don't think his hat size has grown since his arrival in professional baseball. I think he is a 23-year-old kid who has been the center of attention all his life. I think that everything he did earlier in his life worked because he wasn't playing against competition that could take advantage of his shortcomings. I heard a great quote some time back. I think it came from a Clint Eastwood movie. "A man has to know his limitations" (or something like that). That's what I think B.J. has to do; learn his limitations. 

I think that if I was a NFL General Manager, I would do anything in my power to get Usain Bolt's name on a contract to become a wide-out for my team. I don't care if he has never seen a football! With that speed and that body he could be the most frightening thing that a defensive back every saw coming his way.

I can't believe one of the latest moves by Theo Epstien. Last Friday (the last day for MLB teams to sign contracts with their amateur draft picks) Theo signed Ryan Westmoreland, an 18 year old High Schooler from Portsmouth, RI to a rookie contract and gave him a $2 million signing bonus. He also agreed to pay $212,000 towards college should Westmoreland ever decide to attend. Now what's the big deal you say? Westmoreland was a fifth round draft pick. That means that MLB execs thought that about 150 players had more potential than this kid. I know that if I was one of the 149 players picked before him and didn't get that much I would be pissed. Theo is driving the market up and out of control.  

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Beijing Olympics this year. That wasn't my plan but that is the way it has worked out. However, some of the events are bizarre. Hula Whoops? Trampoline jumping? Synchronized diving? And they are giving baseball and softball the boot. It must be me! 

Having one of the best pitching staffs in baseball has caused the Rays to make some hard decisions concerning their staff this year. A while ago they released Gary Glover when he came off the disabled list. Glover was the reliable workhorse of the 2007 Devil Rays. He had a few bad outings this year but didn't do a bad job most of the time. There just wasn't any room for him with everyone else pitching lights out. He was picked up by the Tigers and just got up to the big club.

 Al Reyes had the same thing happen to him this past week. He came off the DL and there was no room for him. He cleared waivers and wouldn't take a Triple A assignment, prompting his release. The Mets signed him and they will be better for it.

These two guys were about the only positive things to come out of the bullpen last year. It is sad for me to see them go. I wish them both much success with their new teams.

"The Sky Is Falling"

Once upon a time there was a tiny, tiny chicken named Chicken Little. One day Chicken Little was scratching in the garden when something fell on her head.  

"Oh," cried Chicken Little, "the sky is falling. I must go tell the king."  

So Chicken Little ran and ran, and she met Henny Penny. 

"Where do you travel so fast, Chicken Little?" asked Henny Penny.  

"Ah, Henny Penny," said Chicken Little, "the sky is falling, and I must go and tell the king."  

"How do you know that the sky is falling, Chicken Little?" asked Henny Penny.  

"I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a bit of it fell on my head," said Chicken Little.  

"I will go with you to the king," said Henny Penny.   

We all know the story. They ran along together, and met Ducky Daddles, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey and finally Foxy Loxy who couldn't care less about the sky falling. All he saw was five fat birds that were going to make a fine meal.   

The original fable has the fox luring them back to his den where he eats them all except Chicken Little, who escapes and returns home without ever telling the King that the sky was falling. An awful lot of effort, sacrifice and worry over nothing.

Evan Almighty (that's Evan Longoria to those of you who are uninformed) was placed on the Disabled List today by the Tampa Bay Rays. I just finish reading the article on line in the St. Pete Times and decided to peruse the reader comments below the article. Almost to a man, the comments were expressing the end of the line for the Rays in 2008. The general consensus was that the Rays could stand the loss of Crawford for a while but not the loss of Longoria and Crawford together.  

I'm here to tell you, "that crap". The Rays will be just fine. Losing one or both of those guys obviously creates a difficult situation, but it not the end of the world.   

Neither Longoria nor Crawford have been have been carrying the Rays on their back this year. They have been key contributors to the success of the St. Pete Nine, but they haven't been the sole reason for the success. What happened to the Yankees when A-Rod went down earlier in the season will not happen to the Rays. What happened to the Red Sox when Big Papi went down will not happen to the Rays. If anything, the Rays have proved that the parts are interchangeable.  

Wasn't the opening day third baseman Willy Aybar? Does anybody remember Eric Hinske filling in just fine at third base earlier in the year? Does everybody forget how many games Gabe Gross, Ben Zobrist, Willy Aybar Shawn Riggans and Hinske have won for the Rays? Hell, even Mike DeFelice, Jonny Gomes and Nathan Haynes have contributed to victories for them this year; and they are all in Durham with the Rays Triple A farm team.  

It is not the end of the world and the sky is not falling. The pitching will keep them in games and every day a new star will appear. Don't forget that Carlos Pena's bat is now showing the magic it displayed last year. Don't forget that Aki has been on a tear. Don't forget that Navi has the only bat that has been consistently above .300. Don't forget that this team has managed to get past injuries to Kazmir, Garza, Pena, Iwamura, Navarro, Percival, Bartlett, Floyd and last years best reliever Al Reyes. Don't forget that this team has figured out how to win as a team. This team is bigger than any of its parts. It is not the time to panic. Not the time for the players; not the time for Joe Maddon and not the time for Andrew Friedman. This team has shown character all year and character is what is necessary to survive and succeed in times of adversity.   

The sky is not falling. Don't become a Chicken Little and say so!  

Rays Rants (and more):

Another day for celebration! Today the Tampa bay Rays won their 71st game of the year, surpassing the achievement of winning 70 games during the whole 2004 season. There can be no argument when I say that this is the best team in the history of the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. And they did it in impressive fashion by beating the Mariners 11-3 and taking 3 games of the 4 game series.

I keep scratching my head with these victories. Carl Crawford went on the DL this morning. Evan "Almighty" Longoria has been out the last two games with a wrist injury. Jason Bartlett (arguably the best fielding shortstop in the American League) hasn't been able to play in the field for over a week after getting hit in the finger on a bunt attempt. Dioner Navarro had to take the day off just to rest. With 4 of the regulars out of the lineup they still manage to leave Seattle with 3 wins and moved 5 games in the lost column ahead of the Red Sox and 9 ahead of the Yankees.

All this celebrating has become rather taxing and quite frankly, rather ordinary. But today there is something special to celebrate. Rocco Baldelli came off the DL today and played right field for about 6 innings. He went 1 for 4 with an RBI and made a diving catch of a soft liner just like the old days. It almost seemed like he was never gone.

For those of you that are not familiar with the Baldelli story, this might not seem like such a big deal. But to those of us who have followed Rocco's career since he was drafted in the first round of the 2000 amateur draft out of Warwick, Rhode Island, and was then compared to a young Joe DiMaggio, today was a big deal.

At 21 years old, Rocco made it to the Rays and began the '03 season patrolling center field between Carl Crawford and Aubrey Huff (most of the time). He was third in the voting for Rookie of the Year behind the Royals' Angel Barroa and the Yankees' Hideki Matsui. He finished ahead of Mark Teixeira by a sizable vote. 2004 was just as good as the first but with better power numbers. In the off-season that followed, Rocco injured himself playing basketball. He ended up missing all of the 2005 season because of that injury and others that followed one right after another.

He did get back in 2006 for 92 games but again his season was cut short because of leg problems. After a long rehab, he began the 2007 season with the Rays but was soon sidelined again with what everybody had been calling "hamstring" injuries. We didn't hear much about Rocco after that except to find out that he his injuries were a lot more serious than had been believed and that he was seeing specialists all over the country to try and find out what was wrong with him.

This spring we all thought that Rocco would anchor the right field spot for a much-improved Rays team. But towards the end of Spring Training he held a press conference and announced that he would be put on the DL indefinitely. He insisted that he was not retiring but did tell us that he has "some type of metabolic and/or mitochondrial abnormalities". This is a condition that leaves him extremely fatigued after just a brief workout.

Unfortunately there still hasn't been an exact diagnosis of his problem, only a consensus of the many doctors that have worked with him. In terms that I can understand, his body does not make and /or store a chemical (ATP - adenosine triphosphate) that is required for his muscles to work or recover from work. Because this isn't happening, he gets extremely fatigued after short amounts of work and it takes long periods of time for him to recover.

There is no magic pill, injection or elixir he can take to fix this problem. All his activities are closely monitored and he is on a regimen of vitamins and supplements to try and offset what his body is not doing on its own.

The unfortunate situation for Rocco is that he is in the last year of his contract. The Rays have informed him they will not be picking up the '09 option year (a business decision I personally can't argue with). I don't know what the future holds for Rocco Baldelli but I am thrilled with the fact that he is in the outfield again for the Rays. I only hope that things work out for him and he has many more years to contribute to the game of baseball. I know that I am going to enjoy watching him for as long as he can play.  

I missed the Olympics opening day ceremonies at their original broadcast time but got a chance to watch them at a friend's this morning. I don't know about you, but I was impressed as hell. That whole production was so incredible that it left me almost speechless. However, I must say that some of the fashion statements that the individual teams were making in the parade probably shouldn't have been made.

Am I imagining things or are the stands half empty for the events that NBC has broadcast?

I turned on the PGA tournament about 10 minutes before it was over. Quite frankly, I forgot it was on. Why was I not surprised that Sergio Garcia ended up with egg on his face? Why was I pleased that Colin Montgomery shot an 84 in his last round? That guy never did anything to me to cause that reaction. But I would be remiss if I didn't offer my congratulations to Padraig Harrington for winning back-to-back majors.  

 I was watching Sports Center tonight on the four-letter network. They did a quick story on the Rays and did a lead in with this cutesy promo about the City of Tampa, Florida. They then shifted into the Rays story. This happens all the time and it pisses me off. Why are they doing this fluff piece on the City of Tampa when the Rays play and make their home in the City of St. Petersburg? Tampa is on the other side of Tampa Bay; that big puddle that sits in the middle of the Cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Maybe I should send a map of the area to The ESPN offices in Hartford, Connecticut so they can figure this out. Hartford is the same as Bristol, isn't it?

Is there anyone who doubts that Brandon Webb is the best picture in baseball this year?

Just my thoughts and opinions....