Thanking God for the Rays
You will hear a lot of commentary this World Series, from broadcasters and coaches, players and fans, about why it’s so nice that the Tampa Bay Rays have made it into the Fall Classic. They will expound on the importance of small market teams such as the Rays and their opponents, the Philadelphia Phillies, saying that baseball cannot always be about teams from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Purists will laud Tampa Bay for cultivating its young, homegrown stars such as Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton and will tout the team as an example that solid defense, relief pitching and timely hitting are more than a match for clubs with monster payrolls.
Personally, I too am overjoyed by the fact that the Rays have made it this far. I do not claim to be a fan of the little guy and, though I have loved baseball for the vast majority of my life, I would not consider myself a purist. What I am is a Yankees fan. And that means I care about only one thing: that Tampa Bay beat the Boston Red Sox, and that the Sox will not be playing for their another Series title.
Now, I know that to the average baseball fan, my claim seems like an immensely nearsighted view. Many people ask me how I can possibly dislike a team so much that I will root for whoever they are playing. Usually, I cannot give a concrete answer; I am a Yankees fan, ergo I despise Boston. This time, however, I think I can rationalize my feelings a bit.
If the Red Sox made it to the World Series and won, they would become baseball’s latest dynasty. Three titles since 2004 would make them almost equivalent to the Yanks of the late nineties. I would not be able to deal with a world in which the Sox are considered the most successful team of any decade. They needed to lose to the Rays for the same reason that the Cubs needed to lose to the Dodgers: baseball needs its losers (OK, I know that the Sox are no longer losers, but two straight championships would make it borderline impossible to keep denying that fact).
From an actual baseball point of view, Boston getting another ring would would have also been a catastrophe for my Yanks. See, the only thing that the Steinbrenner clan and their cronies hate more than the Yankees losing is the Red Sox winning. And, as the team’s mantra for the past decade, if both happen, the obvious solution is to throw money at guys like Kevin Brown, Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano, to name a few. So, if Boston beat the Rays and then won the Series, it would take all of five minutes for Hank Steinbrenner to start bullying General Manager Brian Cashman into paying $80 million for an aging superstar with bad knees.
Besides, I did not want to see Dustin Pedroia on television any more this year. I can only hear the word “scrappy” so many times over a given autumn.
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Well I suppose it is great for you to have goals – Congratulations. I mean are you really came though.
I like to hold myself out as a bit of a pragmatist, and from a pragmatic standpoint we went through a lot of shit this year, and while there never is an excuse for not going all the way – there certainly are reasons this year.
So Here are my Top 11 – reasons for only coming a hit away from our 3rd World Series Birth in 5 years.
1. Manny just couldn’t hold it together and got himself purposefully kicked out of town ala Jay Gayton, er Payton. Of course it didn’t help that we had Scoot Boras (shloe) , playing Tom Cruise to Manny’s Dustin Hoffman / Savant Rain Man imitation. Honest to God the guy can hit, but someone needs to test Manny. I mean isn’t taking advantage of a savant like that no different than what the carnivals did with the freak shows?
2. Big Papi would Miss 53 Games with a click trick wrist – which in fact may never be the same.
3. Mike Lowell would break down miss 49 games and ultimately need to have hip surgery.
4. That Mike Timlin would pitch like an old lady most of the year -Mike its been a good run – 4 World Series Rings – get to ye olde broadcast booth – post haste.
5. That Josh Beckett would win only 12 games and look like a 2nd or 3rd starter – although a 2nd or 3rd starter in the American League is about as good as an ace in the National League. A hem- Ben Sheets Milwaukee Brewers.
6. Julio Lugo would check out in July, and we would have to have Jed Lowerie become our everyday short stop.
7. JD Drew’s balsawood back would keep him out of the line up from Aug 3rd pretty much through the end of the year.
8. Clay Buchholz, would go 2-9 with a 6.75 ERA,
9. Curt Schilling would be done!
10. Pitchers would figure out Jacoby Elisburry can not hit an inside pitch and he would not be able to adjust accordingly.
11. And finally Captain V-Tek would fall off a cliff at the plate.
So when you take all that into account, and then tell me we still would
· Win 95 games
· Get Into the Playoffs
· Beat the “Unbeatable Angles”,
· Stage the greatest and latest modern day comeback in post season single game history
· Come with in 1 hit in the 8th inning of the ALCS game 7 to win the AL Pennant………………………
I still say “what the fuck, why didn’t we win!!!! “
However, (and this is no consolation by far), when you consider any other team, let me reiterate that any other fucking team that had ¼ of these things occur wouldn’t have even come close to what we did, I hate to say it – or type it – I guess you have to take your hats off to the 2008 Boston Red Sox, in a lot of ways it was easier winning it last year than it was loosing it this year.
As Always the Doodle Abides –
The Doodle
October 22, 2008 at 9:55 pm