The Tampa Bay Rays are American League Champions

I just wrote the title of this post.  There are a lot of thoughts running through my mind.  Francona shoulda pinched hit for Varitek in the seventh with two runners on and in the ninth when he was the tying run.  Coco Crisp should have slid right at the bag instead of trying to take out Bartlett.  The umpire shouldn't have called J.D. Drew out on the worst check swing call I've ever seen.  But it doesn't matter what should have happened.  It matters what did.

There are lots of people in Tampa Bay right now.  I've seen hundreds of games there on television, and in the games I see, it's usually 50% of capacity and 95% of those people are wearing Red Sox gear.  Now the place is packed with people wearing Rays gear crying and hugging each other like they've waited 95 years to see this.  Congratulations to the four or five hundred diehards.  You deserve something like this and I hope you got to see it along with the tens of thousands of people there who couldn't name a Devil Ray to save their life.  Though to their credit they've been pretty supportive the past 2 months or so when they finally figured out they had a baseball team.  Maybe they've been confused the past 10 years.  I've never been down there, but I hear the stadium is in St. Petersburg, not Tampa Bay.  Maybe they've been searching and just found the place.  Hopefully this will be the start of something there.  That would be good for baseball.  And who knows... maybe next year these people will come back and they'll actually sell out a regular season game or two.

Last year I posted that the Cleveland Indians became irrelevant the night they lost game 7.  I stand by that.  The 2008 Boston Red Sox are now irrelevant.  If I've counted right, the Red Sox have been in playoff series deciding games 8 times in my life.  They're 5-3.  All three loses were on the road, and in all three loses the Red Sox scored first.  Nothing's sweeter than winning those games.  Nothing hurt more then losing the first 2.  This one stings a lot less.  I guess two World Series titles lessens the blow. 

 

I really thought the Sox were gonna win as Pedroia's homer cleared the wall.  He had a great post season.  A lot like Todd Walker in 2003.  No one remembers that though, cause the Red Sox lost in the ALCS.  No one will remember Pedroia's heroics this year either.  Oh well.  You can't win them all.

So that means it's Tampa Bay vs Philadelphia in the World Series.  I haven't decided who I'm rooting for yet.  I probably won't decide till it actually starts and I see it.  I can't watch a game without rooting for someone.  Teams I wanted to win in the LCS went 0-2, so I don't expect either team to start lobbying for my support any time soon.