Thoughts, lists and other compulsive bits about baseball from comedian filmmaker television producer/Red Sox fan Paul Francis Sullivan....
feel free to call him “Sully.”
Showing posts with label 2004 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2004 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Show all posts
The attendance in Joe Robbie Stadium, or Pro Player Park, or Dolphin Stadium or Landshark Park or whatever the hell it is called now, was pathetic when the two teams met up in late May.
But I expect the Trop to be full.
Remember when people would complain about how the Florida teams should be contracted and that they are a joke? Well guess what? Both teams are exciting and worth watching!
The Marlins are on a roll and are only a game out of first place. You read that right... there is a statistic possibility that the Florida Marlins could be tied for first place by the end of Friday.
The Rays are the defending American League champs, have won their last few games. And thanks to a few winning streaks in June they have turned around their season and are only 2 games behind the big payroll Yankees for the Wild Card.
Both teams have winning records!
The Marlins and Rays have met with winning records in 2004 and last year. Those are the only other two times.
This could be the time that Florida's place in baseball finally becomes something bigger than a joke.
That's right. I said a joke. This obnoxious Red Sox fan will say it.
Florida is looked on by the rest of the baseball world as a place where you can watch baseball in Spring Training and then the fans disappear.
You don't like that? Then show up! Show some life! The Marlins and the Rays are filled with some of the most exciting players in the game... and players who are all but certain to skeedaddle when they ask for more than minimum wage.
Show up! Ring those cowbells. Make up some thing for Marlins fans to do.
Make it so a dude showing up to the Trop with a Marlins hat on has people say "Man, you are brave to wear that here!"
I'm not saying start fights... just have enough fans to have people wonder if a fight is possible.
I know I am a little late to the party on this one, but why do the Rays get to raise TWO championship banners?
Seriously!
I know it was a great achievement winning the Division and then winning the pennant... but I thought you raise a banner for the highest honor the team got for the season.
The 2007 Red Sox don't have a flag for the Division, the Pennant and the World Series.
OK, fine... the Rays don't have a lot of practice raising banners.
I'm sure they don't have a "70 Wins!" banner to commemorate the 2004 team.
I'm pretty sure they don't have a "Did you see The Rookie? He played for us" banner.
And raising the two banners was probably great for Pat and Christin and anyone else who was there.
But after this season, just keep the 2008 A. L. Champions banner up.
(And yes, I am bitter that they beat my Red Sox for both flags!!!)
What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday the Rays had run off 7 straight wins... a week of victories... They had won 12 of 14 games and looked like they might be poised to widen their 5 game lead heading into the All Star break.
2 games against a slumping Yankees team and then 4 against the disastrous Indians and the path to being in first place at the All Star Game looked clear.
WHOOPS! Suddenly the Devil came back and started possessing the Rays.
A winless week including a 4 game sweep by the hapless Tribe.
Suddenly there is in fighting and no doubt lingering doubt.
If you said at the beginning of the year that the Rays would win 12 of the last 21 games heading into the break and be only 1/2 a game out... you'd give Joe Maddon Manager of the Year.
And truth be told, if the Rays go 16-52 the rest of the way, they would still end up as the best team in Tampa Bay history.
And if they go 27-41 (a .397) the rest of the way, Tampa Bay will have a winning season.
But Tampa fans looked like there were getting more this year... and they might still get more. Better hope they left a slipper behind.
Well my call for a rivalry between the artists formerly known as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Defending World Champion Boston Red Sox has been heard by the Tampa Bay Rays fans... Both of them.
Dirt Bag Fan (his given name) has started Rays the Stakes... and has also started talking smack.
And we here at Sully Baseball welcome it all. But man let me share you one piece he posted... I'm sure you heard every imaginable put-down during your 86 years of mediocrity.
Folks, this guy has a pair. Seriously... big hairy ones too.
86 years of mediocrity? First of all, in case you are slow to checking on the sports section, the whole 86 years thing ended 4 years ago. And the Red Sox happened to have won another World Series since. FYI. It's like taunting Brad Pitt because he had braces in high school. He looks better now.
Secondly... mediocrity? You do know that during those 86 years the Red Sox won 4 AL pennants, 3 more Division Titles and 3 Wild Cards. And 24 seasons of 90 wins or more.
Let that sink in for a second. That's 90 wins in one season... not over the course of two.
And I do recall that during the last ten years the Red Sox considered trips to Tampa "padding the win column."
Thirdly... you root for a team whose GOAL is mediocrity
As the other three recent expansion teams (the Marlins, D'Backs and Rockies) all have gone to the World Series, the Rays are focused on the number that defines mediocrity:
.500
Of course they've never even sniffed it. The greatest year in Tampa Bay history (2004... remind me who won the World Series that year) was a 70-91 season.
The greatest height this team has soared was 3 full weeks behind mediocre. They've had ten 90 loss seasons since 1997.
The Red Sox have had only 13 since 1901!
And don't blame it on payroll and unfair economics. The 2002 and 2003 Montreal Expos had winning seasons and they didn't even have an owner! And if you can believe it played in a worse stadium and drew fewer fans!
I wish your team luck. Maybe this year you can soar to mediocrity and the idea of there being ten great moments in your history wouldn't seem so silly.
Seriously, was any Tampa fan nostalgic for the Devil Rays days?
