Baseball, by its nature and history, is a game that lends itself to hyper-analysis. There are a lot of reasons the Rangers beat us yesterday but, make no mistake, that is what happened. But, rather than obsess over yesterday’s outcome, baseball gives us the gift of a game today to focus on anew.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
I kept saying it during yesterday’s Baseball Tonight Live discussion, and I posted it on Facebook, and I said it in the comments: James Shields will be fine today and the Rays are going to win. Can I justify that belief with any statistical support? Maybe. But I am not going to try. We will have all winter to evaluate what happened during this series and what that means for the immediate and long-term future of the Rays.
For the moment, I am just going to root for Shields and put my faith in Joe Maddon. Both have earned that much.
Besides, as my good friend Transplant Billy pointed out in the comments, at least we got a hit…so we have that going for us…which is nice.
I have a running joke with my friends abotu my attendance in this year’s games…they lose when I am there. They did win when I went to Fenway (in commanding fashion no less)….which was a nice gift. So I had to ensure everyone I wasn’t there, even if they did play like I was. Supersticious? It’s baseball, I’m allowed to be.
That being said, and excuses aside, I can’t help but feel that this is truly my team…because honesty is usually not rewarded in my life, and sure enough I watch Pena doing the right thing and getting screwed by the umps because he wasn’t willing to flop around like a stuck fish when the ball actually grazed him.
So our kids, the future of the team’s fanbase, sees the debacle of “acting” with Jeter a month ago and how we got robbed there (luckily only temporarily), then gets to see our player(s) doing the RIGHT thing and completely shifting the momentum of the inning, and possibly the game.
Yeah, that wasn’t the only reason we lost, but it certainly didn’t help. Ironically the only mention of umpiring I’ve heard about on the national scene is the trap/catch that happened in the Yankee series…which didn’t effect the outcome of the game like our missed call probably did.
I surely can’t imagine the clubhouse today…everyone I know that loves this team is a barrel of nerves and anxiety, how they could possibly keep things loose is beyond me.
If there is one thing I am not worried about, it is this team’s nerves. They have been down so many times this season between blowing their big early lead, falling far behind New York, losing late season leads. They just keep plugging away. I give the credit to Maddon for keeping things loose and fresh but it might just be something unique to this group.
Now stay the heck away from the yard.
love that everyone, including this site, assumed the rays were going to stroll past the rangers in this series. really unbelievable especially since the rangers will be rolling out the 2 best pitchers in this series (cliff lee and c.j. wilson). rays did finish with a better record than the rangers are a very good team, but the rangers still posted 90 wins with the heart of their lineup (hamilton, cruz and kinsler) all missing large parts of the season with injury. get ready for CJ today, and then rays fans can watch a real stadium and fans this weekend in arlington!
For the record, I thought (and still think) that we’d win but I didn’t think it would be a stroll. Maybe like a fast walk or an easy jog. But not a stroll.
Also. I have been to your park and love it. Awesome place.
Mark, I love your optimism its the sign of any True fan! With that said I have a question for your fans in TB where are they? Minnesota last night was at 106% capacity people where hanging from the rafters in that place. Philly was 103% with standing room only. The Rays where at 98% yesterday. Don’t get me wrong I understand that our game was during the work day and people where at school but I mean come on! There has to be 45,000 people who are not so dedicated to there jobs that have the decency to play hooky and go support they’re World Series winning franchise! You’ve got some Lazy fans my friend, well kinda…
Chad. That 98% number is misleading. There are some seats at the top of the upper deck that the team covered with tarps two years ago because they are obstructed view. For some reason, some media outlets still technically count them in the ballpark’s capacity. There was no seat that went unsold or unoccupied and, the only reason that they weren’t over capacity is because unlike Philly and Minny, the park wasn’t built with standing room areas. So 100% occupancy is the only possibility.
My bad, I should have know better than to trust a Dallas media outlet!