.Gary Shelton does his best Kevin Bacon impression in this morning’s St. Petersburg Times begging Rays fans to bask in this particular moment in club history. Despite Gary’s tendency to turn a 200 word thought into a 5,000-word meander through his sub-conscious, I agree wholeheartedly.
The angst Rays fans are feeling this morning is a very good sign. It means the community is locked in. It means the fans realize that nothing is sewn up. It means no one will be happy just to get the wild card when a shot at another division crown, and an opening round matchup with Minnesota instead of Texas, is on the line.
These are the ways a dedicated baseball fan base is grown.
But, despite the fall weather [anyone know how to insert a laugh track?], we have to avoid the urge to treat the Rays’ remaining games in the way we treat college football games. All cannot be lost or gained on a single day. Keep your eye on the big picture. But, most importantly, just enjoy the race. It won’t happen again soon.
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[...] During that time, I have gone through the baseball equivalent of the stages of grief. I wrote off the struggles in his first start as the natural result of a 6’9″ body finding its rhythm again. Then, I explained away his struggles in his second start reasoning that a guy with Niemann’s injury history is naturally going to have a mental hurdle to overcome when coming off the DL. After that, I brushed off the September 6 stinker at Boston by looking at the big picture. [...]