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Why America should be rooting for the Rays
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Crawford scores a run in Game 4 -AP
The Rays steamrolled the Red Sox 13-4 tonight in Game Four of the ALCS to take a 3-1 series lead. They are one game away from the World Series. Do they have your attention now, America?
They should. And you should be loving it. The Rays are doing for baseball what even those great Yankees-Red Sox rivalry series couldn’t do: They are making it a kids’ game again.
In a time when all you hear is talk about payroll, arguments over revenue sharing, and grown men bickering about this and that on sports-talk radio, the Rays are giving baseball back to the kids. This is just a bunch of talented kids that could care less about what anyone thinks about them because they are having the time of their lives playing winning baseball together. They are what baseball is supposed to be.
How has this attitude developed? First of all, let me tell you this: You don’t make it through many seasons in Tampa Bay as a Ray/Devil Ray if you don’t absolutely LOVE playing the game.
For anyone out there that hasn’t had the privilege of attending a game at the Trop between the Devil Rays and Red Sox or Yankees from the early years through 2007, let me tell you what that was like for the Rays. Then you can grasp how much of a turnaround this season has really been.
It’s like you are a kid that keeps getting beat up by a couple of bullies at school and you get home to your family and they say to you “We love you son, but I’m sorry to have to tell you that I just love those bullies that beat you up more. As a matter of fact, we’re inviting them over and feeding them dinner and not you. Come on in bullies, great job beating the tar out of my kid!!”
Playing in that situation, you learn to block everything out and just think about how much you love the game and your teammates. Carl Crawford, for instance, has been there for seven years. There aren’t a lot of older veterans on this team, but for guys that have been there for even a few years like Rocco Baldelli, Jonny Gomes, and Scott Kazmir, this season has been truly special.
Any Rays fans that have been there through those tough years have experienced that right along with the team. That is why it will be so special if the Rays can knock off one of those bullies by finishing off this series against the Red Sox.
The Rays don’t come home and find the bullies eating their dinner anymore. The Trop has transformed into a ballpark that is now filled with hometown fans, not just fans. The Rays have already earned a new respect from their community, and that means a lot to them. Now they just have to earn the respect they deserve from the rest of America.
You hear it every year in the postseason. What World Series matchup would be “the best for baseball?” Or “It would be bad for baseball if Team A made the World Series because no one would watch it?”
I’ve been a baseball fan since I was a very young kid and I think most people out there have also. When I was a kid, I rooted for my team to make the World Series (the Rays didn’t exist then). If they didn’t make it I never thought to myself “These two teams are boring, have no interesting storylines and come from small-market cities, therefore I’m not going to watch.”
That is absolutely ridiculous. If you are a real baseball fan, you watch the playoffs and you enjoy it. I’m sure that’s what you did when you were a kid, and that’s certainly what I did. I found a team to root for and had nearly as much fun watching the World Series and the rest of the playoffs as I would have had if my team were in it.
Well, this year I have heard a lot of garbage about how Red Sox-Dodgers would be the best World Series matchup and it would be bad for baseball if the Rays made it because they have no fans and nobody would watch.
America, this October you need to get back in touch with the kid in you and find that team that plays the game you love. They play it for fun, they love their teammates, and they’ve overcome a decade of neglect in their own home. They’ve brought two cities – St. Petersburg AND Tampa – to their feet and made them remember what it’s like to just be a kid in love with baseball again.
They are the Tampa Bay Rays and they should be your team.
For more info: See all MLB playoffs coverage from Examiners
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