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Let's start with a joke. Why? Because some traditions in baseball are sacred, and right up there with the seventh-inning stretch, Wrigley Field ivy and pitch-count charts is the time-honored fact that the Tampa Bay franchise always has been the Whoopie cushion of the major leagues.
So, here goes ...
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| Tampa Bay's master plan has role players like Gabe Gross (right) complementing prospects like Evan Longoria. (US Presswire) |
Wait. That's no joke. Piniella was serious as an argument with the plate umpire ... or a ball off the Tropicana Field catwalk. When the Cubs travel to Tampa Bay next week, the three games will feature the team with baseball's best record (the Cubs) against the club with the game's fifth-best record -- and the third-best overall mark in the American League. No break at all for the Cubs.
Four-dollar gallons of gas, surging unemployment and Tampa Bay battling Boston for first place in the AL East.
What in the devil is this world coming to?
Quicker than expected
Old Rays: Tampa -- first in spring breakers, first in Steinbrenners, last in the AL East. In its 10-year existence, Tampa Bay has never lost fewer than 91 games, and it has finished out of last place only once (fourth, in 2004).
New Rays: With the best record in the majors since April 22 (30-15), Tampa Bay has been alone or tied for first in the AL East for 22 days this season -- seven more than the combined total of its first 10 seasons. The Rays had 38 victories overall through midweek. In their history, the earliest they ever reached 38 wins was on June 30, 2004, in their 75th game.
Welcome to the best story in baseball in 2008, a tale that many within the game saw coming as early as a year ago because of the treehouse full of young talent the Rays have amassed -- but a tale nobody saw coming this quickly.
"I'd be lying if I told you I thought our record would be (38-26) at this juncture," manager Joe Maddon says. "The part of that that's sustainable, though, is our pitching and defense. When you can do it in those two aspects of the game, that's when you have your best chance to keep it going."
"I think the confidence has been there, but there was maybe a little doubt this spring," says center fielder B.J. Upton, whose .301 average, .412 on-base percentage and 33 walks lead the Rays. "As the season has gone on, that doubt has disappeared.
"It's all going so fast and so well, it's hard to remember the past."
Says two-time All-Star Carl Crawford, who goes back to 1999 with this outfit: "Oh, this year is the best year I've ever had in any baseball season, period. It's been wonderful."
