Thursday, October 23, 2008

[HAPPY HOUR]
Rocco Baldelli Will Start Game 2 In Right Field
Because the best cure for a bad "Hangover" is a good "Happy Hour".

That cute little Rayhawked, bespectacled fella is part of the new logo over "The Heater", Marc Topkin's blog at the St. Pete Times.

He sure is cute. But he looks a little familiar. Hmmm? Where have we seen him before? What could it be? Is it that he has a more famous cousin?

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA...
  • Rocco Baldelli will start in right field tonight, while Cliff Floyd will be back at his customary DH slot. [Rays Report]
  • Badsnap wonders if Derryl Cousins would be working the World Series if Boston had won the ALCS, noting that Cousins collarbone is only bruised and not broken. [Badsnap]
  • Joe Maddon was named the Manager of the Year by the Sporting News. [The Heater]
  • Some quotes from the Phillies suggest that Scott Kazmir was tipping his pickoff move. [Yahoo! Sports] [via Fanhouse]
“We saw some things...We can put some pressure on teams if they give us something to key off of." Davey Lopes

“I don’t want to say too much because we have games left...I will say with Davey, we’re an aggressive baserunning team.” Jayson Werth
  • On a side note: For the younger crowd that are not familiar with Davey Lopes, just look at his career numbers to get a clear indication as to how differently the game is played these days on the basepaths. The dude once stole 77 bases and was 47 of 51 at the age of 40! Amazing. And having watched Lopes (at least towards the end of his career) he was not that fast. [Baseball-Reference]
  • Jon Heyman: "But for one night, in the biggest game of their lives, the 97-win Rays reverted to their previously sour history in their 3-2 Game 1 defeat to the Phillies." Huh-wha?!? Jon does know this is baseball right? Sometimes, even good teams lose a game. Or is this going to be the Heyman's mantra for the rest of time. Anytime the Rays lose a game, they will have "reverted to their previously sour history". Jesus Jon! They lost by 1 run to a one of the best lefties in baseball. The old Devil Rays would have lost that game 10-1. (thanks Charles) [SI.com]
  • It seems a bit strange to use alcohol as the vehicle to celebrate the success of any athlete, but it is even more strange when the New York Times uses champagne and beer as a vehicle in a story about Willy Aybar, who once spent three months in alcohol rehabilitation. [New York Times]
Four drained bottles of booze in the locker of a recovering alcoholic would be cause for concern in most workplaces. In the Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse, the empty Champagne and wine containers in Willy Aybar’s cubicle are considered 100 percent proof of a rebirth, not a relapse.
  • Ratings from game 1 were down 14% from last year but are comparable to the 2005 World Series between the White Sox and Astros. [Bloomberg]
  • Hidden behind the "Insider" curtain, Buster Olney looks closer at Evan Longoria's at bats last night to see how Cole Hamels was able to dominate the Rays. [ESPN]
The first pitch that Evan Longoria saw from Cole Hamels, in Longoria's first at-bat of the World Series, was a changeup. And with a 1-1 count, Longoria saw another changeup, and then another, and he struck out swinging. Three changeups among the first four pitches, but what Longoria could not have known, as he walked back to the dugout, was that he would not see a changeup thrown by Hamels in his next at-bat at all.

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5 Comments:

Blogger MikeD said...

Oh yeah - good lookin' lineup. Aki was awesome last night, and I think the rest of the Rays bats will join in the party tonight. Look for me in section 319 - I'll be - um - wearing a Rays shirt and hat, and banging a cowbell. Forget "bangin' on the drum all day", due respect to Mr. Rundgren. Let's bang on the cowbells all night, and hammer some balls out of the park.

5:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i just want to let you know that you have the biggest scumbag fans and also employees of tropicana field. All you bandwagon fans can shove it. Last place for 9 years then all of a sudden one good year and every moron and their mothers are all of a sudden huge rays fans. And what kind of employees try to throw you out of a WORLD SERIES game that ppl pay $500 a ticket for rooting for your team. i hope this series is a sweep. GO PHILS!!!!!

6:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

a few things

1) Scott Kazmir tipping off his pickoff move=Scott Kazmir NOT balking.

Cole Hamels not tipping off his pickoff move=Cole Hamels stepping towards home and throwing to first

2) I'm sick of all these articles bashing the Rays. Yesterday, Howard Bryant of espn.com had an article about how winning the world series would be bad for the Rays as they would lose and wouldn't be able to afford their players. Players he mentioned included CC, Shields, Jackson, Kazmir, Longoria, Price, Pena, and Upton. None of these players are being lost before 2010. All these people just need to find ways to put the Rays down because thats all they know....well writers, you suck, I can't wait to see the Rays win and celebrate when all you can do is sit there and praise them.

6:14 PM  
Blogger Andrew said...

Dear "Hardcore Longtime Phillies Fans",

Here is a list of your average per-game attendance figures over the last 8 years, and your team's corresponding W-L record.

2008 92-70 - 42,254
2007 89-73 - 38,374
2006 85-77 - 33,356
2005 88-74 - 32,905
2004 86-76 - 40,125
2003 86-76 - 27,901
2002 80-81 - 20,231
2001 86-76 - 22,001

It took your super duper awesome fanbase 8 years of 80+ wins, a brand new stadium in 2004, and a playoff birth in the previous year to average a sell-out per game. Most of your rankings in the first half of the decade were in the bottom 5 of the NL - in SPITE of being in the wild-card hunt nearly every year. So in calling Rays fans "bandwagoners", truly, hello Mr. Kettle, you sir, are black.

6:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

1998 30,942

1999 21,601

2000 18,008

2001 16,026

2002 13,158

2003 13,070

2004 16,139

2005 14,052

2006 16,901

2007 17,148

2008 22,259


come idiot lets compare numbers. and dont get to excited cause after you get swept this series your numbers will be around 13,000 again.



























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7:35 PM  

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