We hesitate to link to this because it only emphasizes our own inadequacies as "writers", but that would be an injustice to you.

We will let Will Leitch of Deadspin provide the introduction...

Slate's Robert Weintraub, like many of us, loves the old purple prose of early 1900s sportswriting, the Grantland Rices, the men who painted epic tales of warriors, grizzled combatants and lardywarks too manly to wear gloves. In an occasional series, Weintraub writes about the week's best baseball game in the style of the vaunted sportswriters of yesteryear. This week: The Rays' win last night over the A's.

The entire piece can be found HERE, but here is an excerpt. We also highly recommend reading the original piece out loud as if you were perched on a chair and several children sit on the floor in front of you.

After a duo of spine-snapping heartbreakers to Middle America’s Team while the nation took a break from toil, the tweeners from Tampa celebrated being on the side that didn’t surrender its colors after an epic struggle. It is a leap of Knievalesque proportions to proffer that these base balling elasmobranches are a threat for Octoberfest, much less make it to the Last Banquet of Fall. Given their persistent ineptitude since inception, however, it is gladdening to witness a potent heartbeat from the downtrodden Sunshine Boys. The Renaissance comes after shedding any Beelzebub overtones from the franchise. Coincidence? More like an exorcism. Getting first choice from the larder has stocked the spread with an epicurean’s delight of prime beef talents—and even more, like David “The Vandy Vapor Trail” Price, await promotion to the First Battalion from the reserve corps on the farm. Optimism Unbound in Tampa—if this keeps up, one will have to acknowledge the presence of another Crack Committee of Base Ball People in the region, one that has no Steinbrennerian affiliation.

If you read nothing else today, please read this. You will be smarter for it and an eloquently written piece on a Rays Win may help us through the doldrums of having to wait almost 50 hours until the next Rays' contest with the taint of yesterday's game still very fresh in our minds.

Latina Mary Pickford, First Lady Of The Cagers [Deadspin]

Will Leitch was kind enough and trusting enough to invite us to write the Tampa Bay Rays Preview for Deadspin.com.

The style is a little different than what you may be used to here. Whenever we do one of these projects, DRG calls it "Rays Index on amphetamines". It is a little longer, kinda silly and a bit more risque. Although we are pretty sure we only dropped the F-bomb once, which according to the Motion Picture Association of America means the post is still worthy of a PG-13 rating.

We don't see the need to ever do a Rays Preview here at RI as we assume that most of you already know the basics about the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, but if you are interested in reading our version, head on over to Deadspin.

Baseball Season Preview: Tampa Bay Devil Rays [Deadspin]

• Deadspin has started their baseball previews and on day 1 they give us our beloved Rays. The first two-thirds of the post is a recap of the 2006 implosion (that sound was us banging our collective heads on the keyboard...over and over and over and over). We recommend skipping to the last five paragraphs, unless of course you are a masochist. Some interesting tidbits...
1. The author speculates that another poor performance this year could lead to Joe Maddon's dismissal. That is probably a bit premature. The team has publicly stated that this is a second year of "evaluation". We would be shocked if Maddon was not back with the team in 2008 no matter what the results of 2007. The team has two option years on Maddon's contract after this season. Most teams make decisions on managers before the final year of a contract. So don't expect a move either way on Maddon until after 2008.
2. Maddon used 140 different lineups last year. We are amazed that he actually repeated a previous lineup 22 times. Maddon has received a lot of criticism for this and sometimes it is warranted, but Maddon has stated that he would love to have a regular lineup. Again, during this evaluation period, expect more lineup shuffling, although less than 2006, and even less in 2008 as the team and the players settle into their respective roles.
3. We have covered this before, but Andrew Friedman nor anybody else from the organization has EVER said that Carl Crawford was untouchable. This rumor has run rampant since devilrays.com ran a poorly titled article. The article was originally entitled "Baldelli continues to draw interest; Crawford will stay put" despite the fact that Crawford was never mentioned in the article. In fact, the article's title was later changed (which can still be seen HERE) most likely at the request of the Rays front office. Are you telling us that if the Twins came and offered Johan Santana and Justin Morneau, the Rays would say 'No'? Friedman has actually stated that nobody is untouchable but that they were not actively shopping C. C...Big difference.
   
• A couple of days ago we ran a list of 11 questions entering the 2007 Spring Training. The St. Pete Times could only come up with nine. Pathetic.
• An interesting look at the AL pitching staffs from 2006. The Rays starters actually put up some above average numbers. But when they take into account how deep the staff worked in games, they weren't so good after all.
• Some mathematical projections for Delmon Young in 2007. The four models are fairly consistent. Looks like we can expect about a .300 average with about 15 home runs.
• DRaysBay interviewed potential first pick David Price of Vanderbilt.
• The return of a familiar face. Shinji Mori threw about 20 pitches from a mound for the first time since his surgery.
  
• FoxSports has ranked all of baseball's general managers. Andrew Friedman? #22.
  
• Surprise, surprise, the Rays will not be featured on ESPN's sunday night baseball in 2007. The last time the Rays played a nationally televised game was in 2000.
• Yep. These are our fellow Rays fans.

We here at Rays Index are big fans of the folks over at Deadspin.com. As part of a baseball preview, they have a regular post called "Four Tiny Tidbits On:". They love our D-Rays so, much they have actually have run two posts, "Four Tiny Tidbits On: The Devil Rays" and "Four More Tiny Tidbits On: The Devil Rays". Most sequels never live up to the hype nor the substance of the original. Usually the budget is better, so the explosions are bigger and the special effects are more spectacular, but the story is lacking (ie. Mission Impossible 2). In fact, only three sequels have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Can You name them? (answer at the end of this post) Well, in this case the sequel has outdone the original. Maybe it is just too easy to find funny tidbits about the Devil Ray players and organization. At least the Rays aren't as boring as the Twins, who only garnered "Three Tiny Tidbits On: The Twins".

Answer: The Godfather 2 (1974), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).

Four Tiny Tidbits On: The Devil Rays [Deadspin]
Four More Tiny Tidbits On: The Devil Rays [Deadspin]