Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

In 1976, Tampa Bay got it’s first of the four major pro sports teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  It wasn’t long before meeting Philadelphia teams in the playoffs became a sort of tradition.

In fact, in their first-ever playoff appearance,  the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-17.  That was December 29, 1979.

The first playoff appearance for the Tampa Bay Lightning was also against a Philly team.

Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Philadelphia Flyers (4 games to 2) in the first round of the 1996 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Those games at Thunderdome versus the Philadelphia Flyers once held the record for fans in attendance at an NHL game.

And yes, Philly ended up beating Tampa Bay a couple of more times in season-ending tournaments.

At the turn of the century, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice reached the Wild Card Game against the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles beat the Buccaneers in both years.  21-3 at Philly in 2000, and 31-9 at Philly in 2001.

After that, the tide began to turn.

In 2002, the Buccaneers had to travel to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship.  Tampa Bay won on the road for the first time in their playoff history, in the last football game played at Veterans Stadium.  The Bucs beat the Eagles 27-10 en route to their first Super Bowl appearance.

In 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers (4 games to 3) in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals to advance to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance.

Trouble is that none of those teams from Philly went on to win a championship.  The Bucs won the Super Bowl after beating the Eagles in 2002, while the Lightning won the Stanley Cup after beating the Flyers in 2004.  In fact, the city of Philadelphia has not won a championship in the major sports since 1983 (and that was in something called “basketball“).

• Philadelphia Eagles - the NFL team’s last championship was in 1960 - 48 years ago.
• Philadelphia Flyers - the NHL team’s last championship was in 1975 - 33 years ago.
• Philadelphia Phillies - the MLB team’s last championship was in 1980 - 28 years ago.
• Philadelphia 76ers - the NBA team’s last championship was in 1983 - 25 years ago.

Twenty-five years since a championship in that town.  PhillySucks.com says it best:

“4 teams, 100 seasons, 0 parades.”

Plus, the Phillies are the only American pro team to LOSE 10,000 games.  They blame it all on some Curse of William Penn.  No wonder the Jan Brady of Northeast Cities has the least happy fans.

Anyway, in both hockey and football, Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia has become quite a fun rivalry.  And now a Tampa Bay team has the opportunity to beat a Philadelphia team in baseball, too.  It all starts Wednesday.

Update Tuesday 10am:  Gary Shelton also notes that it is always Philly, as does the NYT’s Ben Shpigel.  Mick Elliott agrees, but finds out that Philly doesn’t really notice.

Your Tampa Bay Rays are the Champions of the American League.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 4 games to 3 in the American League Championship Series.

The Rays now go on to play the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.

Congratulations to the 2008 AL Champions Tampa Bay Rays!

That was a roller coaster of a series against the Red Sox, and I was sweating bullets when Maddon left Price in for the ninth inning. But the southpaw from Vanderbilt pulled through and the Rays are playing against the Philadelphia Phillies for the championship.

From DRays Bay:

The coldest story was to be told tonight. The Rays were done. History was against them, but history doesn’t play baseball. This team has shown again and again how true that is. This was freaking amazing series and frankly you couldn’t ask for more emotion and drama. Four more wins. That’s all we need. Four more wins.

From Rays of Light:

Matt Garza had his best start all season. David Price finished off the job and got the Rays the American League pennant. The Rays have done it!

The first game of the World Series will be Wednesday at The Trop. That still looks weird to type.

We’ve got a lot to cover sports-wise in Tampa Bay and I have been delinquent so we’re covering everything in one post.

RAYS
Let’s get this out of the way - the loss yesterday was a punch to the gut.  It was depressingly ugly but it happened and there’s nothing that can be done to change it.

I think the Rays will win tomorrow and should win convincingly.  Look at it this way: it took a miraculous rally for the Red Sox to get their first win in Boston.  Now the series moves back to St Pete where the Rays have two things going in their favor: 1) they have their ace Jamie Shields starting against a struggling Beckett, and 2) a young Rays team that will have the home crowd behind them.  Momentum is a funny thing in baseball (as the Rays found out last night) and can swing back to the Rays’ favor very easily.

BUCS
Is anyone else excited about the throwback game for next year?  Not only do we get the creamsicle jerseys but the Bucs will introduce a Ring of Honor, both of which have been a long time coming.

It’s been difficult to get a read on the Bucs playoff chances so far; the Bucs have a better team than last season, but the NFC South is also more competitive.  No team in the division has a losing record and the worst team in the division (Saints) is the only divisional opponent to beat the best team (Bucs).  The Falcons have been the surprise team (as a result of a series of events which began with the police raiding a dog kennel in Virginia) but I have my doubts about Atlanta’s staying power.  The Falcons have been riding the Matt Ryan wave but every rookie quarterback has weaknesses and it’s only a matter of time before Ryan’s weaknesses are exposed.

I’m sticking with my preseason predictions, the Panthers are going to be the Bucs main competition for the division title.  Based on last week’s results that bodes well for the Bucs.  The Bucs should continue to be in good shape with Jeff Garcia as the starter (despite what Jon Gruden apparently believes) and will be in better shape once Joey Galloway returns.  More importantly the Bucs defense has returned to dominance.

BOLTS
The NHL season has started and four games in the Bolts have yet to record a victory.  It’s easy to neglect the Bolts considering the success of the Rays and Bucs but their struggles since winning the Stanley Cup are troubling.  You would think that the implementation of a salary cap would benefit a small market team like the Bolts but tying up a majority of their cap in three players may have been a bad idea.  Now the Bolts appear in full on rebuilding mode and headed for a second straight losing season.

In the name of SECURITY, you will now be groped at all Buccaneers games at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, even though these pat-downs don’t work.

In the name of SECURITY, x-ray photos of you will be taken at the Tampa Airport beginning next Friday, even though these create images of you virtually nude.

Don’t that make you feel secure?

You have to wonder if the Tampa Tribune is going for some sort of world’s record in poor decision making. After the week they had, how else would you explain the puff piece Q & A with Buccaneers tight end Jerramy Stevens in Anwar Richardson’s “Wide Right” column published on Sunday?

Stevens, who has a history of arrests for assault with a deadly weapon, marijuana possession, sexual assault and drunk driving (if you want details, click here, but prepare for a long read… and to be thoroughly sickened) is in his first season with the Buccaneers.

“I can remember the worst beating I got. It wasn’t painful because of the physical part, but it was painful because of the trauma of the situation. When I was a little, I set these trees on fire by my house and I called the fire department. I was putting it out, and right as I was getting it out, my dad pulled up and that trauma from the look in his eye lasted a lifetime for me.”

(Cross posted at Ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness)

Few states take their college football as seriously as Florida, and almost everyone has a team they root for. So with that in mind we present rankings of all the Division 1-A teams in the sunshine state. It should be mentioned these rankings are strongly based on schedule played so far, and attempt to ignore how well the teams may do in the future.

1. South Florida (5-0)
In past weeks it would probably be considered pure hyperbole to call the Bulls the best team in Florida. Not only are the Bulls the best team in the state, but they are also the best team in the Big East. The Bulls former road struggles may be behind after they thumped NC State in Raleigh to the tune of 41-10.

2. Florida (3-1)
The Gators are behind the Bulls in both the AP Ranking (Bulls #10, Gators 12) and the Coaches (Bulls #10, Gators #13) Poll yet no one has been talking about the Bulls as national championship contenders.

3. Miami (2-2)
I’m on the fence regarding which team, Miami or FSU, should be ranked third in the state. Fortunately, the two play this weekend to help make my decision next week easier.

4. Florida State (3-1)
Beating Colorado on the road was the Noles most impressive victory of the season and the only victory against a Division 1-A team.

5. Central Florida (1-3)
After playing a close game against South Florida earlier in the season the Golden Knights appear to have fallen apart. Central Florida lost 58-13 to UTEP over the weekend.

6. Florida Atlantic (1-3)
As no one in their right mind outside of the few Florida Atlantic grads care where the Owls are ranked, here is the oddity pertaining to the Florida Atlantic team: they have a player named Yourhighness Morgan. He must have some awfully confident parents.

7. Florida International (1-3)
Congratulations to the Golden Panthers on their first victory of the season.

Gary A. Poole contacted us, told us he had written about Tampa’s first professional football game, and asked us to pimp his new book, The Galloping Ghost:  Red Grange, an American Football Legend.  I asked him to write something up about Grange’s time in Tampa, and so he did (I added the images, which are from the Ghosts of the Gridiron - Virtual Scrapbook Library, Vol. 8: Thorpe’s Cardinals):

The Bucs just beat the Bears in Chicago last weekend.  While it seems like a relatively recent rivalry, the two cities have been competing on the gridiron for more than eighty years, and both cities helped play a significant role in the popularization of the NFL.

After playing his college season in 1925, Red Grange - the most important figure in American football history - went on a barnstorming tour.

(more…)

The Rays appear to be a bind going into their first ever playoff series next week: they do not have anyone lined up to throw out the first pitch (Note:  the emphasis is mine).

“We don’t have anyone to throw out the ball for our first playoff game,” Tampa Bay President Matt Silverman said.

“MLB asked us who it’d be. We realized nobody in the history of the franchise had done anything to be worthy of the honor.”

To quote Rays Index, “the truth hurts.”

There are a number of options if the Rays want to look outside the franchise though.

Maybe it’s just my personal bias but a number of the better candidates come from the Bucs.

Considering the football team is still the most popular franchise in the area, it would not be a bad idea to have a Tampa Bay Buccaneer throw out the first pitch.

Are there any good candidates that I missed?

Who would you like to see throw out the first pitch at the Rays first ever playoff game?