Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan got an exclusive interview from Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli, who confirmed a diagnosis of Mitochondrial Myopathy. 

Mitochondrial Myopathy is a muscular disease, and the form that Rocco is dealing with makes physical exertion very exhausting.  His muscles need a longer time to recover than most of us. There is no known remedy for the disease, but the Muscular Dystrophy Association is looking for a cure.

Brendan McLaughlin is surprised that neither of the daily papers picked up the story. Perhaps the news is hidden behind that big Magic Number.

That’s right.  Forget winning the division.  I mean, the Magic Number is ONE.  One, uno, (1).  If Tampa Bay cannot win 1 of four from the lowly Tigers, then they will fail miserably in the playoffs anyway.

But for a real challenge, they should go for the best record in the American League.  That Magic Number for the Rays to beat out the LA Angels is SIX.  Any combination of Rays wins and Angels losses that equal six will get the Rays home field advantage throughout the playoffs (remember, the AL team has home field advantage in the World Series thanks to the All-Star game win back in July).

This means that the Angels must lose at least 2 games, since there are only four remaining.

On second thought, it’s a bit uncouth to root for other teams to lose.

On third thought, Jimmy cracked corn and all that.

Anyway, The Rays can clinch the AL East with a win today in Detroit.  You should know around 430pm, when there may be a street party in St. Pete.

Your Weekly Rays Update

MAGIC NUMBER TO CLINCH AL EAST: 6

Overall: 92-62
Last Week: BOS (2-1), MIN (2-2)
This Week: @ BAL, @ DET

It’s been too long since the last Rays update on the Sticks but there is no better occasion to reintroduce this feature than the Rays clinching the playoffs.  During spring training, Manager Joe Maddon emphasized the team slogan, 9=8, i.e. if the 9 Rays starters played hard for 9 innings they would win one of the 8 playoffs spots.  Maddon’s slogan has turned into a prophesy as the Rays are now a lock for the first playoff series in franchise history.

Tampa Bay…92—62 __ .597
Boston………….91—64 __ .587
New York……..84—71 __ .542
Toronto……….83—73 __ .532
Baltimore…….67—86 __ .438

The Rays have a 1.5 game lead over the Red Sox, which is essentially a 2 game lead since the Rays own the tie-breaker over the Red Sox. With a week to go in the season, the Rays have a 72% chance of winning the division according to Baseball Prospectus. And considering that the O’s and Tigers both have losing records the Rays have an easy path from here to their first ever division title.

Whatever happens from here, the Rays are essentially playing with house money. Few expected them to compete for the playoffs, and no one that I saw had them winning the division. This is a team which was built to win next year, and for the next three or four years after that. I’ve spoken to a few people (mostly Yankees fans) who write off the Rays as a fluke, and believe they will lose their best players next year. Almost all the key players on this team are young and locked up to long term contracts. This team should only get better over the next few seasons.

PRICE IS UP
David Price will make his first major league start today against Baltimore. Price was originally scheduled to make his first start on Tuesday but Maddon likes the match up for Price today better.

PLAYOFF TIX
Playoff tickets go on sale to the general public Wednesday at 9 am. You can stop by the Rays website to pickup tickets but not only have the Rays given first priority to season ticket holders but fans were given the opportunity to pre-register for tickets.

PLAYOFF OPPONENTS
If the Rays win the AL East they will play the winner of the AL Central, which is likely to be the White Sox. That series would begin in St Pete. If the Rays lose the division then they have to travel to LA to play the Angels. No matter what the Rays will avoid playing the Red Sox in the first round.

Ok, forget what anyone has said about pivotal moments for the Rays. The three game series against the Boston Red Sox that began last night is undoubtedly the biggest thing to ever happen in Tampa Bay baseball history…to date anyway. After Wednesday night’s game, the Rays could find themselves anywhere from feeling free to place an order for division championship t-shirts to locked in a battle to even make the postseason.

It’s time to go to the games, folks. If you’re a fan of this team at all, there are simply no valid excuses. It’s the middle of September and meaningful major league baseball is being played in Tampa Bay. This is what the collective we have been saying we wanted for more than 20 years! So suck it up, drive over there (carpooling saves gas and gets you free parking), ignore the dome and the fake grass (but feel free to enjoy the air conditioning and not being rained on), deal with being a little tired at work after staying up late and root, root, root for the home team. It will be worth it.

Labor Day weekend is passing us by and that means the traditional end of summer has been marked. Oh, sure, we have a few more weeks until the fall equinox, but to many - summer is over.

And with the end of summer here, it’s go time in Tampa Bay sports. The Buccaneers kicks off their season this Sunday, the USF Bulls football squad has already started their 12th season of play, the Tampa Bay Lightning begins training camp in a matter of days.

Oh, yeah… That team in St. Pete? I hear the Tampa Bay Rays have a chance to continue playing games after the regular season ends September 28th.

So lets pose the question to all you Tampa Bay sports fans: Which team is going to have the best fall? The Buccaneers? The Lightning? How about the Rays? Or will it be the Bulls?

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I know the only thing worse than hearing a fan whine about how the officials are cheating against their favorite team is hearing a fan whine about how the officials are cheating against their FIRST PLACE team.

But seeing not one, but two utterly heinous blown calls go against the beloved home town Tampa Bay Rays twice within a week is enough to make one at least react like this:

Granted, Sunday’s game in Chicago probably shouldn’t have even gone to extra innings. However, I fear that Shawn Riggans might be the Rays answer to former Lightning defender Pavel Kubina. He’s a dedicated team guy that you really want to embrace because he works hard and isn’t afraid to do more than his share of dirty work but always seems to do that one dumb thing in a game that makes you react like this:

In this case, it was dropping the ball on as easy and routine a play at home plate as you’re ever likely to see which allowed the tying run to score. Excuse me for a second please…

Of course, that doesn’t excuse the heinousness that followed.

Now, no reasonable person should think that any kind of “fix” is taking place. For one, this isn’t the NBA. Secondly, there are literally millions of reasons to believe that if there was some kind of dark conspiracy taking place behind the scenes to favor one team over another, it probably wouldn’t be for the White Sox:

Third, and most important, we’re still in first place.

Cross posted at Ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness

CBS News anchor Katie Couric mistakenly said that the GOP convention was going to be in Minneapolis, when it will really be in St. Paul.  The Pioneer Press was appalled:

Minneapolis is a fine city, but it is 10 or so miles from the [Xcel Energy Center]. Couric and CBS join a long list of Giants of Journalism who have gotten their geography wrong.

Couric, like the other erring Giants, lives in that great city along the Hudson River in New York State — the city we like to call Newark.

Heh.  Of course, Couric apologized.

But she would get the same here if she referred to the local baseball team as the Tampa Rays.

Your Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 61-43
Last Week: Oak (2-1), @ KC (2-2)
This Week: @ TOR, DET

While it was nice winning the A’s series, the Royals series left a sour taste in the Rays mouth. The Royals are one of the worst teams in the AL and the Rays should have, at the very least, been able to take 3 games from Kansas City. Instead we have Joe Maddon ripping into his team for a lack of hustle and a split series with a sub-.500 team.

Tampa Bay…61—43 __ .587
Boston………….61—45 __ .575
New York……..58—46 __ .558
Toronto……….53—52 __ .505
Baltimore…….49—55 __ .471

Since I don’t want to be a complete Deputy Downer on the local baseball collective, I should mention the Rays still lead the division and it appears Carl Crawford may have broken out of his slump. Still, the eternal pessimist in me wonders if the Rays can keep up their winning pace from the first half of the season? Or will the 162 game schedule get the best of a young team that is experiencing a winning record for the first time? Personally, I still think the Rays finish second in the division but win the Wild Card.

TRADE DEADLINE
The trade deadline is this Thursday and for the first time ever the Rays are buyers. Outs Per Swing has the best recap of trade rumors but it appears the Rays are unwilling to part with top prospects; David Price, Wade Davis and Jeremy Hellickson. Which is the smart move as the Rays were originally designed to start winning next year, and it would be foolish to trade away their best pitching prospect (i.e. Price) for a one year rental.

ROCCO’S RETURN
A month ago I was convinced we would never see Rocco Baldelli playing in the majors again but most signs point to me being wrong. Rocco has been playing well in AA Montgomery and could be the right handed bat everyone says the Rays need. Assuming Price and Baldelli were called up late in the season the Rays may not need to trade for anyone.