I still have not recovered fully from Game 162 2012 Edition. The emotions were there, there were definitely a lot of tears being shared in Tropicana Field (Once again, empty Tropicana Field—about 10,000 less than last season’s stunning finale), but the difference was that we were an amazing team that was going to miss the playoffs. As a matter of fact we were the best team in all of baseball to miss the playoffs---it was so bad that teams with worse records than us were heading into the postseason. Ah, the cruelty of the AL East division. But before we can get to my pick as the #1 reason why we did not make the playoffs, let me point out the other major points of the 2012 season of Tampa Bay Rays baseball.
Hot Dog What a Season
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Let me just say, it was another fantastic season of baseball. Over half the teams in baseball at one point were in contention halfway through, records were raised, records fell, many amazing players had been playing their last season and experienced a fine goodbye tour, small-market teams were competing with the usual batch and started gaining interest in cities and states that had been turned off from baseball for a good period of time, and lastly there was the minimal controversy and stupidity experienced in the other leagues (Floppers, replacement refs, lockouts, etc.).
Years ago, we could more or less figure out whom was going places and whom was falling. Now check out some of the playoff teams: Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Oakland Athletics, Cincinnati Reds. Check out some of the teams that had a legit shot and just missed the mark: Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates----yes, those Pittsburgh Pirates. Even at one point the Mets, Blue Jays, and Indians had a strong running at one point.
The extra playoff spot was nothing short of brilliant, even though I was against it for quite some time. It raised the stakes, and made the final two months of the season extremely important as we had dozens of games down to the wire. The only way to perfect the baseball schedule now is including two teams and shortening the amount of games by a little. But with this extra spot, none of the big-market teams are safe, as momentum was driving all of the low-to-middle market teams, giving them extra layers of hope. This added to the attendance of baseball, which remains the ONLY league with increasing attendance in this tough economy.
Pre-Season Expectations
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Last season was quite possibly the most improbable of the recent improbable years of the Tampa Bay Rays. What was supposed to be a re-building year after losing 12+ players turned into a dogfight in the toughest division in all of sports (I am deadly serious when I mention this)-----leading to us making it to the playoffs in the midnight hour in Game 162. This time the GM actually got mildly aggressive and got Luke Scott, Carlos Pena, and Jose Molina, while our young rotation was shaping up quite well to a point in which a former started became a bullpen buddy.
Nearly everyone else was coming back, giving the Rays hope that this time they might actually have a sure-fire shot at the World Series. If Scott, Pena, and Molina could trace back to their 2007-2009 numbers and produce the Kevin Garnett-drive to fight to the bare bones to win that elusive championship ring, then we would have some power hitting to balance the small-ball offense and ridiculous pitching. Well, we started the season sweeping the Yankees (always a delightful moment) and were on top of the division, on top of the league. I really felt like the World Series was not a ridiculous dream.
The Injury. The Downfall
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Evan Longoria got hurt. And he got hurt pretty bad. We had no timetable, and at one point it seemed like we were going to lose him for the entire season---that’s what the rumors were saying. At first it didn’t dawn on the team how valuable he was, especially since the Rays had won with ridiculous odds for so long. But this felt different, something felt off. The defense dropped, the offense severely took a hit, and the Rays were losing their identity. We weren’t stealing as many bases, we were committing more errors, we weren’t scoring the runs, we weren’t supporting our pitchers that well, and we were looking quite lost in the batter’s box.
The Rays had dropped to fourth place at one point, even behind the Red Sox. We were barely fighting off the last-place Blue Jays. Whenever it seemed like we had things figured out, the offense goes into crazy streaks of nothingness. It was getting ugly.
The 2012 Tampa Bay Rays Failed Gamble
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Part of what made the Rays successful over the years was the successful gambles that we had made towards under-the-radar players. Raphael Soriano, Ben Zobrist, Joel Peralta, Grant Balfour, Troy Percival, Fernando Rodney (2012’s greatest example) among plenty of others were picked up by Tampa, and they improved under the wing of Joe Maddon and his staff.
But the 2012 Rays had a lot of gambles that just didn’t pay off. Luke Scott was batting horrifically---when he wasn’t injured. Made it worse because he was such a nice guy, and the same went with Carlos Pena. Pena’s best years were indeed with Tampa but age and all the injuries all the years were catching up to him significantly. Both men were batting around or below the Mendoza line. Molina was also not as effective as we had hoped, as the pitching staff was not as effective with him behind the bag as Kelly Shopach or John Jaso back in 2011. Worst of all was Hideki Matsui, who had a miserable outing with Tampa and led to him being cut extremely early in the season.
Sometimes, gambles don’t work. And Joe Maddon despite being amazing on his gambles, has a general manager that hadn’t been as lucky. We got several hitters that just couldn’t produce, and couldn’t get on base. They couldn’t draw walks to help with the small-ball, and it led to several games with little or no runs. Tampa had FIVE 1-0 losses, which is unheard of. It was the rest of the known staff slowly carrying the team barely past mediocrity and a third-place standing. The offense had always been bad, but never as obvious as it was in the 2012 season. Offense had always been (and for as long as our market remains miniscule will always be) our biggest, most major flaw. We needed a wake-up call to wake-up those bats. Nobody was stepping up. Granted they tried, but nobody rose to the occasion.
Then Longoria came back.
Evan Longoria: The MVP Nobody Discusses
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Evan Longoria is the most valuable player on any team in baseball, and nobody, not even Tampa Bay realized this until he came back in the second half.
Before August 6th: 56-52
After August 6th: 44-20
Overall: 90-72
Want to know what happened August 7th? That’s when Longoria came back. Want to know the winning percentage afterwards? A staggering .685 winning percentage. His numbers may not provide the evidence, but the team numbers will do the rest of the talking. Winning nearly 70% of the games means much more than coincidence, this is something special. The defense came back, the offense came back, the small ball play came back, and the confidence in a depleted ballclub virtually exploded. In August they were 7 games back, and were close to last place than the Wild Card. By the end of the season they were virtually a couple wins away from playing the Wild Card, while at the same time eliminating the White Sox, deflating the Red Sox, and were a couple tough games away from getting past the Orioles—the team that eventually took care of them. But it took 160 games to knock out the Rays. And with a .519 record in early August, that was darn impressive.
Longoria was on pace to nearly hit 40 home runs and drive in nearly 120 runs, while batting a cool .289 on a bad leg that never fully recovered the rest of the year. This fella was my hero; he saved us in 2011 with his home runs, and allowed us to make one hell of a run in September that was marred by the fact that the Orioles, Athletics, and Yankees were easily as hot.
One of the bigger What-Ifs I’ve ever seen in baseball is what would have happened if Longoria had remained healthy all season. Would the worthless bats of Pena, Scott, Molina, and Matsui waken up? Would the pitching staff have contributed even more to their historical 2012 run (They struck out more batters than ANY other rotation in the HISTORY of baseball)? Would we have seen the Rays wait and see who would win between the Rangers and Orioles as opposed to watch the game from home? The what-ifs are just as frustrating as having a disappointing year that fell short. 2009 was disappointing because we just missed the mark. This season was different; it featured an excellent team that lost their leader for 80 games, dropping them to mediocrity. This was similar to if the Yankees had lost Jeter for the season, if Hamilton had been lost to the Rangers for the season, if the Tigers had lost Justin Verlander. Surely its one player, but every team needs that one special player to keep the team going. Want a similar example?
San Francisco Giants 2010: 92-70
San Francisco Giants: 2011: 86-76
San Francisco Giants 2012: 94-68
Want to guess what happened in 2011? They lost Buster Posey for the season after a nasty collision. Just saying, sometimes it takes one baseball player. Longoria is that baseball player. Should he win MVP? Of course not, he missed 80+ games. But he remains the most valuable player towards his organization in alllllll of baseball.
We Were So Close. We’re Always So Close
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I made it a tradition to watch the final home game of every Rays season after what happened to 2011. I bought the ticket before we were eliminated, and decided to go through with the game regardless to congratulate the Rays on another wonderful season. The fact that I knew the game would not be sold out, nor the series would have any sort of attendance past 20,000 is sad, embarrassing, pathetic, and just adds to the frustration that is being a Rays fan. I poured my heart and soul into this season because I knew in my heart we had a World Series caliber team. But being last in attendance never, ever helps the chances. Low attendance means low support, which never adds to momentum, only subtracts.
The baseball game I witnessed was nonetheless special. Even though we were eliminated, I was able to see Longoria smash three home runs and further cement what could have been if he had not been hurt for so long. I witnessed Jeremy Hellickson pitch five innings of incredible 1-hit ball and finish off a decent sophomore year while having the third-lowest run support in ALLLLLLL of baseball. I witnessed Fernando Rodney quietly break an insane record for lowest ERA by a reliever with an unfathomable .060. I witnessed B.J. Upton’s final at-bat, and watched him cry his way back into the dugout after the surprisingly loud standing ovation he received by the 17,000 fans. Darn it, I will miss him.
It was a beautiful night, a beautiful way to end the season. And just like that, it was over. I even wanted to take one final picture of the empty ballpark and security got upset and essentially pushed me out.
We’re always so close.
*(@)$*$# it.
We’ve always been one extra hitter away from being a spectacular, unstoppable team. It has been this way for years. But, for as long as we don’t see the support, we will always be SO close, missing the necessary nucleus by [this ] much. If we don’t have the attendance, we don’t see the money generating. No fans = no money = no support = no extra revenue or incentive to spend more = more seasons of being so close yet so far which ultimately = young players like B.J. Upton leaving us before striking the prime.
And this = me continuing to bitterly write about our pathetic stadium, pathetic fanbase, pathetic support, and once again, that ********* pathetic ballpark.
Where’s our new stadium?!?!?!?
Conclusion (Yes, There Is Going to be One)
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I am proud as hell for my team, I honestly am. The 2012 Tampa Bay Rays despite the circumstances (I didn’t even bring up the 10+ disabled list at one point in May) put up an amazing fight, an amazing August, and a nearly flawless September and came up just a bit short because the odds were not in our favor and because your division featured teams that also fought vigorously all season long (Derek Jeter deserves MVP votes, and the Orioles became the 2008 Rays).
I really put my soul and heart to this baseball season because I knew it was going to be something special—involving my Rays and involving the rest of the sport. We saw amazing games, amazing pitching performances, and some extremely touching moments. I don’t regret spending so much time devoted to a season that is missing a postseason.
But the truth is, history repeats itself. The Tampa Bay Rays reminds me a lot of the Brooklyn Dodgers---a very successful franchise that didn’t have the city’s support and before you know they traveled thousands of miles west towards a fanbase that is just as dedicated. And yes, I have pointed this out before.
The Rays consist of an incredible group of people, players, and coaches searching for a more consistent and more rabid fanbase. I promise you places like Vegas, Charlotte, Montreal, Portland, and Boston (Those Red Sox are going to be losers for a very long time) would love to be home to this young squad full of hungry go-getters. Tampa doesn’t appreciate winning 458 games in the past 5 seasons? I am sure someone else will. And I have a groing concern that the Rays will not be in Florida much longer.
But in the meantime I will watch the postseason with satisfaction for two reasons: one is because the playoff format is approaching perfection, and because my Rays despite not making it poured their hearts out to the very end.
Just like me.
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