Denial.
No way. That’s it? Its over? Really? So soon? Impossible. I must be dreaming. Just a couple months ago the Rays looked like the best team in all of baseball. Just a couple months ago it looked like nobody could stop us. A few months ago the offense unexpectedly was going nuts and was complimenting the lights-out starting pitching. At one point Joe Maddon was forced to bring out relievers on a pointless game just to give them some action in a ballgame since there were so many complete games being thrown. So the truth is, no, this is not happening.
Anger.
NOT FAIR!!! WHY!?!?!?!!?!?!??! Why against the Red Sox?!?!!? Why at Tropicana Field? Never mind that, why in the heck are we still playing in Tropicana Field? The downright worst ballpark in America, the only ballpark stuck in the 80s, the only ballpark that actually openly contributed to a loss on the home team!!!!! Not another empty year!!!! Not a single championship in its entire history. All I want is one. And then we can give one to the Cubs, Pirates, Mariners, and Nationals. Well…not the Nationals.
But perhaps this is karma, because of our AWFUL FANS. 90+ wins, and still last in attendance? I know our stadium is a crock of nonsense, but Oakland has a major sewage issue and managed to draw more fans. Miami has an owner that is obviously screwing over the entire area of South Florida and they drew more fans. The Astros have a combined record of 162-324 in the last three seasons (They have only won 1/3rd of their games) since 2011 and still draw more fans than the Rays. The organization is heavily invested in charities, giveaways, and always has a staff of likable players. Surely fans should reward the team with at least a couple visits to the Trop, right?
Tampa Bay has a population of over 4 million people, and 20% of them being in the 18-34 range. Surely the Trop can do better than just 1.5 million visitors. They have to. We are going to lose this team in five years, and it will be YOUR FAULT Tampa! Not mine, because I made four treks over to St. Petersburg this year. I did my share. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. P.S. There are teams in the 1950s that obtained more fans than the Rays. Honestly, do the research.
Bargaining
I will trade David Price for just the mere opportunity of a new stadium or a move to Orlando. I will trade my soul for the destruction of Tropicana Field. I will trade Roberto Hernandez for a bag of potato chips. I will trade Jeremy Hellickson for a banana. I will trade Fernando Rodney for some of the late-inning pitchers of the past---Soriano, Balfour, Benoit even.
Depression
What’s the point? I have pointed this out in years prior, in baseball a great fanbase is honestly essential towards the path to success. And yes awful fanbases like the Rays make the playoffs, but the last time a team won the World Series without much of a fever from the home crowd was the Florida Marlins in the 2003 season (#28 in attendance). Some can argue White Sox in 2005, but 28,000 a game during a tough economical period isn’t half bad.
But honestly, how can this franchise go the next step if the fans won’t support it, the city politicians doesn’t want the scenario to improve without doing some stupid expensive moves, and MLB might move the franchise altogether within the next decade? How can the Rays possibly maintain this level of success with so much uncertainty? Am I a fool for following such a sluggishly-supported franchise, potentially knowing that they might cease to exist soon? It’s not like they are the Brooklyn Dodgers that shockingly moved despite amazing attendance.
We could never obtain the heights of Red Sox Nation, Yankees Universe, Redbird Nation, Lovable Losers, Bleeding Dodger Blue, among others.
So what’s the point?
Down the road, all our starting pitchers will move elsewhere, all our rising stars will head elsewhere, we are going to lose David Price in the off-season, we will not be able to afford certain breakout stars like James Loney, and ultimately we are going to reply on begging, borrowing, and dealing for the next several years until we get a major change whether by ownership, stadium, or city.
What’s the point?
Acceptance
And this is where I stand today, on the final step of grief. It has taken me a while to collect my thoughts and write about this simply because once again I had invested so much to this team, and I was so thirsty for a World Series berth and a World Series win---dreams I knew would happen if all the gears had been in motion like we had anticipated. If the young pitchers had matured a bit, if Longoria took it to the next level, and Maddon maintained his crazy methods, why wouldn’t we be the Beasts of the AL East?
Unfortunately the gears all moved in different intervals, and never together. When Longoria got hot, the offense was cold. When the pitchers were on fire, the offense got even colder. When the offense was persistent, the bullpen faltered. And in the final month of the season, it was a microcosm of the entire year as the offense couldn’t deliver in the clutch, the bullpen ran out of steam, the young defense was making some game-changing mistakes, and the starters with its relatively young cast was struggling to succeed under the September pressure.
And of course, the fans didn’t support this team either, and the grumblings towards this issue was expanding to the MLB front office and even Bud Selig. One can only imagine how Tampa would play and look if it had gotten the backing similar to how the Cardinals fans treat their players—especially the younglings.
But no more talk about the fans, because I know by now you are sick of it. And I have written about this issue so many times before.
Now we are coming to the main issue of the Tampa Bay Rays: we aren’t a very good team. We have absolutely no right to have ever entered the postseason, and this has always been the case since the 2011 season when we lost the incredible core of the 2007-2010 players. We have no right to have over 90 wins--------again. As a Rays fan I am allowed to be upset by not beating the Red Sox (Because I personally can’t stand that squad), but this will cloud the fact that the cluster of players we have at the helm could never succeed in any other city (Except maybe St. Louis, that can make gold out of lemons).
Rodney is an extremely inconsistent pitcher that lacks a consistent delivery---even though 2012 showed the potential he can bring to the sport. Longoria’s first major season that lacked a time-crunching injury shows that he has yet to truly enter the next level of offense, even if his mere presence and outstanding defense is the heart and soul of the Rays. The best batter on the team was James Loney, a player that was rejected by practically all of baseball—and he bats better away from Tampa.
Jose Molina is an expected out. Jeremy Hellickson has been figured out by the rest of the league. Matt Moore pitches 80 times before inning 4. David Price cannot pitch in the postseason. Roberto Hernandez is pure misery. Desmond Jennings has yet to step out of Carl Crawford’s shadow. Sam Fuld is an extremely hard-working man that can never bat over .200. Jake McGee has ONE PITCH. Matt Joyce has offense swings like the Hulk has mood swings. Wil Myers is talented but at times has the demeanor of a poor man’s Robinson Cano (Which has resulted in many defensive gaffes). And lastly there’s Luke Scott being……………Luke Scott.
This team’s performance does not match their win total at all. So the question is how, and why can a team with three straight years of having the worst batting average meshed in with such swings of inconsistency land a Wild Card berth? Two things: Joe Maddon and the contagious effort level of playing Rays baseball. Joe Maddon remains the best manager in baseball because he makes players look good, he disguises the weaknesses with strategic move after strategic move---ranging from the good to the pure crazy. The only reason the Rays won Game 3 was because Maddon actually did a double-switch, allowing for a rested Lobaton to smash a home run into the history books.
Joe Maddon takes bad players, throws them around, and transforms it into a winning situation. He gets only 5-6 innings out of most of his pitchers and manages to preserve the win most of the time. He will place players in absurd spots just to see if they can hit out of a slump. He will assign rookies to pitch and play during crucial games and crucial moments. And most amazingly, he does this without ever overusing the young players---keeping them fresh and healthy for the next season. Alex Torres is a great example of this, as he delivered a microscopic ERA while throwing enough innings to make his presence known.
In other words, under nearly any other manager, the Rays would be a 70-92 team guaranteed.
I accept the 2013 Tampa Bay Rays and the record they wound up with because we were never playing like a playoff-bound team; we just had many spurts of caliber baseball followed by lots of frustration. It has taken me a very long time to accept our run because I knew we were capable of more. I knew that if all the players were on top of their game simultaneously, then barely anybody could stop us. Just ask the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, and Cleveland Indians---all teams we personally eliminated.
We survived back-to-back-to-back must-win games. We won four straight elimination games. We gave the Red Sox a pretty good fight (well…after Game 2 anyway). We honestly had the momentum in Boston up until Wil Myers letting go of that easy pop fly. Who knows what would have happened if he had made that catch. Dominating Matt Moore with just one runner on first and that first out being made? Totally different scenario as opposed to 2nd and 3rd with nobody out.
However the final step in overcoming grief involves acceptance, involves accepting the final outcome, involves finding some inner peace with the insane season of baseball that we experienced (which is still going crazy by the way, as the 2013 playoffs have been amazing). The Rays were a good team taken to new heights thanks to their crazy-yet-incredible manager that was eliminated by a deep talented team with destiny and redemption riding the wave. Just wasn’t our year again.
Just wait till’ next year baseball. The Rays shall attempt to rise again.
Just wait and see.
My other Rays end-season recaps.
2012 Rays Recap
2011 Rays Recap
2010 Rays Recap
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