Rays vs Yankees: A playoff feel in July?

As of this writing, the Tampa Bay Rays are one game out of first place in the Eastern Division of the American League.

The top spot is reserved for the Yankees, just ask anybody - except a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan. It is no more a Yankee position than the Senator seat for Massachusetts in Washington D.C. was "Kennedy's" seat. It became a psychological position to expect it is off limits and against the Laws of Nature to oppose the status quo.

We see this in all walks of life. With charisma and a quick vocabulary, people in positions have been able to convince average Americans that what they think and do is wrong and offer convincing evidence to change their mindset.

Baseball, as with all sports, there is a sports geek population that has convinced people the basics of the game don't matter, or, rather that others matter more.

My favorite is the example in American football, "Defense Wins". No! Offense wins, Defense SAVES. You don't win by how many tackles. It helps to discourage offensive plays from the other team. The only time you win is when the ball travels over your goal line with more points than the other team after the time has expired. I never once saw a game won or lost by a score of 3 tackles to 2.

Back to Baseball:
George Steinbrenner was probably the best owner a baseball team ever had. He bought the Yankees at a time when the former owner, CBS let the team, and the stadium, deteriorate. Why they even bought them, who knows? (Not one of Paley’s better moves, to be sure) George was outspoken but knew baseball needed a team to help generate more interest in the game. The Yankees, by virtue of being in New York, offered him a position from which he could most make that possible and a price that was discounted due to the poor conditions in which he found them. They are the team to beat. George made that happen.

Since it was announced in 1996 that Tampa Bay would have one of the final two MLB franchises, baseball on the West Coast of Florida has never been the same.
Most people were ecstatic of the prospect of finally seeing “meaningful” games every night within a stone’s throw of their home - until it was announced that they would be playing in the same division as the Yankees. Then the euphoria went away. “We’ll never win a World Series” was a typical sentiment among the sports geeks, most of who grew up to the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry.

Change is the only consistency in this life.

George and the Yankees made the game of baseball enjoyable as a spectator and as players because he gives the other teams a team as the “team to beat”.

It is human nature to root for the underdog and applaud the winner. Even the staunchest Red Sox fan, secretly and subconsciously like the Yankees because they make his beloved Bosox play harder, smarter, and better.

And the Rays, too.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

BP gas stations: Cash or Credit

I don't go to BP gas stations, not because of the Gulf incident, but because they charge a different price for cash or credit. My debit card is linked to my savings account, when I use the card, the bank rounds off the amount to the next higher dollar and puts the change in the savings account. I am penalized by those stations that charge a different price for "cash or credit".

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is doing this. But the reporting for BP has been so distorted, I'm also not surprised at the misinformation, the truth does not fit the "Villian-Victim" template set for the story.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!