Rays against Red Sox? It had to be

MARTIN FENNELLY, Media General News Service (Tampa Tribune)
Published: October 8, 2008

Who else?

It had to be the Red Sox.

It had to be Rays-Red Sox for the AL pennant and a World Series ticket.

It had to be Destiny vs. the Death Star.

Watch your R’s, Tampa Bay.

This matchup is wicked good - the bloody Sox blocking Maddon and The Miracles.

The Red Sox, seemingly stripped of October nightmares past, are like the zombies in “Night of the Living Dead.“ Shoot them, stab them, beat them with Dan Johnson, they keep coming.

This is how it should be, the New Hope against the Olde Town Team, the Rays in the October chill, in the shadow of the Green Monster, against tradition, against that once long-suffering and now simply insufferable Nation. Nothing would say Brave New World like the Big Ray Machine in 6.

They’ll be ridiculed this whole series, the upstart team from an upstart state, as if it’s Florida’s fault that the Adams family didn’t buy time shares and hold the Boston Tea Party off Clearwater Beach.

There are no fans like Red Sox fans. Go ahead, ask them. This team has its own literary agents. Poets weep over the Red Sox. I’m thinking of “Nasty Boy” Knobbs and the Hulkster on the Trop video board. Me no feel so good.

The Rays can’t compete with Boston’s past, which includes Ted Williams. Hey, remember when we all voted to have Wilson Alvarez frozen?

Williams, as you know, is the game’s last .400 hitter, though former Ray Greg Vaughn came close, batting .233 in 2001 and .163 in 2002. What? Oh, in one season. Right.

The Rays can’t compete with Boston’s park, which includes the granddaddy of all stadium quirks. But if they can put seats atop the 37-foot monster at Fenway, imagine the views when the Rays install the first premium seats on the Trop catwalks. Sure, some people will die, but it’s the price you pay for tradition.

So cheer up, Rays fans, even those of you who are new to baseball. This is your moment. And remember, when it hits the foul pole, it’s fair!

There is no reason the Rays shouldn’t be able to beat the Red Sox. They have the starting pitching, bullpen, defense and magic. They held them off up there and down here in September.

Only, the Red Sox love being doubted, too. They’ve fought injuries and the loss of Manny Ramirez, who now races down base lines for Joe Torre. Like the Rays, the Sox are built to last, with young talent in the right places. This ALCS might only be the start of this rivalry. So let’s get started.

Here come the Red Sox. Here stand the Rays or, as we like to call them, Hank Steinbrenner’s hometown team. They need to run the gauntlet one more time. They’ve spit in Boston’s eye and piled on that hound dog Coco Crisp. It isn’t enough.

Funny, even prehistoric Rays oozed bad blood over the Sox. Remember the Pedro Martinez-Gerald Williams bean brawl at the Trop in 2000? That once passed as a highlight when all the seasons were lost ones.

Now comes one like no other.

And a series to match.

Here come the Red Sox.

It had to be this way.