Not written in stone, yet...

Maybe not stone but not dry erase marker either …

Bill (thinking to himself):
Congratulations to the AL East Division Champion Tampa Bay Rays.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
Yeah, I know, winning the division isn't important.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
Well, except for losing homefield advantage.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
And except for having to face the Angels instead of the White Sox.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
And, of course, the chagrin of losing the Division to the Rays, the Rays fercrissakes.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
And for the fact that all season the Rays have been all ovah the Red Sox like Ike Turnah on Tina.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
Which doesn't especially bode well for facing the Rays in postseason, should such occur.

 

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Bill (thinking to himself):
But, yeah, other than that, winning the Division doesn't mean shit.

 

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Comments

[Bob]

My prediction:

The race will end in a tie, and like with the Skankees (in whatever the hell year it was; hey I'm a drinker), we'll lose the division title because the Tina Feys beat us in 10-8 head-to-head.

Heh. "Head."

[therev]

Although it does suck, and it really does suck if we lose the division, at least we will be playing in the playoffs and the MFY will be sitting at home. At this point it is my only consolation prize.
Anyone catch the SI cover about the toilet? As it has been said before- if the freakin place is so great why are they tearing that crapper down? I will be glad when the hoopla is over and we can look forward to all the hoopla over the new stadium when it opens and they resurface everything about the old stadium? Question to ponder- how long will it take the MFY to win as many championships in their new stadium as they did their old, or will they evah? Talk amongst yourselves...

[MattOfCT]

Was anyone else disappointed in the lack of "Ike Punches Galveston" headlines?

[Colin]

//Heh. "Head."//

Bob,

Do wonders ever cease with you?

As much as it sucks getting pummeled by the Rays, I think it's time to accept reality that these are not the Rays of five years ago where they were a quick and easy sweep to bolster our lead. I mean you have to give them some credit for going from worst to first in such a short span. But yeah...it'll really suck playing the Angels but if the baseball gods are on our side we'll stop them like we have in the past. The Angels have always been a heavy-hitter in the regular season but yet manage to flop come ALDS time. If we're searching for a rebound, right then and there would be the time to strike and gain momentum on the Rays.

[granular_serene]

come on mahty, we're only 2 games back. we could forget about the pennant after a 19-8 drubbing in 04 as well.

nothing is conceded, we'll fight to the last out.

raze the rays!!!!

[therev]

re: matt of Ct,
you would think journalist with all their cleverness would invoke their inner junior high humor and make some good headlines.
huh, "head"lines. like that Bob.

[vasoxfan]

LAA 1-8
CWS 4-3
TB 10-8
I'd rather face the anyone but the Angels. This is not the Angels team from year past.

[Colin]

vasoxfan:

Stranger things have been known to happen. I expected the Angels to destroy the Rays but the opposite happened. Hell I expected the Cubs to take them down too but the opposite happened. Things will work themselves out, but the margin of tolerable error the Sox have is significantly lower. Pedroia cannot lead the offense all the time and for the love of God just show some plate discipline some of you!

[yazbread]

Angels will continued to be haunted by the ghost of Donnie Moore.

[birthofasoxfan97]

If Hillary were a sox fan, she might say that game was akin to having her nuts in a vise.

[louclinton]

ok, that didn't work out so well.

lc

[Bob]

//Heh. "Head."//

Bob,

Do wonders ever cease with you?//

Colin, in my line of work, every single written word is a golden opportunity to make someone feel happy, sad, loved, undersexed, dirty, smelly, in need of a hard-on, serene, angry, jealous, peaceful, and kind.

Oh, and horny.

And hateful. (I save that for Skankee fans.)

[NV in SD]

Longtime reader, infrequent poster.

My question is, do Bill, Doug, Mike (hell, even Lisa ) have any friends in Tampa who, a la Marty, might be making an appearance? Just sayin'- all I knkow about Rays fans is that they rarely fill their 'park' to capacity, love cowbells and hate Sox fans.

[ettubloge]

Cheez!

All you gotta do is get into the dance. Then we systematically defeat the Angels, Rays and Cubs. We have Josh, Jon and Dice one after the other. Papi cranked out 2 yesterday, the team hit 6 3 nights ago against Kazmir. Maybe we are blessed to avoid the Chisox/Twinkies anyway.

[granular_serene]

re: rays fans, i noticed two things watching on tv: all the ballcaps look brand new, and all the tshirts say 'Rays'.

just sayin' is all...

[ParkerStPete]

Found this poking around the nether regions of Soxaholix:

MEMORANDUM

To: h.b.
From: Soxaholix Research Dept.
Re: Possible Rays Character
Date: September 17, 2008

You instructed us to conduct qualitative and quantitative research to assess the viability of including a character based on a composite of key traits of typical Tampa Bay Rays fans.

During the week of September 8th we conducted 1,000 telephone interviews of a random selection of residents of the greater Tampa/St. Petersburg metropolitan area.

Highlights of the research are as follows:

90.1% of respondents identified the Tampa Bay Rays as a tanning salon on the pier in St. Petersburg.

8.8% laughed out loud and began spontaneously to chant "Youk! Youk! Youk!"

1.1% said that when Sarah Palin gets down our way and starts speaking in tongues them devil worshippers will disapper into thin air.

Conclusion: We strongly recommend against creating a Rays-based character and believe that doing so will compromise the verisimilitude for which the strip has become justly famous.

[Colin]

I say if the Rays either a.)win the ALCS, b.)win the WS, or c.)make the playoffs again next year, then a possible Rays character would have to come into fruition. I just wonder what his/her name would be. I mean we've got Billy Mahty from NY, but what's a stereotypical Tampa name and would the fan be a real fan or pseudofan? Man or woman? Young or old? Harder to personify a Rays fan that wouldn't be a poseur unlike Mahts with his Richie Rich, smug NY attitude.

[Bob]

The Rays character should be named Morty.

He'd be a 70-something New York transplant, who lives in St. Pete and drives a Corvette.

The Rays are now "his team," but the only actual games he attends are Skankee spring training games.

[Bob]

Oh, and Morty only takes calls on his 1970s-era car phone in the Corvette while he's driving around Tampa Bay looking for good real estate investments. Mainly strip malls, but he's open to other quality properties.

[soxdownunder]

In the absence of Paddy24 making the obvious and good enquiry: why didn't Francona use Papelbon in the bottom of the ninth in game 2? On a positive note, we almost certainly have to go through the Angels at some point and, perhaps, it would be better to do so in a five game series rather than a seven game series. Still, that sucked.

[Paddy24]

soxdownunder, I already knew the answer. Because Francona always plays for tomorrow. Never for today. Winning is always something that will happen tomorrow.

[louclinton]

tomorrow'a over here now

[Bob]

Surly but early.