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Rays Fans See Loss As Bump In Road

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By JOEY JOHNSTON

jjohnston@tampatrib.com

Published: October 18, 2008

Updated: 10/18/2008 12:14 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Friday morning, Rays fans awoke to a new reality.

"We ... lost?" said Mike Zalewski of Seminole. "Are you kidding? I couldn't stay up because I had to get up early for work.

"I was fighting it. My head was bobbing up and down like I was at a prayer meeting. But I thought it was done. I mean, we were winning by seven runs. When I woke up, I heard. And I still can't believe it."

Turns out, the Rays aren't in the World Series. Not yet, at least.

After blowing a seven-run lead in the seventh inning and losing to the Boston Red Sox 8-7 early Friday morning in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park - the second-biggest collapse in postseason history - the Rays have returned home, still leading the series three games to two.

They can clinch the AL pennant tonight in Game 6 at Tropicana Field.

Failing that, there's another safety net - a potential winner-takes-all Game 7 on Sunday night.

"I'm sorry to say it, but I think it's going to be Black Sunday in Tampa Bay," said St. Petersburg lawyer Michael Keane, a Red Sox fan, as he ate lunch at Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill, adjacent to the Trop. "I live here and I like the Rays. But if I switched allegiances now, too many people would come out of the grave and strangle me. Just before they closed my father's casket, my brother put in a Red Sox cap. That's the way it is. The Red Sox are a way of life.

"I look around and hear all the Rays fans saying they're suffering after watching that game, they're feeling so much pain. They need to enjoy this pain. Red Sox fans had 86 years of pain before winning the 2004 World Series. This is part of being a true, diehard fan. You've got to feel some pain."

Hogwash, said Charlie Gerdes, a Rays fan who is Keane's law partner.

"We're going to win it at home," Gerdes said. "I think it's destiny. It's going to happen in front of the home fans. This loss was frustrating, but it's just a speed bump."

"Speed bump?" Keane said, his eyebrow raising. "You guys just ran into a brick wall."

Gregory Smith, a St. Petersburg physician, stayed up to watch the end of Game 5. He's from Massachusetts and grew up as a Red Sox fan. However, his 7-year-old son, Brendan, is devoted to the Rays, especially after participating in the team's baseball camp and meeting Carlos Pena.

When Brendan went to bed, the Rays led 5-0.

His father broke the bad news at breakfast.

"It felt horrible," said Brendan, a second-grader at Shorecrest Preparatory School.

Brendan and his father have an ALCS wager. If the Red Sox win, the father gets ice cream. If the Rays win, Brendan gets a new chess board.

"I still think the Rays win," Brendan said.

"Oh no," chided the father. "The tide has turned."

For Mark Ferguson, owner of Ferg's, it probably means the tide has turned to big business for tonight. He's expecting the largest crowd in the history of his restaurant.

On the other hand ...

"I wanted to be in the World Series," Ferguson said. "I wanted the sure thing. I believe it will still happen, but there's a lot of people walking around here kind of shell-shocked.

"That was a dismal finish. Our place was packed. Then the game started getting away and it got quieter and quieter. At the end, everybody just left. It was bad."

The lunch crowd, with time healing some wounds, had begun the rationalization process. Nobody expected the Rays to sweep the Red Sox at Fenway. There's still time. The Trop will be rocking with a record crowd tonight.

"Losing like that was a real tear-jerker, but maybe we had gotten a little too comfortable," said Shelly Vandonge of St. Petersburg. "We'll get our focus back. We will win. No doubt."

"Absolutely no doubt," said her co-worker, Pavlina Blahova, at Capital Marketing.

At Ferg's, ESPN's SportsCenter was on the television. The eighth inning of Game 5 was being shown. Coco Crisp, after an epic 10-pitch duel with Dan Wheeler, slammed a single to right field, and the tying run came home.

ESPN used the call from the Red Sox's radio network.

Can you believe it? They tied it! They tied it! They tied it!

A Rays fan, daggers in her eyes, stared at the television.

"Oh, shut up! We're going to take care of you guys!"

Tonight's the night.

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353.

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