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Dampened Dreams For Rays

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Grounds crews try to dry the field as rain continues to fall.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - It was after midnight. Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine and his teammates had just been rocked to within a loss of the end of their season by the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the World Series.

Sonnanstine threw one more pitch.

"We can do this," he said. "We haven't given up all year. Who ever thought we'd be here in the first place?"

Yes, down three games to one in a city that has been anything but brotherly, facing elimination in Game 5 Monday night against Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, unbeaten in the postseason, seems like the last place you'd want to be. Did we mention it was cold and pouring rain at Citizens Bank Park? The game was suspended after 51/2 innings and was expected to resume tonight.

So forget about last place.

Think about last to first.

Think about the franchise that had never done a thing.

Think about the franchise that made people laugh.

Think about that once empty future in that once empty dome.

Think last to first.

Think about the gang that changed all that.

Few stories in baseball history can match the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.

It's a shame the country hasn't seen those Rays in this Series.

They've fallen all over themselves.

In Game 3, Rays manager Joe Maddon used five infielders at one point. He could have used five outfielders for Game 4 - and put them all in the bleachers, which is where all those Phillies home runs landed.

The Phillies jumped out to a 2-0 lead in Game 5. On the other hand, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria had been missing in this Series until the fourth inning Monday, when Pena doubled off the right field wall and Longoria doubled him home.

The Rays faced long odds.

But let's remember: They're at the 104th World Series.

Did you think this team would make even the 1,004th World Series?

Well, they did. They did what no one said could be done.

And took a town along with them.

Now, parents put their kids to bed as the kids are begging to stay up to watch the Rays. Or it's those same kids waking up and racing to find out who won, a necessity with these criminally late World Series start times.

That's what happened this now seven-month season, this endless summer.

Maybe there'll never be another one like this.

Maybe the fans won't come back.

Maybe Tampa Bay isn't yet a baseball town.

Then again, if being a real baseball fan means having orangutan fans hound the families and fans of the other team, throwing mustard packs at 7-year-old children - one of Rays manager Joe Maddon's grandchildren - we hope it never is.

The Big Ray Machine might come up a miracle short.

But that's not last place.

That's not a team no one cared about.

That's not a team that was a punch line.

It's a team that stood up and finally said it was tired of getting beaten up for its lunch money by the Yankees and Red Sox. It's a team that believed that its whole was greater than its parts, and played that way.

They won 66 times last season.

They'd won 105 times before last night.

Even down, 3-1, they believed.

We can do this.

We haven't given up all year.

That's this Rays season.

And it will be no matter what.

We finally found some boys of summer.

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