He’s a believer
The Rays’ ticket sales may not suggest as much (last night’s crowd of 32,079 was among their higher attendance figures of the season), but fans in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area are beginning to believe their baseball team is capable of special things.
Or at least they should, says Tampa Tribune columnist Joe Henderson, who is clearly impressed with what he saw last night in Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win over the Red Sox.
In a piece titled “Rays Defy Explanation So Just Enjoy The Ride,” Henderson writes:
This collection of Navarros, Bartletts, Penas and, lest we forget, Andy Sonnanstine, continues to build one of the best stories you’ve ever seen in the game of baseball. Seriously. They’re way past the ol’ “playing for respect” ploy. They’re charging head-long toward sporting immortality.
They still lead the American League East. No one could have envisioned anything like this when this season started, but the Rays have answered every challenge and asked for more. They’ve done it with pitching, defense, and some of the timeliest stuff in the clutch you will ever see.
The Rays have spent the brunt of this season playing as if they have an unyielding belief in themselves. Maybe, as Henderson writes, “there really is something to this destiny thing,” and maybe there is not.
But it is about time the Rays earned some converts locally. They’ve been worth the price of admission all season.
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