If Frank Capra were alive today, even he wouldn’t make a movie
about the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays. No one would believe it. Too hokey.
Too unlikely. Especially the manic final week and the enchanted
final game Wednesday which saw the Rays come back from 7-0 in the
eighth to beat the New York Yankees 8-7 in twelve, thereby making
it to the playoffs as the American League wild card team.
A no-name hitter for the under-dog team going yard with
two outs and two strikes on him in the bottom of the ninth to tie
the critical game makes part of the denouement of some deservedly
forgettable baseball movies. But this happened in real time
Wednesday night at the Trop, and few Rays fans will ever forget
it.
For seven innings the Rays were as flat as Calista
Flockhart. Only three hits in seven innings, a couple of the
scratch variety. The Yankees, baseball’s overdogs, were having
their way with the Rays 7-0, chasing one of their stud pitchers,
David Price, after just four shell-shocked innings and 97 mostly
ineffective pitches, two of which Mark Teixeira converted into
souvenirs. Then things turned on a rosin bag.
With a couple of manufactured runs followed by a three-run
pop by Evan Longoria in the eighth, the Rays were back in it 7-6,
and the people who had left early and had the game on their car
radios were starting to drive into Tampa Bay as a procession of
Rays crossed the plate. Then came the most unlikely cut of
all.
With two outs and no one on in the bottom of the ninth,
Rays manager Joe Maddon sent Dan Johnson to pinch hit. Johnson is a
slugger who had spent most of the season at AAA Durham. For his
Major League time this year Johnson not only had not hit his
weight, he had not hit Mary Lou Retton’s Olympic weight. Under his
name on the scoreboard flashed an embarrassing .108.
The early departures, now arriving home, were beginning to
feel better about their decision. Then with the count at 2-2,
Yankee pitcher Corey Wade got one too close to Johnson’s
wheel-house, and Dan hit a laser barely fair and barely into the
right field seats for the tie. Wide-spread psychotic breaks among
the faithful still at the Trop. They absolutely levitated three
innings later when another laser, this time off the bat of
Longoria, made in barely fair and barely into the left field seats
for the winner.
Longoria’s winner came just minutes after the news had
flashed in the Trop that the Red Sox had lost to the Orioles, the
second shoe that had to drop for the Rays to be in the playoffs.
The usually lights-out, uber-closer Jonathon Papelbon, in to
protect a 3-2 Sawks lead in the ninth, had blown the save, the
game, the night, and by this declension the season, for the
snake-bit Sawks.
The unconfined joy at the Trop was only matched by a gloom
solidifying across New England as the region’s favorites had just
put paid to the biggest infarct in Sawks history. A team with a
history of late season el foldos had gone 7-20 in September.
Suddenly it was 1978 again (without the leisure suits, thank God).
Bucky #$%^&#! Dent, call your office.
From south of Providence to north of Caribou, it’s going
to be a l-o-n-g off-season. (And beyond — Red Sox Nation is real
enough. I’m convinced that if the Sawks played an exhibition game
on Mars, little green guys with three legs and four eyes would come
to the park and yell, “Yook!”)
The Rays trailed by 9½ games in the wild car race on
September 2. No team in MLB history had come from this far behind
in September to make the postseason. All the more remarkable as the
small-market Rays player payroll, one of the lowest in the bigs,
puts them on poverty row compared to the Sawks, whose payroll
exceeds the value of all the property east of the Mississippi. It
takes a Cray super-computer to even estimate the Yankees’ payroll.
The Rays entire payroll is a Yankees rounding error. If there were
stats for results per payroll dollar expended, the Rays would lap
both leagues. When the Rays won the 2008 American League Pennant
they had the lowest payroll in the AL.
This one is not just a victory for the Rays and a buzz for
Bay Area sport fans. It’s a victory for baseball. You can’t write
scripts like this. This is a man bites dog story, and one of the
things that makes late season baseball so magical.
Before the season started the Sawks were supposed to take
it all. They surely had the horses to do it with. The Rays, on the
other hand, had lost their entire bullpen, a dependable starter,
and three of their key position players because of what Rays’
owners said was a required salary dump. But the Rays’ minor league
system keeps producing outstanding young talent for a team that
can’t afford pricey free agents. The young bloods and the remaining
Rays veterans put together a team strong in pitching and defense,
and with just enough hitting to remain in the hunt after
162.
We’ll have to see what the post-season brings. The Rays
strap on the Texas Rangers Friday, hardly a bunch of cream-puffs.
So it doesn’t get any easier. But the Rays will enter the playoffs
this year with momentum. Last year they stumbled in, only to be
eliminated by the Rangers 3-2 in the first round. But Rays fans are
optimistic, and have hopes that some of the players they’ve come to
know will shine on the national stage.
Another of baseball’s charms is that post-season ball has
produced so many unlikely stars. Guys, many of whom had short major
league careers before turning to used car sales or bartending, but
whom baseball aficionados fondly remember. Mention names like Al
Weiss, Sandy Amoros, Ron Swoboda, Gene Tenace, or Mickey Hatcher in
a sports bar, and the conversation will flow along with the suds.
Perhaps guys like Elliot Johnson, Sam Fuld, or Sean Rodriguez can
break into this fraternity.
The playoffs start Friday. I’ll be manning my couch, and
won’t be taking calls after first pitch.
