Hangover. Disbelief. Stunned.
I got up this morning and checked the news to be sure that last night was not some fantastic dream as compensation to a season ending night that seemed so imminent 9 or 10 hours ago. It wasn’t. As Ricky Bobby says, “That just happened”!
Less than 30 days ago the Rays were 9 games out of the wild card race. A stunning collapse by Boston coupled with a really respectable run for the Rays put them in position last night to make the playoffs in a year when, by all conventional wisdom, they shouldn’t have. And really, when the playoff hopes were gone in August, I wasn’t even that disappointed. I’d been conditioned to expect that to be the case, what with us shedding many of our best players in the off season, still building a bullpen in the waning days of spring training, etc. Then September happened. Then last night happened. And here we are against all odds. In the playoffs.
I’m not sure if I should be saying “Congratulations” or “Thank You” to all of the Rays (and Orioles!) who had a hand in this, but whatever is appropriate, there it is. Wow. Just wow.
On a final note (for now); not 2 weeks ago, during a particularly dismal offensive performance, I texted these words to a friend of mine: “Dammit, why doesn’t Joe pinch-hit someone ANYONE at this point?!” Then, when I noticed that Joe had heard my call and taken my (obviously sage) advice and was sending in Dan Johnson off the bench, I followed up with this: “Anyone BUT Dan Johnson I mean!” I won’t do that again. Ever.
Believe……
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