Teeing Off

Author: Peter Baumann

Baseball's regular season ended Sunday, sending 24 of the league's 32 teams to the golf course and rendering the loyal fans of these teams devoid of distraction and hope. As a Colorado Rockies fan, I find myself in this unfortunate group this week - but despair not fellow losers! I have a team that we can all root for.

Something about our make-up as sports fans attracts us to the implausible. That's why we speak reverently of the Miracle Mets and the Miracle on Ice, it's why we recall fondly the memories of George Mason and Villanova over Georgetown. The fact is, we love underdogs, and this year the underdog story is the Tampa Bay Rays.

Think about this team for a second. Since its inception in 1998, it has finished dead last in the American League East every year except 2004. The closest the Rays have ever finished to first place was 2000 - and they were still 18 games back, 23 games under .500. Over their ten-year history they've averaged being 34 games back at the end of the season. Hell, just last year they lost more games than any other team in baseball.

And now? Not only are they preparing to go to the playoffs for the first time in club history, they're doing so as winners of the tough AL East and holders of the second-best record in the league as a whole. What's more, they've done it with a group of guys that sound like I'd be more likely to trust with my taxes than to go toe-to-toe with the Red Sox in October ("Shields, Longoria and Sonnanstine CPAs" - for all of your accounting needs).

In a division where the Red Sox and the Yankees use guaranteed attendance and privately held television contracts to spend obscene amounts of money to buy success, the Rays beat them both this year despite spending less on their entire team than the Yankees spend on the left side of their infield. The Red Sox have even paid $7 million over the last two months to have a guy hit .400 in LA while the most the Rays have paid anyone all year is the $6 million they've given Carlos Pena to hit 31 home runs in Tampa.

What's not to like about these guys? As a show of team unity they all decided to go get Mohawks. Even Joe Maddon, the Rays' 54-year-old manager, has gotten one. They play with heart, they play injured, they play with a chip on their shoulders - in short they do all the things for $43 million that the Yankees wouldn't do for $207 million.

You guys need a team this October? Choose the Rays. I've already got the shirts printed up: "Rayoffs '08." No? Hey, cut me some slack, I already miss "Rocktober."

And now for my Division Series predictions:

Red Sox over Angels - If it were a seven-game series I'd take the Angels, but I just don't see them scraping together three wins against the Beckett-Lester-Matsuzaka combo. In many ways this might be the real World Series.

Rays over White Sox - I'm partial to teams that win play-in games (see Rockies, Colorado 2007), but theRays are my team this year. Rayoffs '08!

Brewers over Phillies - As the Phils found out last year, pitching wins in October. I just can't be confident enough in a starting rotation that features a guy who spent a significant portion of the year at AAA.

Cubs over Dodgers - One must remain cautious when dealing with unexplainable forces - whether they be caprine curses or Manny Ramirez. I will be shocked by nothing that happens in this series. For now I'll give the edge to the Cubs because of their deeper pitching staff.