One final — well, for now — comment on the wondrous season that was for the Tampa Bay Rays. Disappointment, candidly, has never been so palatable.
Think back to that fifth game of the American League Championship Series against the Red Sox. That “7 outs (from victory) and 7 runs (ahead)” disaster in Boston. It was an implosion for the ages. In the annals of big-game baseball collapses, it was without precedent.
And after a Game 6 loss to Boston back at the Trop, it looked like one of the all-time Cinderella stories in sports history was all but unraveled. But order was restored, as we know, in Game 7 and the Rays made it into the Series.
Sure, they came out second best to the Phillies, but it could have been so much worse. Had they not made it to the Series, these Rays would have suffered an embarrassing legacy bypass. (Not unlike, ironically, the underdog 1964 Phillies who blew a 6 ½ game lead with 12 to go by losing 10 straight and the pennant. To this day, it’s still called “The Phold.”)
Had the Rays ultimately lost to Boston, they would have been known forever in baseball lore for their inglorious choke – and not for all that had preceded it. They would be noteworthy for their notoriety – not celebrated for their inspiring, “worst-to-first” run.
World Series runner-up is still a feel-good, success story. Especially when you have to overcome the Yankees and the Red Sox to get there.
Thanks for the memories.