The Blue Workhorse

With their 3-1 victory over Boston and the Red Sox Nation in Game 7 Sunday night, the Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays have advanced to their first ever World Series where they will face off with the Philadelphia Phillies.

While I feel sorry for the Phillies fans that had to endure the opposing fan treatment (yea, stay classy LA), I will be rooting for my Rays and here are 23 reasons why you should be rooting for them as well.

1. Worst to First - The Rays are the new Atlanta Braves.

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I’ve been reading a lot of good articles as of late and haven’t exactly found enough time to write about them myself. With that being said, I still think these articles are just too good to go by without me passing them along.

Therefore, here is the inaugural edition of the Wednesday Workhorse Links (yea, I need a new name, but that’s the best spur of the moment creativity I currently have):

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As I flipped the channel to FOX at about 8:00 pm, I had no idea that tonight would be one of the most intriguing All-Star Games in recent memory.

With the great opening ceremony linking the former greats with the present stars, I had a feeling this might be a special night and a special game.

The only thing that surprised me about the opening ceremony was the Steinbrenners brought the ceremonial game balls in a brown paper bag. C’mon guys, you’re the Steinbrenners, you can do better.

Before I get to the game:

5 quick reasons I hated the All-Star Game

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In the Sunday Sports Selection series, we showcase a sports-related product (gadget, book, film, equipment, etc.) that we have enjoyed and think you may find of interest as well.

For half of the baseball fans that come across this post, they are going to hate that I featured these shirts that they would find despicable. For the other half? Well, they probably are going to think these shirts are great ideas.

This is because half of baseball fans are either Boston Red Sox fans or New York Yankees fans (or at least it seems that way), and if you are a baseball fan, you typically either are a fan of one of those two teams or hate both of those teams.

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For the past two seasons, there have been concerns about a couple of the most known and dominant closers in the game. Last season, it was New York Yankees’ stopper Mariano Rivera after he got off to a rough start. This season the troubles are in the other league, on the other coast as Trevor Hoffman, the man who enters to “Hell’s Bells,” has left without the lead, or a save, already twice in the early stages this season.

After week one of the MLB season, there have been several teams, including the Padres, that have already run into bullpen issues, particularly on Opening Day, so we decided to examine each of the 30 major league teams bullpen performances thus far and see which teams should really be concerned with their bullpen.

Wednesday afternoon, the benches cleared after Yankees’ backup Shelley Duncan (6-foot-5, 215 pounds) slid in to second base with his spikes high. Okay not just high, but so high they were in danger of castrating Rays’ second baseman Akinori Iwamura (even though I’m not real certain about the castration practices of the Japanese — he could already be castrated — just kidding, he’s expecting a child).

The Red Sox, with two World Series titles in the last four years, are one of the favorites again this year. While the Red Sox are looking for championship titles, other division rivals have other goals: the Toronto Blue Jays are looking to move pass either the Red Sox or Yankees and get back into the top two in the division. However, they may have to hold off the upstart Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays just to keep the #3 slot. The Rays first goal will be to finish above .500 for the first time in team history, but greater goals are just beyond the horizon.