The Tampa Bay Rays are Changing Baseball

I'm a sports fan, that isn't a secret to anyone who sits in a room with me for more than about 15 minutes on a normal day. Often I spend time wishing for great events to happen in the sporting world while I am alive, things that won't happen again for a long time.

Take for example the New England Patriots last season. They went all the way to the Super Bowl without losing a single game. They lost the Super Bowl of course, thwarting my endeavor to personally witness an undefeated NFL season, but it was a good ride nonetheless.

I want the unbelievable to happen in sports, the things that have no chance of ever coming true, like every team in the NFL finishing 8-8 for the season and the playoff teams being decided by a series of coin tosses, or a non-BCS conference school playing for a national title in college football.

Right now, I'm a big fan of the Tampa Bay Rays (formerly the Tampa Bay Devil Rays) because they are doing something that hasn't been done in a long time. They won the AL East in an effort that can only be described as miraculous given that nobody ever expects anyone besides the Yankees or Red Sox to win that division. Last night they continued their run by winning the ALCS over the Boston Red Sox to earn a spot in the World Series.

They did it playing baseball as a team in a way I haven't seen in a long time. There are no superstars, there are no players begging for more playing time. They just go out and play.

More teams need to take a look at how they are doing it, and follow suit.

Oklahoma City ???

It's no secret to most folks that I am a huge fan of the state of Oklahoma. Sure, people may say there is nothing to look at there because it is so flat, and others will say that there are too many tornados and thunderstorms, but I would live out my days in that state in a heartbeat if given the chance.

Anyways, in the midst of much turmoil and controversy the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA no longer exist as the team was purchased and is now moving to Oklahoma City. I wanted a professional sports team in Oklahoma for the entire time I was living there, and still wish they had a major league baseball team, but I'll settle for an NBA team for the time being.

When my family moved back from England I had to pick a favorite team in each sport because that's what 11 year old boys do, and since the Carolina Panthers and Colorado Avalanche were expansions teams at the time I figured, what the heck, might as well go with somebody new since I'm new to this as well. For baseball I went with the Colorado Rockies since they were only a couple of years old, but I never really stuck on an NBA team.

Now I am going to become an official fan of the Oklahoma City team. They don't have a nickname yet (it gets revealed on September 3rd), but regardless I have decided that my "team" is the one that just arrived in the city. This way, I don't feel like I'm a bandwagon fan, but rather an "original" fan despite the fact that they used to be the Seattle Sonics. The Avalanche used to be the Quebec Nordiques, but that's not a big deal in my mind.

So, hopefully they pick something cool for the nickname next week. I'll be checking online to see what it is.

Let's Talk About Sports

I'm a big fan of sports, possibly even a huge fan of sports. The one channel you can always find on at my house is ESPN, and if I had a way to have every single ESPN channel I certainly would. Talking sports is a lot of fun to me, but it is rare I get the chance to expound upon things. However, this past week has provided a couple of things that I feel like discussing.

First, is the return of Brett Favre to professional football. All the way back in March he finally decided it was time to retire from the NFL and leave the game while he was on top. The Green Bay Packers had almost made it back to the Super Bowl, and his season was one of his best ever. The problem is now that he wants to return to the NFL after saying he was definitely done for good. The Packers have already moved on with the team and are preparing to have Aaron Rodgers as their starting quarterback in a couple of months.

Normally I don't think much of players retiring and then coming back because they have a little bit of an itch, but I have lost a little bit of respect for Brett Favre in this situation. Aaron Rodgers has been sitting on the bench behind Favre for 3 seasons waiting to take over the team and preparing for that eventuality. Now he is left in limbo after being told he is the starter because Favre wants to return. If I were Rodgers, and Favre returns to the team, then I would immediately asked to be released or traded. While he hasn't earned any real clout from being a starter, he has paid his dues in preparation.

I can understand that the Packers don't want to release Favre outright and let him sign with any team, but having him return as a backup is a little extreme as well. I think they should ask him who he wants to play for and then arrange a trade to one of the teams, regardless of how much or how little they receive in return. If he wants to play, let him move on and mess up his legacy if that is the case, but don't screw up the chance that Aaron Rodgers had worked hard to earn.

Next on my list is the Tour de France. I may not know a whole lot about cycling, but I do know that the stuff the riders in that race put themselves through is absolutely insane. The race this year is far more compelling because all of the big names from cycling are all sitting on 2 year bans due to either allegations of doping or positive tests for performance enhancing drugs.

The result is a bunch of new riders with a great chance to show the world what they have to offer. With no positive tests to this point the race has been clean and the leader has been changing what seems like every day. Nobody seems to be able to pull away with a sizeable lead, which means the race will be tight until the very end. I'm excited about that because as interesting as Lance Armstrong was, he sure took a lot of suspense out of the Tour de France.

Intramural Softball

After work last night I went home and took care of a couple things before picking up Joe Hardie from the Museum of Art (he offered to feed me dinner while Holly is gone, so I figured I could offer a ride home from work). We had some delicious baked potatoes and applesauce for dinner and then got changed really quick before going over to the softball field here at Wymount for a bit of practice with our team from the Elder's Quorum.

Normally, I don't feel that I can contribute a whole lot to an intramural team here at BYU because I really am not in very good physical shape, but I do play floor hockey (at least until they discontinued it) because I can play goalie and do an alright job. Football, soccer, and basketball are probably a little to intense for someone like me, but I figured I could probably hack it alright with softball this summer.

So, off I went to practice with a bunch of guys from the ward. I did alright in the fielding aspect of things, but had to have Gerald Smith remind me of a bunch of the intricate things about where to go with the ball in certain situations. It's been a long time since I played any organized baseball or softball, so I needed a lot of reminding. I got the hang of it by the end of the evening though, and even made a couple of decent plays. As a matter of fact, I came thisclose to turning a double-play, but it was not meant to be. Perhaps next time.

Anyways, I'm a little bit sore, but not as sore as I thought I would be going in, and I feel like I can contribute in the games without being a detriment next week, so we'll see how it goes. I'll have to make sure and have Holly take some pictures at the game that I can post for all to see.