The Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia
Phillies are ready and roaring to face-off in this years installment of the October Classic. The two teams have a combined total of one World Series Championships. Tampa Bay has never won one, they have only been around since 1998 and this is the first time they have been to the playoffs let alone the World Series. The two championships for Tampa Bay were won by the
Buccanneers in the 2002-2003 season and the Lightning(Thanks Smitty for the reminder) in 2003-2004. The
Phillies won their lone World Series
Championship in 1980 against George Brett and the Kansas City Royals. The only championships Philly has seen since, include an NBA Championship by the
Sixers in 1983 and an Arena Bowl in 2008. Throughout the day I have been pondering on which team/city I should root for. The following list helped me decide;
- Better Fans: The city of Brotherly love or the Sunshine City; Philly has obnoxious fans, but they are about as loyal as they come. The Rays can name all of their loyal fans in about five minutes. They also finished 26th in attendance. (Phils +1)
- Tougher Road to the WS: The Phillies tore through the playoffs, crushed their competition and it ended with them being champs of the NL. The Rays are a young and exciting team, and has had to play two teams with recent World Series championships to get where they are now. (Rays +1)
- Salaries: Now it may sound absurd coming from a Dodger fan (seeing as they have one of the higher payrolls in the bigs) but when I decide on alternative teams to root for I tend to go for the team with the lower payroll. Everyone loves an underdog right? The Phillies payroll is ranked 13th at a modest $98 million, pretty close to the league average. However the Rays are ranked 29th at a ridiculously efficient $43 million. (Rays +1)
- Players to root for: The Phillies may have the impossible to hate Shane Victorino , but I went to middle school with BJ Upton (Rays +1)
- Ballpark: The Phillies play in one of the nicer ball parks in all of baseball while the Rays play in a glorified warehouse. Seriously why build a dome in Florida
? (Phils +1)
- Better Food: Each baseball stadium has food that is unique to that city. In Boston its Fenway Franks, in Baltimore its Boog's BBQ, and in DC its Bens Chili Bowl. The Phillies have Rick's Steaks and the Rays have Ybor City Cubans. Rick's steaks is run by the grandson of the owner of Pat's King of Steaks. The biggest debate over the years in Phily has been "Pats or Genos?" and apparently the Phillies chose Pats. The grandson of the king will clearly win this battle, yet I can always go for a good cuban. (Phils +1)
Final score 3-3. Its a wash, but I think we are all winners since we don't have to endure another year of annoying S.I. ads that involve the Red
Sox. It should be an exciting series to watch and I look forward to it. The World Series kicks off Weds. from Tropicana at 8:35 on Fox.
The Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies are ready and roaring to face-off in this years installment of the October Classic. The two teams have a combined total of one World Series Championships. Tampa Bay has never won one, they have only been around since 1998 and this is the first time they have been to the playoffs let alone the World Series. The two championships for Tampa Bay were won by the Buccanneers in the 2002-2003 season and the Lightning(Thanks Smitty for the reminder) in 2003-2004. The Phillies won their lone World Series Championship in 1980 against George Brett and the Kansas City Royals. The only championships Philly has seen since, include an NBA Championship by the Sixers in 1983 and an Arena Bowl in 2008. Throughout the day I have been pondering on which team/city I should root for. The following list helped me decide;
5 comments:
If you're going to have a baseball team in Florida you have to play in a dome (even though the Marlins play at Dolphin Stadium right now, their new stadium will have a retractable roof). As hot and humid as it gets in Florida during the summer there's no chance you're going to get fans to sit outside for 3 hours to watch a baseball game. It would be miserable.
October 20, 2008 at 11:59 PMThey need to build a new stadium. It was built as a multi purpose stadium, not a baseball stadium. It unsightly and has the feel of a drab warehouse. If a roof is needed for the humid weather you can make it a retractable roof. Just look at Chase Field, thats what they should model it after.
October 21, 2008 at 12:25 AMFYI: The Lightning won the Stanley Cup following the 2003-2004 season. Also, you can't talk about concessions at the Bank with out mentioning Chickie's and Pete's Crab Fries. Seriously, they're incredible. GO PHILS!!!!
October 21, 2008 at 6:31 PMGreat post! The world is a better place w/o the Red Sox in the World Series.
October 21, 2008 at 9:51 PMHockey always seems to skip my mind, but now that I think about it I do remember when they beat Calgary with Martin St. Louis leading them. That was one of the better Stanley Cups in recent memory.
October 21, 2008 at 10:19 PMPost a Comment