Filed under: Rays, Yankees, AL East
In the wee hours of a September morning two years ago, the Tampa Bay Rays reassembled in the visitors' clubhouse in Comerica Park, hours after their game against the Tigers had finished, and went absolutely bananas. A twice-rain-delayed Yankees loss to the Red Sox had just clinched the American League East title for the upstart Rays, officially giving them a worst-to-first season and breaking a 10-year hold on the division title by Boston and New York. The alcohol-splattered celebration that night in Detroit might have surpassed the party held days earlier when the Rays clinched their first playoff berth in terms of raucousness, and there was a reason for that.
"Everybody in baseball knows what this division's all about," Rays manager Joe Maddon said then. "To win this division is very significant."
The same sentiment applies in 2010 for the Rays. While they obviously wouldn't apologize if they end up entering the playoffs as the wild card rather than the division champ, their clear preference is to get that title, allowing them to hang another AL East champs banner at Tropicana Field next spring and giving them the home-field edge in the first round, at least, this fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment