Party In Tampa Bay

The party is on in the city of Tampa, Florida! For the third time in their history, the Tampa Bay Rays are playing for a world championship! It took six games to knock off the Cleveland Guardians, but the Rays have won the pennant for the third time in their history. And this one of the three World Series appearances the team has had, could be the sweetest of all.

They haven't won the big one yet, we will know that by Halloween the latest, which is when game seven would be played if the series goes the distance. So we have a little over a week to figure out a champion, and we will have our series preview a little later in the week. But for this writing, just the fact that the Rays are playing in the series is sweet.

Just look at what the team has gone through the last couple of years. This time two years ago, the roof of Tropicana Field wasn't a thing. Hurricanes came through and destroyed the roof of the Trop, causing the Rays to play at Steinbrenner Field last year. And last season was a disappointing one, a year in which the Rays missed the playoffs, and finished seven games under .500.

Then things started to change. Stu Sternberg is finally out as owner. Patrick Zalupski came in and got the team started to straighten out. They got the plans in place for a new ballpark in Tampa. Then the season goes along on the field. it's the first year back at the Trop. They had winning months, or at least .500 months, every month all seasons long. They played good baseball at the right times.

Then the playoffs started. It was a sweep of the Yankees in the divisional round. Then they had to prove themselves in the league championship series. Hit a couple of speedbumps, but the best players had the big moments at the right time. Now here we sit, in the World Series, four possible wins away from a title!