The planets have lined up, God is in heaven. No, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds haven't admitted using steroids. Nope, Barry Zito isn't back in the San Francisco Giants' rotation and Hank Steinbrenner still hates Boston.
The Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. Yes, the team located in St. Petersburg, Florida, the home of the newly wed and almost dead (as a friend of mine calls it) has done something it has never done in the history of the franchise that has been in existence since the Bill Clinton administration: they have a winning month! Yes, that's right. The Rays have finished a month above .500. It's about damned time, guys! To give you more history, the number one song in America was Elton John's "Candle In The Wind (Goodbye, England's Rose)," a tribute to Princess Diana.
Righthander Andy Sonnanstine, who baffled the Chicago White Sox at Tropicana Field two weeks ago, gave Tampa Bay eight innings of work with five strikeouts to take a 8-1 AL Eastern Division win over the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night at Camden Yards. Could this be the start of something good on Florida's left coast? Could years of losing and being the butt of bad baseball jokes come to an end? This is a start. They need to keep this momentum up if for nothing else, for pride. They may not make the playoffs this year. Then again, stranger things have happened. This could be baseball's answer to "The Little Engine That Could."
Tampa Bay has now made a name for itself in the history book. There's still a lot of baseball left to play, but this is a good start for the team that has never finished a season, let alone a month above .500. This is a shot in the arm. Stay healthy and continue to play well, (Devil) Rays and you can do bigger and better things!