View from the Catwalk: Hello World Series

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

World Series Game 1 is under our belts, and it didn’t go as planned. The 8-3 loss felt almost more lopsided than that lopsided score. For more on the game specifics, you can check out Ashley’s recap. I’ll just note that those who screamed about Cash pulling Charlie Morton at just 66 pitches must have been much happier watching Tyler Glasnow slog through that fifth inning to get to 112 pitches.

But the Rays are still in the World Series, which is more than 28 other teams can say, and they have three more chances to get this right. Perhaps moving forward we could avoid giving seven free passes to a team that also happens to hit and run really well?

It’s not often that Rays are front and center in the national spotlight, so let’s check out the conversation.

First, I urge you to peruse the DRaysBay site from yesterday. Our writers have been busy! Lots of content about players, matchups, and general World Series excitement.

We love our “hometown boy makes good” manager:

Dan Szymborski touches on...just about everything you can expect to see this series.

One of the great things about this postseason run is that The Athletic has assigned the wonderful Eno Sarris to cover the Rays and we therefore get mouthwatering pieces like this one. Sarris manages to combine equal parts analysis and enthusiasm for one very fun read ($)

Did you want more Randy-mania? Then you’ll enjoy this from Sports Illustrated. And this from Fangraphs. And this from MLB.com.

We could probably do an entire column devoted to Rays are ruining baseball posts. For some reason this postseason’s theme is that because the Rays rely on data they can’t be fun or “aesthetically pleasing”. Sports Illustrated’s Emma Bacellieri takes on this topic (her article is much better than the equivocating headline).

Here’s Michael Bradburn’s thoughtful response (not to the SI piece but to this genre of writing more generally) .

Members of the 2008 team reflect on the success of the 2020 Rays.($)

Here’s a look at players who played for both WS teams at some point. JP Howell, David Price (sort of)...who else?

Outsports notes the very LGBT-friendly policies of both World Series teams.

Bob Nightengale often gets things wrong, but I’ve got to agree with him this time. I can’t believe we are watching a 2020 World Series, let alone watching one involving our home team.

Just for fun, here are our guys going full Texas:

And for more fun, Tampa and St. Petersburg come together on a playoff bet:

MLB non-Rays department

This interview with Scott Boras($) is semi-Rays related (he wants to be sure everyone knows that teams avoiding high priced free agents is a terrible ideas! Even if the Rays have gotten this far!) but I’m putting it here because he suggests that the World Series should always be at a neutral site. Boras argues that this creates an opportunity for more branding and attention, similar to Super Bowl week. For me the appeal is being able to choose a place less likely to look like 2008 Philadelphia.

I’ve long felt that Curt Flood got too little recognition for taking a very courageous (and personally harmful) stand to bring free agency to baseball. I’m glad to see that the MLB Players Association is now ensuring that their members know who he is by creating an award in his honor.