Devil's in the details

null terminated — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:44:27 -0800

Tampa Bay Rays beat Red Sox, head to World Series - The Tampa Bay ~~Devil~~ Rays began the 2008 season having never made the playoffs and or finishing the season above .500. Motivated by skipper Joe Madden's mathematically questionable slogan "9 = 8" ("9 players going hard for 9 innings means 1 of 8 playoff spots") but not considered a competitor for the AL East top spot by most fans and analysts, the Rays used their new name, uniforms and confidence to slowly emerge as one of the best teams in baseball this year. They battled low attendance and injuries while leading the AL East early, but lost seven in a row before the All Star break to fall a half game behind the defending World Series Champion Red Sox in the East. The young team rebounded on the back of leading Rookie of the Year candidate Evan Longoria and finished the season 97-65, an unbelievable turnaround for a club that had gone 66-96 the previous year. In the ALDS they took down the White Sox 3-1 and faced the Red Sox in the ALCS, where the Rays broke the LCS record for most home runs (15). Things were looking pretty good for the Rays in Game 5 of the ALCS, up 3-1 in the series to Boston and 7-0 in the game and only 9 outs needed to clinch when the Red Sox made the biggest comeback in baseball postseason history in the last 79 years to beat the Rays 8-7. The Sox also won Game 6 4-2, forcing a Game 7. Would this be another comeback for the Sox, who was 26-11 all time in postseason elimination games and had come back from 3-0 in 2004 and 3-1 in 2007? Not this year, as Matt Garza and team held off Red Sox Nation and heads to the World Series to face the Phillies. All of this, of course, raises the question -- "Are teams with better graphic design more successful?" (1998-2000 logo, 2001-2007 logo, 2008 logo )

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Devil's in the details