Tampa Bay Rays: This Team Is For Real

Can we all just stop expecting the Tampa Bay Rays to just disappear by the end of the season? A team that everyone was saying had to make a move at the deadline to acquire a bat to sure up their weak offense made no such move because they wanted to keep their prospects – and what do they do after the deadline? Go off and sweep the Detroit Tigers while outscoring them 20-10 in the three games.

Last time I wrote about them, New Beast In The AL East, they were in the midst of their longest winning streak of the season so far (7) which was promptly followed by their longest losing streak of the season – also at 7. If there was a good a time as any for a team to fold up and go home it was then. They had squandered a 4 game lead on the division and now were half a game behind the Red Sox. Since then, they have gone 11-5 and once again taken the lead of the division and have given themselves a 3-game cushion.

This team is here to stay and as if their pitching wasn’t solid enough, expect them to call up David Price who was a #1 overall draft pick not too long ago who is tearing up the minor leagues. He is 10-0 in the minors this year with a 1.97 ERA and has a 85/19 K/BB ratio with only 67 hits allowed in 86.2 innings pitched. That’s 8.87 strikeouts every 9 innings by the way and a WHIP of 0.99. Continue reading “Tampa Bay Rays: This Team Is For Real”

How Does This Happen?

You notice stories like this all the time whether it was in a mall or in an airport and I just don’t understand how parents, not only all over this country but all over the world continue to focus more on getting to their destination on time rather than the welfare of their children. I especially like how the story points out that they made sure that their 18 suitcases for the entire family was accounted for but disregarded whether all the children had made it on board safely.

It was a 3-YEAR-OLD! You would think someone account for her amongst the two parents and four other children that were going. The scary part of all this (as if leaving a child at the airport wasn’t enough) is that they did not realize that the child was missing at all until notified by the airplane crew that their child had been safely found by authorities at the airport.

JERUSALEM – Israeli airport police say a couple going on a European vacation remembered to bring their duty-free shopping and their 18 suitcases, but forgot their 3-year-old daughter at the airport.

The couple and their five children were late for a flight to Paris Sunday and made a mad dash to the gate. In the confusion, their daughter got lost. A policeman found her wandering around the terminal, crying for her mother.

Israeli media report Monday that the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents, whose names were not released, didn’t notice the child was missing until they were told, in the air, that she had been found at Ben-Gurion airport.

The child, accompanied by an airline staffer, took the next flight to Paris where she was safely reunited with her parents. Continue reading “How Does This Happen?”