Enough

Okay, so this has been a nice little run by the Tampa Bay Rays. I don't mind saying that I've been pulling for them all season; I don't even mind saying that I wasn't all that fazed when they beat out the Red Sox for the division title. It's good for baseball to have small-market teams make the postseason, and as with the Rockies last year I think that the Rays have paid their expansion-team dues at this point, and it's completely legitimate to be happy for their (relatively) long-suffering fans. Really, though - it's enough already. Rays fans are acquainted with regular-season losing, sure, but now it's time for them to be acquainted with another form of baseball suffering: The postseason near-miss. In the long run, it's for their own good: They'll better appreciate final victory when it eventually arrives, and they'll avoid the dreaded "Florida Marlins syndrome," in which a premature World Series win (or two!) ruins a city for the normal ups and downs of baseball fandom. All of which is to say that the Red Sox won't just be taking another step toward repeating as World Champions if they stop drowning in two feet of water and come back from 2-1 down to knock Tampa out of the postseason; they'll be doing the Rays, and especially Rays fans, a big favor as well.

Over to you, Tim Wakefield.