Tampa, you can blame me. I get into town yesterday evening, and within three hours Geoff Jenkins is hitting a double to lead off the bottom of the sixth for the Phillies. An hour and a half later, the Rays’ season is over.
The area seems to be handling it quite well, however. Last night the game was being shown on a flat screen in the lobby of the Sheraton where I’m staying, and two guys were halfway paying attention, halfway talking about whatever convention they’re here for.
See, Tampa’s a convention town. It’s a great convention town, too. This may be the cleanest city I’ve ever been in, and I’ve spent plenty of time in San Jose and Portland. The hotels are nice, the convention center looks new, but there isn’t anything really to do around here besides hang out in hotel bars and restaurants, so chances of debauchery are slim.
As a result, the feeling I’ve gotten from my near-24 hours in Tampa is this is a great place for people who are (1) old and (2) own
a boat. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that the Rays losing was met with a mixture of sentimentality and shoulder shrugging. Check out the main headlines in the St. Petersburg Times this morning:
“MAGIC ENDS — Rays’ miracle season is now just great memories.”
“IT’S BEEN FUN”
And my favorite, “Remember the Rays’ good times”
Hey, if they aren’t going to worry about losing the World Series around here, I’m not going to either. After all, the Buccaneers are playing in a few days, and it’s time for my NFL picks. I wanted to get Sarah Palin in to do the picks, since she helped me notch my first winning week since Palin herself actually struck a little fear in the Democratic Party.
Alas, even though she’s somewhere in this crazy state of Florida saying whatever she can to make herself the Republican presidential candidate in 2012, she couldn’t take any time out of her schedule because, in her words, I’m a “gotcha sports bloggin’ guy.” Hopefully I can survive without her.
(And as an aside, it really sucked that the Warriors couldn’t pull out that win last night over the Hornets. I was only able to watch the score update online, but I actually had a little hope there for a while. At least Baron “Jenny Craig” Davis’ first day as a Clipper ended with a 38-point loss to the Lakers. Enjoy playing with Ricky Davis, Jenny.)
