Tampa Bay Rays

The Phillies and the the Rays for all the marbles. Hands up, those who saw this one coming..

Funny, but when I think of the Philadelphia Phillies, I think more of the 1980 version than the one that crumbled to the Blue Jays in 1993. There was something kind of cool about Tug McGraw, Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose but also something kind of common and dirty.

That era of Philadelphia sports seemed to optimize the grungy nature that seems to exude from their sports teams - no Philly team has ever been accused of “too much finesse”.

I suppose that really fits a city with a strong - notoriously obnoxious - working class.

They say about New York City: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. I would amend that slightly for Philadelphia: If you can make it there, you obviously have excellent survival skils.

And, just so everyone thinks I hate Philadelphia - I don’t, more accurately the town scares the crap out of me - the city has produced the best in at least one category: mascots. While there are other pretend chickens and crabs and songbirds the Philly Phanatic is tres bien, occupying lofty space in the highest echelon of dressed-up creatures. The Phanatic has that slight evil nature and the obligatory potty humor that makes the concept of mascots (theoretically ) bearable.

So Paul Godfrey is finally resigning as President of the Toronto Blue Jays. Anyone who’s watched this team over the last eight years knows Godfrey’s been about as effective as all the Toronto Maple Leafs GMs put together (which isn’t saying much).

Godfrey always felt he was something of an innovator (you’re no Paul Beeston, Mr. Godfrey) but he was little more than an accountant with really bad perma-stubble.

And yes he is the architect of the John Gibbons debacle and the J.P. (I’m no Theo Epstein) Ricciardi long-running experiment. Bottom line, Godfrey has brought nothing to the organization except the ability to present onions as apples.

Thank the Tampa Rays for toppling this tenuous empire. For too long, Toronto management - and many of their fans - always used the lame excuse that “if we weren’t in the same division as the Yankees and the Red Sox we’d be right in the playoff hunt every year.” Well I have news for all of you with this laughable excuse: You ARE in the AL East and, to earn a playoff spot, you do have to beat at least one of these two juggernauts to qualify.

And guess what? The Tampa Bay Rays are also in the AL East, and you know what? They beat all four of the other teams in the AL East (that would include both the Yankees and the Red Sox for those who are counting) and claimed the division title. And good for them.

So Jays’ management, time for a new excuse..