Devil Rays looking less George-like
By By Will Bardwell / sports writer
June 24, 2004
George Costanza was always my favorite character on "Seinfeld."
Sure, Kramer was hysterically weird, Jerry was satisfyingly sarcastic and Elaine was fascinatingly ditzy. Despite their simple appearances, all three were complex characters. Even now, when I watch reruns, I pick up on some of their entertaining nuances that I never noticed before.
But with George, what you saw was what you got. And what you got was the world's biggest loser.
George spent the better part of his 30s unemployed, bald and living with his lunatic parents. The only time he ever went to any trouble was to find creative ways to keep receiving his unemployment benefits. Once, he tried to cheat on an IQ test to impress his girlfriend. Another time, he sold his father's old Hawaiian shirts to a used clothing store for some extra cash.
Years, girlfriends and schemes came and went, but George rarely changed and improved his standing in the world with even less frequency.
Maybe that's why I'm a fan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Like George, the Devil Rays have been nothing short of hapless for as long as I can remember. I'm a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan, but I adopted Tampa Bay as my American League team of choice in 2001. That means I missed out on the greatest era in team history two epic 69-win campaigns in 1999 and 2000 but that doesn't keep me up at night.
Besides, this season is shaping up quite nicely at least by Devil Rays standards.
Sure, Tampa Bay is unlikely to climb any higher than third place in the AL East Division. And sure, a postseason berth is about as likely as a sellout at Tropicana Field, where attendance usually resembles the population density of Alaska. But when you're a Devil Rays fan, you take success in whatever form it comes.
A victory over the Yankees on Opening Day gave the Rays sole possession of first place in the AL East for the first time in team history. Predictably, though, it didn't last long. Late April and early May brought 19 losses in 22 games, and the Devil Rays tumbled into last place in the division much like an overweight, balding sitcom character moving back in with his parents yet again.
But strange things happened every now and then to George Costanza. Every now and then, his luck changed. In one episode, he became a bilingual genius when he and his girlfriend quit hanky-pankying. In another show, George found success whenever he acted against his natural instincts. It worked so well for him that he picked up a woman in a restaurant by telling her, "My name is George. I'm unemployed, and I live with my parents."
And after the New York Yankees fired him and gave him three months' pay as a severance package, George declared a 90-day period of greatness the Summer of George.
Like George, uncharacteristically good things sometimes happen for the Devil Rays. Wade Boggs, a future Hall of Famer, collected his 3,000th hit in a Tampa Bay uniform. Fred McGriff, another possible Cooperstown inductee, has a chance to get his 500th home run as a Devil Ray. And before the 2003 season, the D-Rays somehow convinced Lou Piniella, one of the most successful baseball coaches of the last decade, to come to Tampa.
But nothing the Devil Rays have ever done compares to what they're doing right now.
Tampa Bay's 2-1 loss to Toronto on Wednesday broke the team's 12-game winning streak, the longest in the Majors in almost a year. A loss is never much fun, but when it's the first in two weeks, I can't complain. Besides, the Devil Rays are 33-35 within spitting distance of .500, and it's almost July! Go crazy.
Never before in their history have the Rays been so mildly respectable so late into a season. That might not be worth calling the Hall of Fame, but I don't care who you are when you win 12 games in a row, you're doing something right.
And opportunities like this don't happen every day (least of all for Tampa Bay). That's why, in true George Costanza style, I'm declaring this the Summer of the Devil Rays.
Winning the AL East won't be easy. The Devil Rays have one of the smallest payrolls in baseball, while division rivals New York and Boston spend more money than anyone else. Still, you'd have to figure a 94-game winning streak would do the trick, and that could start tonight. ALmost 100 straight wins are a lot to ask of anybody, but a dozen in a row seemed equally improbable not long ago. Why stop at 12? Onward and upward!
More likely, of course, the D-Rays will be lucky to play close to .500 for the rest of the season and win 70 games for the first time in franchise history.
After all, even the Summer of George didn't turn out as well as planned. George slipped on a super-glossy party invitation, suffered a crippling fall, and spent the rest of the summer in physical therapy.
It was supposed to be the Summer of George. Instead, it turned into another laughable episode in a loveably pathetic existence.
Tampa Bay will probably be dealt a similar hand. For now, though, the Devil Rays are 34-34 and in third place. My beloved Braves, on the other hand, are in fourth place in the NL East with a dismal 32-38 record.
That's right, Braves fans. Twelve straight division titles or not, the Devil Rays have the better team.
I've seen Braves futility before, so I can adjust. But no one has ever seen Tampa Bay with this kind of luck.
I'll enjoy it while I can. If the Devil Rays follow George Costanza's lead, a trip back home to last place is never more than 30 minutes away.
