Baseball

In baseball, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are going STRONG!  Keep in mind that for 10 years, this team lived in the bottom of the standings.  Beyond that, if they ever did start getting better, there’s no way they could do anything substantial, especially in a division that included the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and the occasionally good Toronto Blue Jays.  But this season… the D-Rays are on FIRE!  They’re in first place, and Tuesday night they beat the Boston Red Sox, and now have a 7-1 record when playing the Red Sox in Tampa Bay.  Not a meaningless statistic, as this kind of home field dominance could become crucial come pennant time.

So you ask — ‘How did this perennially terrible team turn it around all of a sudden?’.  The Answer:  Their farm system.  Tampa Bay has one of the best minor league systems in the major leagues.  This is a very young (and underpaid) team.  They have become what the Montreal Expos used to be, a team that develops talent in the farm system, then loses that talent to big market, big money teams (i.e. Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Braves, etc…).  But for now, the Devil Rays are happy sitting atop the ultra competitive AL East Division.  Baring a final stretch collapse, they are destined to make the playoffs, and even, possibly… win the World Series.  It’s just been such a magical season for the D-Rays.  Now all they have to do is convince their fans to attend games, as Tampa Bay also boasts some of the worst attendance records in baseball.

NFL

Here’s some mid-week NFL news to wet your whistle until Sunday.  A banged up Seattle Seahawks team is literally without their top 4 receivers.  All of them down with injuries.  Superstar QB Matt Hasselbeck has nobody to throw to.  That’s quite frustrating for a quarterback used to airing out long balls to speedy recievers.  So, in haste, they signed badboy (and Mr. Off-The-Field-Headache) Koren Robinson to a 1-year contract, hoping he can add some high velocity to the passing attack.  They also traded a fifth round draft pick to the Denver Broncos for Keary Colbert.  Not a household name, but he did nab a healthy number of touchdowns while in Carolina.  It’s a long road ahead for Seattle, a city that’s had a rough sports year already, losing their NBA franchise, the Supersonics, and bearing witness to one of the worst seasons in Seattle Mariners history — but… at least the Seahawks are TRYING to dig themselves out of a hole.  Albeit a very… very… VERY deep hole.

Watch Betsy on the Today Show