The Sommer Frieze

Three in, one to go.

The Tampa Bay Rays (amazing what a name drop does) advanced to the ALCS with a 6-2 win over the Chicago White Sox in Game 4 of the ALCS. Their amazing turnabout continues. I think most people expected improvement, but a 15 game turnaround from 66 wins to a .500 season would have been expected and more than welcomed by a fan base which never saw more than 70 wins in a season from this team.

Instead, it was a 31 game turnaround. 97 wins. Now thanks to two home runs by B. J. Upton and three hits and two RBI from Carlos Pena, the Rays are four wins away from the WS. Tampa pitching limited the White Sox to four hits in Game 4, two by Paul Konerko (HR). Jermaine Dye also HR’d. Once again, no WS for Ken Griffey, Jr.

Hmmm….this could really be a nightmare for the Steinbrenners. Just think. They live in Tampa, where the Yanks train. They have their minor league high-A affiliate there. Their minor league complex. Now the Rays are four wins from a WS in which they could face….the Dodgers, with Torre. Inside, they must be seething.

As for Joe Maddon, he comes from Hazleton, in NE PA. One thing about Pennsylvanians like myself. I don’t know if it’s a PA thing, a Northeast thing, a PA Dutch thing or if any other region in the country does this. Telling distance not my miles, kilometers or the like, but by time. Ask a Pennsylvanian (at least in my area) how far away Hazleton is, and you won’t hear “forty miles.” What you will hear is “an hour’s drive.” I don’t know if it’s a reflection on what one deems more important, the distance or their time. A person’s time being precious, perhaps that is how the colloquialism began.