Rays make SI cover

Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli is pictured colliding with Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz at home plate on the cover of the Nov. 3 issue of Sports Illustrated.

It is the Rays' second appearance on an SI cover this season and first featuring an actual player photo. Carl Crawford was shown hoisting the Yankees' Derek Jeter in the air on an illustrated cover (see below) in May.

Here is Tom Verducci's story from this week's issue:

Dear America, Wish You Were Here
The Phillies and the Rays played long ball and small ball, had plenty of close calls, even rain and drama long after last call in the latest Fall Classic to open its doors to the game's upwardly mobile. So, where were you?

BY TOM VERDUCCI

Four times since 2000 baseball commissioner Bud Selig has been summoned to Washington to testify before lawmakers on the biggest perceived threats to the game: competitive imbalance and performance-enhancing drugs. Baseball, went the Beltway wisdom, owed its fans a labor climate in which the same big spenders didn't win all the titles, and it owed them a tough antidrug policy that would restore trust in the players and their statistics.  The result of baseball's effort to comply was on display last Saturday night in Philadelphia, where the World Series—already assured of crowning an eighth different champion in nine seasons—returned for the first time in 15 years. Neither the interloping Phillies nor the Tampa Bay Rays had been to the Fall Classic since the six-division format began in 1994. Their surprise entries capped a season in which no major leaguers tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and the rate of home runs dropped to its lowest level since '93. For Selig, the biggest controversies related to the use of instant replay and the dangers posed by splintered maple bats.

Yet this is what happened when the Phillies and the Rays played a suspenseful version—Saturday's Game 3 was decided, in the best of boyhood backyard dreams, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth—of this postmodern game in October: Almost nobody watched. Doubtless harmed by a pregame rain delay of 91 minutes, Game 3 attracted the smallest viewing audience by nearly 25% since Nielsen started tracking the World Series in 1968. With an average viewership of 13.2 million through Game 4, the Series threatened to overtake the 2006 St. Louis–Detroit matchup (15.8 million) as the least-watched ever.

Wasn't this the tidied-up kind of baseball the public had wanted? Well, yes, if you also believe that most people really prefer veggie burgers to bacon double cheeseburgers. Without the heavily financed teams or heavily muscled galoots, here's what remained: an entertaining symposium on the state of the game and where it's going. Philadelphia and, in particular, Tampa Bay proved that no team is too far from the World Series, so long as it is stocked with young pitching and athleticism.

"If you appreciate the game," said 45-year-old Phillies lefthander Jamie Moyer after Game 3, "you appreciate this Series. But I don't know if our society likes it this way. Our society likes the five-run homer and the 10-run game."

Added Rays manager Joe Maddon, "I think the game has been heading this way for the last couple of years. And to be honest with you, that change allowed us to get where we are. The style we play is where the game is now and where it's going."

Philadelphia, however, was clearly better at this new brand of baseball than Tampa Bay in its decisive Series victory. And what says new paradigm better than a crown for Philly, a city that, entering the Series, had been 0 for 99 in professional championships since the 76ers won the NBA title in 1983? Ringless since 1980, the Phillies moved through the postseason with such ease that their fans seemed to throw off their notorious inferiority complex. Optimistic Phillies fans? Oh, my, this really is a new paradigm.

"You can see the excitement, the passion, the sheer joy on people's faces," Phillies infielder Greg Dobbs said on Sunday after his team's 10–2 victory in Game 4. "These people have embraced this team. We can see it driving home after games. If we lose, it's not, 'Oh, boo. You suck.' None of that. After we lose, they're eager to pick us up and say, 'Get 'em tomorrow. We're not worried.' "

The Phils helped flip the Philadelphia story by winning back-to-back National League East titles despite being seven games out with 17 games to play last year and 31⁄2 games out with 16 to play this year. The karma is so good that the team went its final 10 home games, over 33 days, without losing. A world championship for a suffering city dovetails with some cosmic pay-it-backward force that has been at work in baseball ever since Selig told a Senate judiciary committee in 2000 that too many franchises were bereft of "hope and faith." In a five-year stretch the 2002 Angels (42 years), '04 Red Sox (86 years), '05 White Sox (88 years) and '06 Cardinals (24 years) won titles that were a generation or more in the making.

You got an inkling of what a baseball championship means to Philadelphia when country singer Tim McGraw reached into his back pocket during the pregame ceremony at Citizens Bank Ballpark before Game 3. McGraw is the son of the late Tug McGraw, the joyful reliever who closed the 1980 Phillies' championship. Tim produced some of his father's ashes and scattered them on the mound. You gotta bereave? Not anymore.

These un-phillies were built around a homegrown core: leftfielder Pat Burrell, 32; shortstop Jimmy Rollins, 29; second baseman Chase Utley, 29; catcher Carlos Ruiz, 29; first baseman Ryan Howard, 28; setup reliever Ryan Madson, 28; starting pitcher Brett Myers, 28; and lefthanded ace Cole Hamels, 24. (Centerfielder Shane Victorino, 27, was plucked from the Dodgers' system at 24.) All of those players except Burrell remain under contract through at least next season.

General manager Pat Gillick, who won titles with Toronto in 1992 and '93, turned a good club into a champion by thievishly filling out his roster. After arriving in November 2005, he added Moyer, Dobbs, closer Brad Lidge, utility player Eric Bruntlett, relievers Chad Durbin and Scott Eyre, third baseman Pedro Feliz and outfielders Jason Werth, Matt Stairs, So Taguchi and Geoff Jenkins—all at the major league cost of just two inconsequential players, middle reliever Geoff Geary and unproven outfielder Michael Bourn.

The Philadelphia phantasmagoria wasn't complete, however, until Hamels emerged as the bona fide stopper. The Phillies drafted him with the 17th pick in 2002 out of Rancho Bernardo in San Diego, where his appreciation for Padres closer Trevor Hoffman and his lack of an overpowering fastball led him to embrace the changeup. "Growing up in San Diego," Hamels says, "the competition is so heavy that guys can hit 95-mile-an-hour fastballs. . . . You can't really go out there and think, I can blow away everybody."

Over 84 major league starts, the 6' 3", 190-pound Hamels has gone 38–23 and established his change as one of the best in the game. "I play catch with him, and even then the movement on his changeup is amazing to see," Moyer says. "What separates his from other guys' is he has such good movement and he throws it to both sides of the plate. The typical lefthanded changeup moves down and away from righthanders. But Cole will throw his anytime and anywhere. He can get away with throwing it down and in to lefthanders because there's so much movement. Maybe a scientist can explain it better, the way he's tall and it's all about levers and such. But it's so good, it's almost like an
 optical illusion as it comes to the plate."

Hamels was so hot that he alone overcame a host of factors working against his club in its 3–2 Game 1 victory. The Phillies had not played in seven days, setting them up for the same rustiness that undid the 2006 Tigers and the '07 Rockies in the World Series; they had not played indoors on turf in 21⁄2 years; and their opponent owned the biggest home field advantage in baseball beneath the circuslike big top of funky Tropicana Field. Hamels—who is the youngest pitcher to win four starts in the same postseason—was so good (seven innings, two runs) that Philadelphia became the first team to win a Series game with 13 hitless at bats with runners in scoring position.

"He likes being in this position," pitching coach Rich Dubee says of the player teammates call Hollywood for his comfort in the spotlight. "He knows he has stardom written all over him."

Hollywood stole the glamour from the Rays, who otherwise were a breakout hit themselves. They set a postseason record with 22 stolen bases and, through Sunday, were just two home runs shy of that postseason record (27 by the 2002 Giants). Tampa Bay's youth and ability to manufacture runs, without a great sacrifice in power, make it the right team at the right time, a well-rounded model for the post–Mitchell Report era: The AL home run champion this year (Detroit third baseman Miguel Cabrera) went deep the fewest times (37) for an AL leader since 1989. The Rays' inventiveness was on full display in Game 2, which they won 4–2 without an extra-base hit but with the help of three runs that scored on outs—two groundouts and a safety squeeze."I can't tell you how happy I was with that," Maddon said. "Ground ball, ground ball, bunt, three points right there. That's beautiful."

Beautiful? Indeed, the Series was shaping up as a connoisseur's delight, with the little-watched Game 3 installment continuing the trend. The Rays, down 4–1 in the seventh, summoned more resourcefulness, tying the game with two runs on groundouts and adding another in the eighth without the ball leaving the infield, thanks to B.J. Upton's speed. The centerfielder beat out an infield single and, one out later, zipped around the bases on two pitches, stealing second on the first and third on the next, then continuing home when catcher Carlos Ruiz threw wildly.

The Phillies answered with a bizarre run of their own to win the game in the ninth. Bruntlett, a .217 batter, was hit by a J.P. Howell fastball to open the inning, moved to second on a wild pitch and continued to third on a throwing error by catcher Dioner Navarro. Maddon had the next two batters intentionally walked to load the bases, then repositioned rightfielder Ben Zobrist to a fifth infield spot, behind the mound and in front of second base. At 13 minutes before two in the morning, the diamond in South Philly resembled the 30th Street train station. Fifteen men were jammed around it: five infielders, four umpires, three baserunners, a pitcher, a catcher and a batter, Ruiz. Taking a mighty cut, Ruiz—himself only a .219 hitter during the regular season—found one piece of no-man's-land inside the crowded infield. He bounced a 45-foot dribbler toward third; Evan Longoria hopelessly flung the ball wildly to the plate. The latest start in World Series history (10:06 p.m. first pitch) ended with the first walk-off infield hit in World Series history.

I think it's great that right now the game is getting back to a game for athletes with speed and multiple skills," Rollins said before Game 4. "I look at a guy like B.J., and he's just ridiculous. He can just flat out fly. But you know what? It's pretty good to have power too. There's still nothing like having the ability to score with one swing."

Indeed, for all their young legs, the Phillies, trying to become the first team since the 1984 Tigers to lead its league in homers and win the World Series, still can mash with any team in baseball, as their Game 4 rout attested. Howard drove in half the runs with two swings, a three-run bomb to left and a two-run bomb to right. Werth also walloped a homer, as, remarkably, did winning pitcher Joe Blanton, a career .061 hitter (2 for 33, postseason included) whose ovoid silhouette and massive swing made him look, as Stairs put it, "like a younger Babe Ruth."

It was the first home run by a pitcher in 34 Fall Classics. "I literally fell off my chair," reliever Clay Condrey said.

It was that kind of Series of surprises, even if it failed to be a ratings hit. "Tampa Bay winning is a manifestation of the change in this sport and how good that change has been for baseball," Selig says. "If it means lesser ratings in the short term, so be it."

At a quarter to two in the morning on Sunday, Citizens Bank Park was filled with energized Phillies fans waving their white rally towels. An hour later, downtown Philadelphia was still so crazy with happy baseball fans that a section of Broad Street was closed to traffic, except when Victorino happened to drive up and police quickly permitted him to go through. It is the kind of civic goodwill that Nielsen ratings can never measure. "The longer you wait for things," Moyer says, "the more you appreciate them."

Comments

[Dr. Strunk]

Hey RTF - I betcha even people who flip burgers know that "probably" isn't spelled "probabaly". Also, do you only have one parent? Only one parent whose house you paid off? If not, the correct possessive form for "parents" is "parents'". Thanks for sharing.

[RucktheFays]

I know what wretched means. Wretched are the trailer parks and toothless grins that infest that dump. Wretched is the stench of that disgusting place Tampa/St Pete calls a ball"park". I'm not 11, but I'm certainly not waiting to die like most of the wretched dinosaurs that live in Tampa. I'm not hiding form anyone. At least I'm not posting without a name, you gutless redneck.

[dsh]

You are poor ruckthefays. You definitely don't own a house and definitely didn't pay off your parent's house.

[RucktheFays]

Wow Harold. Did you write that all by yourself? I swapped letters because, obviously, I can't say it the way I want to. What are you doing on here anyway? Don't you have some fries to manage? Get back to the drive-thru and serve burgers. Just for the record... I have my own house, and paid off my parent's house for them. Don't hate you minimum wage punk.

[STEVE]

Fans from Philly are the way they are cause they have minimal Iq's and are forced to live in that cesspool of a city..seriously, just go there one time and you will see.....

[dsh]

Funny that a phillies fan would call rays fans front runners. Isn't that exactly what your shortstop called the phillies fans midseason?

RucktheFays, are you 11 years old?? Let me help you out. Wretched - wretched
adjective
1 I felt so wretched without you miserable, unhappy, sad, heartbroken, grief-stricken, sorrowful, sorry for oneself, distressed, desolate, devastated, despairing, disconsolate, downcast, dejected, crestfallen, cheerless, depressed, melancholy, morose, gloomy, mournful, doleful, dismal, forlorn, woebegone; informal blue; literary dolorous. antonym cheerful.
2 I feel wretched ill, unwell, poorly, sick, below par; informal under the weather, out of sorts. antonym well.
3 their living conditions are wretched harsh, hard, grim, stark, difficult; poor, impoverished; pitiful, pathetic, miserable, cheerless, sordid, shabby, seedy, unhealthy, insalubrious, dilapidated; informal scummy. antonym comfortable, luxurious.
4 the wretched dweller in the chantey town unfortunate, unlucky, luckless, ill-starred, blighted, hapless, poor, pitiable, downtrodden, oppressed; literary star-crossed. antonym cheerful, well, comfortable, fortunate, excellent.
5 he's a wretched coward despicable, contemptible, reprehensible, base, vile, loathsome, hateful, detestable, odious, ignoble, shameful, shabby, worthless; informal dirty, rotten, lowdown, lousy. antonym fortunate.
6 wretched weather terrible, awful, dire, atrocious, dreadful, bad, poor, lamentable, deplorable; informal godawful. antonym excellent.
7 I don't want the wretched money informal damn, damned, blessed, cursed, flaming, confounded, rotten, blasted, bloody.

Describes Philly skum PERFECTLY.

[Harold]

I love it when "great Fans" of other teams bust on the Rays and their fans
Like the "fan hiding behind the name "ruckthefays" He is so original in his comments and has some much to add to these blogs that no one has ever heard before.The Tampa fans have never heard comments about attendance before and we have never heard cute little letter swapping tricks. the fact that hee can cut and paste info about tv ratings is PHANTASTIC. WOW. My guess is his mom makes him move out of the basement after the series.
Keep bringing those great zingers and all that Great stuff Ruckthefays. I think You might get picked up by Central Maine SportsBlog any minute now. ANd then Your Internet career will really take off.

[RucktheFays]

Yeah yeah yeah. Haven't heard that before. "Wretched?" Get back to the home before you break a hip. That's probabaly why most of you have to actually WEAR cowbells. Someone can hear you hit the floor. HA HA HA HA HA PHILLIES WILL WIN!!!!

[jim]

I too wish we could go back to day games for the Series. Maz's homer took place before I even got home from school. We heard it on the radio and that seventh game was still the best game I ever saw.

How are today's kids going to have similar memories when EVERY game ends around midnight?

MLB is killing that golden egg laying goose with 8:30 starts on "school nights".

[SJ]

colt doesn't care about the series so much he's reading a TB Rays blog about the series.

Talk about "huh?"

Whatever happens, and it's definitely advantage Philly, given their 12 outs to 9 advantage, they've proven themselves to be absolutely the most wretched and ugly people in the country. That city is a sewer. And so are its people. Total filth. I thought Boston was bad but these pukes make them look like boy scouts. I suppose it will be humorous in that, if they prevail, that disgusting city will burn to the ground ala the LA riots. You know what, given that fact, GO PHILLIES! America can do without that cesspool.

[RucktheFays]

Star Wars? That's exactly the kind of "real" fans that make Tampa baseball such a joke. Great fans in Tampa huh? Passionate? Did anyone see the ratings for the other night? Interesting....With the Phillies trying to close out their first title since 1983, the game drew a 45.2/60 in Philadelphia. The rating in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market was 28.1/40. What are you people watching? Brutal.

[Andy]

Yes MD...Obi Wan Madden will lead Han Crawford and Evan Skywalker to victory over the Darth Victorino and the Evil Umpires. May the Cowbell Be With You!

[RucktheFays]

So nice to hear the front runners who don't fill the seats until August. Your jeresys probably still have the tags on them. I hope you have your baseball guides the paper printed so you can follow along. Let's see if the Rays attendance can top the Yankees spring training next year. Again, the facts are the facts. Keep refusing to see them. PHILLIES 08.

[MD]

Game 5 Episode 2 - A New Hope. BRING it, Phillies!

[colt]

The Who cares World Series. It is the lowest rated because no one cares!! It is on waaay to late on the East coast.
Not watching and seems like most of the World doesnt care

[PhucktheFillies]

"Good night Tampa. Tonight the Phillies will step on the collective throats of the Rays, their fans, and their town."
Wow, still got a little chip on your shoulder from Tampa Bay owning Philadelphia every time it really matters, eh? The Lombardi Trophy and the Stanley Cup are really cool, you should check them out some time. Don't count your greasy cheezsteaks before they congeal, suckah.

[D RAY]

THE RAYS HAVE SHOWN CLASS AND I WISH THEM WELL. THEY DESERVE TO BE IN THIS SERIES. EVERYONE LOVES A CINDERALLA STORY, THATS WHY THE ENTIRE COUNTRY( EXCEPT PHILLIE) ARE PULLING FOR THEM.
GO RAYS!!!!

[huh?]

"Philadelphia, however, was clearly better at this new brand of baseball than Tampa Bay in its decisive Series victory."

"...Philly, a city that, entering the Series, had been 0 for 99 in professional championships since the 76ers won the NBA title in 1983?"

Excuse me? Did I miss the end of the World Series? Are they just letting the Rays run around the bases tonight?

[harold]

The Rays may very well lose tonight or they may win. Either way Our town wont be in flames.

[RucktheFays]

I guess you are still forgetting... the Phils have 4 ABs and the Rays have 3. The Phils have the top of the order coming up after a pinch hitter. The Rays have the bottom. The Phils bullpen squashes Tampa's in every category. And the Phils lead the series 3-1. Thanks for stopping by. Good night Tampa. Tonight the Phillies will step on the collective throats of the Rays, their fans, and their town.

[RucktheFays]

I guess you are still forgetting... the Phils have 4 ABs and the Rays have 3. The Phils have the top of the order coming up after a pinch hitter. The Rays have the bottom. The Phils bullpen squashes Tampa's in every category. And the Phils lead the series 3-1. Thanks for stopping by. Good night Tampa. Tonight the Phillies will step on the collective throats of the Rays, their fans, and their town.

[Raymond James]

Can you say SI Jinx??

[harold]

MLB got the money from Fox already.
MLB could care less about the "Ratings"
Fox will be the biggest loser in all of this as commercial fees are tied to ratings
So We should all pray that the ratings continue to drop while Fox has the series So that they won't be as aggressive to get the new contract for the series when this contract expires, Additionally, if MLB starts having decreased TV revenue, the Owners will Can Bud Selig. Poor Ratings will benifit the Fans of MLB, The players and Ultimatly, the Owners (once they rid themselves of B.S.)

[BJ and the Bears]

Way to go, Bud...keep selling baseball short.

You got a job at the no fun league next year!

I hope the SI curse puts Philly right back in their aisle seat tonight!

The trophy will look nice back in St. Pete...actually, Beautiful!

Punch'em in the mouth, tonight!

GO RAYS!

[Million Bucks Fox Sell out]

Fox did decide to change the World Series start for the infomerical. Hey, $1 million bucks is $1 million bucks. Fox decided to pre-empt its World Series pre-game show.

[jason]

Great World Series! Go Rays. The problem is the start times are too late. Start the game at 7pm just like the regular season. Baseball is loosing its future generation of fans (kids) because they cant watch the games on tv.

[Jimbo]

Even before Obama's infomercial, all the "start times" of "8pm" were for the pomp and circumstance, just repeated over, and over, and over. The actual first pitch out of anyone's hands have been after 8:30 each and every game. It's completely uncalled for and needs to stop. And besides, this last 3.5 innings should take place at 5pm, so that way, we know we're in time for Obama's spiel, not 8:37 so only a 2 share can watch 3.5 innings.

[8:37-Start-Time]

There is a political infomercial on tonight on all the stations that is pushing up the start time.

[Kevin]

The world has changed as well. Fewer people are watching because the options are limitless for viewers. This isn't 20 years ago and beyond where you had NBC, ABC, and CBS. That said, who cares? We're watching, and while the series hasn't shown the best of the Rays, the Rays we've watched all year, there's still hope for a return to the Trop. Jimbo is right though. A day game or two is a GREAT idea, as well as a 7pm sharp start. This 8:37 first pitch time for every game makes me wonder what the powers-that-be are thinking. It's absolutely stupid.

[Jimbo]

I could care less if there's a 30 share or a 1 share watching, this has been a fantastic World Series and MLB needs to stop catering to the networks so more people would be inclined to watch; bring back a day game or two, and start night games at 7. No matter how Game 5 (and the rest of the Series) finishes, there will be stories told about it for generations...let's just hope they're not about how rain and Bud Selig decided to make a mockery of Game 5.