The Most Pearlacious Pearls of 2008

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2008 completely rocked.
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The 707 area code's Boys Of Summer and some of their amigos had a pretty entertaining year.  I dove through the Pearls of Wisdom treasure trove for the best stories of '08 and have strung those lustrous accomplishments together for you to reflect upon this New Year's Eve.  Here are ten gems, and some bonus links, I'm raising my celebratory glass of bubbly to as we ring in 2009...
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#10

Tampa Bay Ray Jason Bartlett steals a base
and wins free Tacos For The People
relieving the financial pressure of PTownJr's 5000 calorie diet for a few hours.  Barty had a premonition about the whole thing and dressed ALCS MVP Matt Garza (area code 209) as a taco during rookie hazing last summer.

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#9

Inaugural Pearls Of Wisdom Create-A-Caption contestants
get a little crazy after the Rays eliminate the White Sox
with their 100th win of 2008...

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#8

Jonny Gomes completes the Zero To Hero metamorphosis
with his own World Series Blog and gets all dressed up to meet The President.

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#7

Eric Bruntlett, another PTown Area Pro,
is the hero of World Series Game 3...
a game I would otherwise like to forget... along with the horrendous Game 1 fielding of the Rays fans sitting in my seat thanks to ZipCode Profiling.

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#6

Bud Selig Tunes Into The Wrong Weather Channel
ensuring that no one will EVER forget Game 5 of the 2008 World Series. Not even the extraordinary Kenyan fans that I hope Tex is trying to save with that cushy contract of his.

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#5

Konrad Schmidt wins the Peals Of Wisdom Batting Title with a .329 average at High A Visalia 
Konrad also earned kudos for his stylin' horsehoe-and-patch mustache combo on Josh Collmenter Mustache Awareness Night. This celebration was born of the great Josh Collmenter/Jason Giambi "Separated At Birth" debate.  Which, tragically, you may have missed during Konrad's promotion from Single A to High A.

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#4

RHP Chad Fillinger reaches on a fielder's choice
in his first career at bat
The Jackhammers were short handed and the pitchers were pressed into offensive action on July 22nd. Who did Chad force at second? PTown's Joey Gomes...   who earned Northern League Player of the Week honors a bit later. Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of Chad's historic at bat, but the entire PTownFan(mily) witnessed it over dinner via internet radio. So we'll celebrate the strength of Chad's belief that one day he would toe into the batter's box... and get paid for it...  with a high school yearbook photo.

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#3

Tommy Everidge has a career year,
earning AA Midland Rockhounds MVP.
He also took home the MiLB's award for Best AA Single Game Performance of 2008 with a 10 RBI (!!!!) game in May. Tommy had an awesome season and it would be so much more awesome to see him sporting the green and gold in '09. Come on Billy Beane. $ell $some Ticket$ in the 707. 

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#2

Brandon Morrow flirts with history,
nearly notching a No-No in his first MLB start.
After the best debut in Mariner's history on September 5th vs. the Yankees, Brandon almost did it again in front of the home town crowd at McAfee Coliseum. Following the trade of closer JJ Putz, the Mariners haven't decided whether to keep Brandon in the rotation or slide him into the closer role. Brandon stepped in for an injured Putz mid-season and was nearly flawless. Tough decision for Seattle and The Pearls will have an ear to the ground.

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#1

The Rays win the 2008 American League Pennant. 
I can't believe I cried over a baseball game. But hey, so did the entire state of Massachusetts.  The Rays storybook season did not end with a World Series Ring, but there wasn't a single loser on the field at the end of Game 5 in Philly. Only winners.
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It's hard to imagine the guys can Rep The 707 any better in 2009. All that... and then some... from one Area Code.

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Awesome.

Tug McGraw Conjures Up A Game 3 Win For The Phils

The Battle Of The Baseball Supernaturals  World Series took an eerie turn last night.   Reminiscent of The Rays inexplicable Game 5 loss to The Red Sox last week, the Phillies came out on top last night despite another umpiring non-controversy that broke the Rays Way. Here's the bloody game recap. Crikey.

You see, the ghost of Tug McGraw was quietly wrecking havoc with the Rays' 9th inning defense as the team tried to send a tied game to extras. At 1:47am.  His long lost, then found son, Tim McGraw of country music fame, walked the game ball out to legendary Phillies hurler Steve Carlton for the first pitch ceremony last night.  Seems he walked a little bit of Tug around the mound as well.

Explains a lot:

• Jamie Moyer's Game Of A Lifetime while sick as a dog. From the looks of things, might be tonsilitis.
• Matt Garza's Which Matt Is That performance
• Longo's wind shortened longball to LF in the top of the 6th with 2 out and one on
• Utley and Howards' back to back wind lengthened jacks to RF in the bottom of the 6th
• The Mad Australian's plunking of Santa Rosa's pinch-hitting Eric Bruntlett in the bottom of the 9th
• The Mad Australian's Wild Pitch in the 9th allowing baserunners to advance
• Navi's bad throw on a 9th inning attempt allowing baserunners to advance
• Carlos Ruiz dribbler down the 3rd base line with bases loaded and a 5 man infield shift
• Evan Longoria's Hail Mary lob of Ruiz' dribbler over Navi's head
• The Phillies' walk-off dribbler is only their second base hit of the night 

And wouldn't you know it... the lead baserunner who was advanced all the way to walk-off run scoring status was Philly Eric Bruntlett, a guy who lives 20 miles up the road from PTown.

So, in a magnaimous return to The Pearls' roots... giving kudos to PTown area pros in pursuit of America's Game... Eric, here are your kudos.  Your second Pearlacious World Series Moment has been duly noted.  And my journalistic responsibilities have been met. And we expect to see you at Camp next weekend.

The Rays must win tonight or tomorrow to bring the Series home to Tampa Bay.  Where The Trop can work her much more potent magic.

ATTENTION WORLD - RAYS BEAT BOSTON

The Rays will play the Phillies. In the the World Series. The LAST game of the 2008 MLB Season...

What a night. The Rays played their game. The Red Sox endured the brilliance of The Pit. 41,000 fans armed with obnoxious cowbells and an aresenal of mohawks... and it rattled them. Just enough.

Garza was lights out and how 'bout David Price's finish? The punch-em-out/throw-em-out combo by Garza and Navi in the top of the 6th was game changing. RBI hits from Longo and Rocco and another home run by Willy Aybar manufactured the runs. Aki snags a laceburning rocket to end it. And for a half second thinks about stickin' the ball in his back pocket as a souvenier.

Congratulations Tampa Bay.

Feel The Heat Philadelphia!

Cheers!

Sweeps Are Boring

The Rays lost in Chicago yesterday, but no big deal. We almost always drop one on the road. One loss, no biggie. Just means the game plan is on track. Garza wasn't great, but he was good enough. BJ found his stroke and pounded a homer. If he doesn't serve up long balls, Sonny's gonna sew things up tonight.

The Sox/Angels game last night... now that was entertaining. I can't believe I watched 9 straight hours of baseball yesterday. Rain delays, extra innings and a record number of Viagra commercials really add up. But that pile of ironing I've been putting off is all done :-)

I hope the Angels take it to the Sox again tonight. Tie things up. Clean out that bullpen. Soften those BeanTown boys up, then drop the last game. We like homefield advantage. We'll make it up to you somehow. Maybe some cushy hot stove season trade. We won't forget.

Go Rays. Let's button this thing up tonight in ChiTown.

PRays The Lord And Pass The Advil!

The Rays deserved a celebraytion.

And they got one. Which might explain why the B Team took the field in the final game of the Twin series yesterday at The Trop. Sonny pitched another great game but didn't have the customary and ultra reliable infield to back him up. Longo was the only regular infielder and his aim was a bit off yesterday. At the end of the day in front of another sell-out crowd, the Rays came up short in a 1-4 loss to Minnesota. No action for the hometown boy. That swing is sure gonna be rusty if he ever gets a chance to air it out. The Magic Number clicker is still stuck on 6 with a Red Sox win yesterday.

Photo Steve Nesius (AP)

The drive for the AL East begins today as the Magic Bus rolls to Baltimore.

The last week of the regular season will feature rookie starters on the mound. David Price gets the ball tonight. Mitch Talbott tomorrow night. Garza, who threw on a quick turnaround last week, gets a rest until Saturday. Meanwhile, Percy's back is still in knots and he'll have a second set of epidural injections Tuesday and be available to pitch on Thursday. If things go well. He pitched an inning in relief on back to back days this weekend and wiggled through them with only a slight bit of drama. Joe's got some mighty heavy closer dice to roll in about a week. Percy better level with him to keep the 9=8 equation in balance. If the math on the t-shirts is new to you, it's been Joe Maddon's mantra all season. That's 9 players playing hard for 9 months = 8 teams that play on. Hey, it's worked so far :-)

Post-Season Roster Prognostications.

Carl Crawford's hand is still not cleared to swing a bat. He may be available this week as a defensive replacement or to pinch run. A reinjured tendon could be career ending. He didn't have a career year and may not be able to pick up where he left off. Rocco Baldelli is a great story and we love him, but he seems to need several days between partial games to recover. When this roster is whittled back down to 25 players for the playoff run it will be a tough call between two guys who could be out for the season, or worse, with one wrong move... or a few healthy guys who can be personally credited with the single game or two that will probably decide the AL East. Ruggiano, Perez, Gomes, Johnson, Baldelli, and Crawford. Oohhh-eee. Tough call.

Just like hitting bottle caps with sticks... Sox Meatloafed in 90th Win

"We were joking around in the dugout before he hit the home run," Pena said. "A popular game in the Dominican Republic is to hit the bottlecaps with the sticks. So I'm like, 'Hey man, Willy's played a lot of bottlecaps with sticks. It's a good matchup here."

That was Carlos Pena's reaction to Joe Maddon's light bending lineup card last night. Tim Wakefield has owned The Trop and lefty DH Cliff Floyd was just 1-11 against the knuckleballer. So why not try something new? Joe's solution... use untested switch hitter Willie Aybar's right handed bat against the softball server. Something about the bat path of his swing path from that side of the plate. Uh huh. Willie went yard in his first at bat and put the Rays up 3-2. They never looked back. Gross, Perez and Longo flicked a few bottlecaps before Francona pulled the plug and began the bullpen emptying procession of Sox relievers.

Meanwhile, Ortiz hit two home runs off Garza who held his ground but didn't dazzle last night. With a cushy but not comfortable 8-3 lead in the 5th and Ortiz coming to the plate a third time, Maddon went to the pen with a one-run mindset. Garza needed only one more out to be credited with the win, but in the other quote of the evening, Maddon later said:

""It isn't about Garza's won-loss record," Maddon said. "It's about the Rays' won-loss record."

We'll need that kind of thinking a lot during the next 45 or so days.

No bottlecaps for Jonny in the Rays 10-3 win last night. But I'm sure he's having the time of his life. The Rays Meatloafed the Sox again taking 2 of 3 and reduced their magic numbers to 10 for the AL East Championship and 4 for a wild card berth. They host the Twins in a four game series that begins tonight and finish the season with a 7 game road trip in Baltimore and Detroit. Let's hope a two game lead over the Sox is enough.

The Rays have now blown through all but the most Pollyanna-ish expecations, notching their 90th win. 95 is within reach. Whoda (really) thunk it?