World Serious?

I thought I'd end this blog moratorium with a new article to get you sports fans fired up for the World Series. Thanks for your patience, everything is ok.

I sure wish that I would have put some money on a Rays-Phillies World Series this year. Let's see…the Rays have never had a winning season prior to this year and the Phillies…well they have lost more games than any franchise in MLB history. Of the original dozen franchises from the beginning of "modern baseball history", the Phillies were the last team to finally win a World Series…in 1983, and they haven't won any since.

That great Phillies team of 1983 had a starting lineup with these season batting averages: .236, .245, .230, .255, .254, .258, .275, .265 and that included, Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt and everyone's favorite convicted tax evader, Pete Rose. The third Hall of Famer on that team, Steve Carlton, had a sterling 15-16 record on the mound.

Did you know that the Phillies were known as the Philadelphia Blue Jays in 1944-1945? It is rumored that Sandborn sued them and they changed back to the Phillies.

The ageless Connie Mack led the Philadelphia Athletics to 5 World Series Championships and the Pittsburgh Pirates have won 5 Championships, so the State of Pennsylvania has 11 World Series titles, while Florida has 2. Pennsylvania's World Series' record is 11 wins out of 24 trips to the fall classic. Florida however, is a perfect 2 for 2 in their World Series' ventures. This State has never lost a World Series, how impressive. Neither has Alaska, but Alaska does have Sarah Palin and a great view of Russia from her back door?

The Tampa Bay Rays best record prior to this year was 70-91 in 2004 under the guidance of Lou Piniella, who failed to get the Cubbies past the Bums this year. Joe Maddon must be some kind of miracle worker, actually Joe has never had a winning season either as a manager.

My favorite Philly of all time is Melvin Earl Clark. http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/clar... I roomed with his son in college and got the opportunity to visit with Mel on several occasions. Of course my favorite Ray is Matt Garza. How can you not like a guy who beats the Red Sox twice in the playoffs? And how about B.J. Upton? He hit 9 homers during the regular season and already has 7 in the postseason.

These four teams have never won a World Series: Rockies, Astros, Brewers, and Padres, but at least they have been there. These teams have never participated in a World Series: Mariners, Rays, Rangers, and Nationals. But now the Rays are there and I'm picking them to keep the State of Florida's slate clean with another World Series victory.

I'll be in Mesquite giving some radioactive golf lessons for a few days, so sit back and enjoy the World Series.