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Jared Carrabis

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19 years old
SAUGUS, MA

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Are the Sox/Rays a Rivalry?
June 5, 2008

Think about it, I know it sounds a little crazy, but is the biggest rivalry in baseball no longer between the Red Sox and Yankees? Could it be that the Red Sox and Rays have taken over as the greatest rivals in America's greatest pastime? Well there's only one way to find out, let's define "rivalry", shall we?

ri·val·ry - "the act of competing as for profit or a prize" Well now that certainly makes sense now doesn't it? All these years there had been bad blood between these two teams but it went under the radar because the Rays could never compete with the Red Sox. But now all of a sudden that these two teams have been swapping first place back and for, could it be that the Red Sox and Rays are the new division rivals?

The bad blood on this team ranges back to the days when Gerald Williams charged the mound after being hit by a pitch out of the hand of Boston ace Pedro Martinez. The bad blood between these two teams have sparked rage against the Rays by such players as our October hero David Ortiz, Trot Nixon, Pedro Martinez and how can we forget that these two teams went at it during a Spring Training game!

Julian Tavarez didn't like the way Joey Gathright slid into home plate so he was like you know what? I think this slide merits a punch in the face, and so he did. Which brings us to last night. In the sixth inning of last night's contest, Coco Crisp attempted to steal second base and Jason Bartlett decided to play dirty and blocked second base with his knee. The dirty play resulted in Coco going in hard to the bag and hitting Bartlett's knee and spraining his left thumb. Coco would remain in the game, but for a reason.

In the eighth inning Crisp went in hard to second base and slide tackled Akinori Iwamura as pay back for the dirty play a couple innings previous. Rays manager Joe Maddon and Coco Crisp had some words for each other following the play and one would only assume that the hard slides and tight pitches will resume tonight.

So in the end I suppose it's up for us, the fans, to decide whether or not it's a rivalry. It's safe to say they haven't liked each other much in the past few seasons but now that the Rays are for real, does this officially make this a rivalry? You be the judge.

-Jared Carrabis

-Jared Carrabis

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Comments

I SAY "NAH".....THE RAYS FIRST PLACE WAS A MIRAGE......THEY PLAYED THE MOST HOME GAMES AND LEAST AWAY GAMES TO THIS POINT IN ALL OF BASEBALL! THEY ARE A RIVALRY TO THE EXTENT THAT WE ARE IN THE SAME DIVISION......BUT I DONT PUT TOO MUCH CREDIT INTO THEIR PLAYING AS ESPN DOES! THEY HAVE SOME GOOD UP-AND-COMERS, LIKE, LONGORIA.....BUT I STILL BELIEVE THAT THEIR FIRST PLACE FOR TWO WEEKS OR SO WAS A FLASH IN THE PAN......NOW THAT THEY HAVE MORE ROAD GAMES THAN HOME GAMES FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON, I BELIEVE THEY'LL GO BACK TO THEIR DOWNWARD SPIRAL LIKE EVERY YEAR. MY PICK FOR NEXT BIG RIVALRY IN OUR DIVISION, MINUS THE SKANKS, IS TORONTO. DON'T SLEEP ON THEM! EITHER WAY, WE ARE ON COURSE TO DO WHAT OUR MAIN MISSION THIS SEASON HAS BEEN......REPEAT IN '08! GREAT BLOG BROTHAH....BUT I DONT GIVE THE RAYS ENOUGH CREDIT TO BE UP WITH US YET TILL THEY PROVE THEY CAN WIN EVERYWHERE! ...View More

06/05/2008 1:36 PM

IRISH WH..

	Awesome blog!! 06/05/2008 1:42 PM
WickedRe..

An interesting twist you could play on the word "rivalry" is that every team we face is our rival. Every team we face from this point forward (whether it be the Rays, Orioles, Skanks, Jays) has potential to stand in our way of first place. The Skanks may no longer pose themselves as a threat to our organization, but it will take many many years for that classic rivalry to be taken over by any team. At this point, however, no team has what our team has. We have the missing element that the rest of the AL is searching for. Nice blog. ...View More

06/05/2008 1:42 PM

BoSox Ho..

	Great blog but I don't think were quite there yet . nice post bro 06/05/2008 1:47 PM
Darkhalf..

	We may be looking at the start or attempt at a rivalry but I don't think we are in fact one yet. 06/05/2008 1:50 PM
Xcaliber..

	Sox & Rays rivals: not so much. Good blog though. 06/05/2008 1:54 PM
5GenRedS..

	great points, but i dont think so...rivalry's are like dynasty's they take time. 06/05/2008 2:35 PM
Dynasty�..

	it could be one in the future if they (RAYS) keep there sh*&t together and actually contend with us consistantly . nice blog , and good debate subject GO RED SOX !!!! 06/05/2008 2:41 PM
Dan-in-P..

	I think they are a rivalry..I mean, even going back to the bean wars when Sweet Lou was running the show.. 06/05/2008 2:44 PM
Moooooo

	YANKS/SOX is UNPARALLED!! nice thoughts though..always a good read from my brother JC!~RLF~ 06/05/2008 3:19 PM
JESTER~RSM

	Yeah there's 100 plus years of playing the Yankees, I don't think that can be topped in all of sports. 06/05/2008 3:23 PM
∞MICHA..

	yeah i agree. . there's a deep deep HATRED for the sox fans. . we might not agree with some of the player / pay / coaching issues all the time. . but the ONE thing we can agree on: YANKEES SUCK. .. we always will and always HAVE loathed the yanks! D 06/05/2008 3:28 PM
Oregon D..

The Sox/Yankees rivalry is pretty much dead now, so it'll be nice to have a healthy rivalary again. If we played the Indians more I think we'd have one with them. But since we don't, the Rays can take up the slack. I don't think it's a fluke that they're doing so well this season. They've had too many #1 draft picks the last few years. I hope they do well, just not too well. ...View More

06/05/2008 3:53 PM

Believe ..

	Very good post but I got to say no. 06/05/2008 4:07 PM
bostonsp..

	Great blog but not yet maybe after a total blow up will see tonight 06/05/2008 4:40 PM
NMSOXNAT..

	Nice blog, I live in Tampa now and dont think we are there yet, butt a lot of their older more orginal fans were not very friendly towards red sox nation at their games, so I think there is some bitterness towards us for their fans Never going to be like the yanks rivarly tho 06/05/2008 5:29 PM
Breezy B..

	THE WHOLE EAST ARE RIVALS..... 06/05/2008 6:17 PM
RSN14~RS..

	Nice Blog but I too think that rivalry's take time to fester and permiate.....it's a start but can't come close to the evil empire!!!! 06/05/2008 10:56 PM
ncsoxfan..

The Rays rivalry has been there for awhile...when they were the Devil Rays and when they were horrible, we found a reason to hate them THEN. I thought that was put to bed because many on their team had changed but NOW, they are actually vying for the AL East...so maybe this jumpstarts the rivalry, once more.... Having said that, NOTHING can erase the years of pain, the eons of scars that is a RSN birth right since Ruth was shown the door. It has taken almost a CENTURY to turn the tides on the Yankees. That won't go away any time soon. We owe them WWAAAYYYYY tttooooooo much PAYBACK!!!!! ...View More

06/05/2008 11:41 PM

Scoobs-RSR

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