Bloggin' Through the Playoffs - Season in Review

Hi everyone,

After an absence that has been way too long, I will be blogging every day that the Rays are active in the post season. I am considering today day number 1 since the actual schedule came out today and we know when the Rays are opening the postseason.

First, let's take a step back and review this truly magical summer.

It all started around Christmas time 2007 when I talked my buddy Smitty into looking at some season tickets for the Rays for 2008. We had started taking our two boys and the family to more games in 2007 and had a really good time. I had a feeling the team would be better, but no idea what was in store.

We settled on a 20 game package that included 14 home Saturday games and 6 weekday games. Here are some highlights...

1. I tried to count how many walk-off games we attended, and I think we were actually at about 6. For those that have attended a home game and seen the team come back in the 9th inning to win, it is electric.
2. For games that I personally attended, we only lost 2 the entire season.
3. Both of our boys are in a Carlos Pena Chevy Youth Baseball Commercial that aired during the season. Here's a link to some video I shot during the taping of the commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR6HL4zGHoU. Our 2 boys are in the front row in their little league D-Backs uniforms. Carlos Pena spent time talking to all of the kids and was an absolute joy to be around - he quickly became one of our favorite Rays.
4. At the 1st Yankee home series of the year, the boys were selected out of the entire stadium to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch. Ironically, I was out of town traveling and not at the game, but my dad was there to share in the moment.
5. Probably the greatest highlight was when I received an invoice in the mail for playoff tickets. To be completely honest, I didn't even pay attention to the policy at the beginning of the year... I remember hoping for an 82 win season, to finish above .500, we got a whole lot more than that! Here is a pic of our uncut sheet of all possibly home playoff games, all the way through the World Series, it's a thing of beauty:

Tomorrow, I'll start discussing prospects for the 25 man roster for the AL Division Series. Feel free to leave some feedback in the comments section.

Go Rays!
- Steve