american league baseball

It seems we always do this when Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane makes a trade: namely, try to figure out why it's a good idea when it seems not to be.Take this Matt Holliday, for instance. Holliday has the resume and name that the Athletics have lacked, but he also has one other thing, the one thing we haven't thought Beane would be able to seriously tackle:

DANA POINT, Calif. -- Although representatives from all 30 major league teams are huddled in a posh resort here, the most startling rumor of the day -- and yes, it involved the Seattle Mariners -- came from Japan.

For a franchise that hadn't lost fewer than 92 games or finished higher than fourth place -- and that was only once -- in its first 10 years of existence, Tampa Bay has plenty of reason to be proud, even if it came up short in the World Series.But the Rays also need to consider themselves warned.It doesn't get any easier from here. In fact, it gets tougher.

Tampa Bay Rays center fielder B.J. Upton will be eying more than a World Series ring and the prestige that comes with it against the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday night in Game 3.He'll be playing to double his 2008 salary.

I'll admit it.I thought they were dead.I thought there was no way the Tampa Bay Rays would survive their Game 5 disaster at Boston's Fenway Park, where they were seven outs from their first World Series with a 7-0 lead, only to allow the Red Sox to rally for an historic, come-from-behind victory that should've haunted these playoff newcomers forever.

The 2008 World Series by the numbers:-- 1: World championship won by the Philadelphia Phillies, fewest of any of the 16 original teams. The Cubs and Indians have won only two each.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- So much for tradition.Philadelphia and Tampa Bay will face off in a World Series that features less postseason history than any since the infancy of the event.

BOSTON -- This is why Lawrence Peter Berra was a genius. And why the Boston Red Sox are defending World Series champions. And why baseball is not merely the National Pastime, but the greatest game of all.

There are lots of rational reasons why the Tampa Bay Rays are one win from their first World Series appearance.Talented players who work as a team. A steady coach. A resilient bullpen.Then there were the shriveled hot dogs hanging in the groundskeepers' lockers.The crew believes they cast a winning spirit over the Rays' season -- until someone threw them out.

BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox have the Tampa Bay Rays right where they want them. If that were actually the case, we wouldn't be talking about yet another come-from-behind attempt by Boston in October.