So….the Tampa Bay Devil (fuck all that dropping the Devil business…they only did that to try and get the religious freaks into the stands) Rays beat the Boston Red Sox tonight 9-1 in a playoff game.  Let me state right here and now that I do not give a damn about baseball.  At all.  I think it’s a mind-numbingly boring game, and the only time I willingly go to a baseball game is when my son is in it (and even then I get bitchy about it).  If it weren’t for the fact that Tampa Bay was in the playoffs I wouldn’t even be aware that the playoffs were going on.

I just don’t care.  Really.

But…

I am very, very happy that Tampa Bay had a resounding victory tonight in Fenway Park.  Not because it pisses off all the Red Sox fans I know (and damn, are they touchy), and not because I’m suddenly going to jump on the bandwagon and start following baseball.  Not at all.

I’m happy for the city of St. Petersburg.  A city that tried for over 80 years to get a professional baseball team to have a home here before finally succeeding – to the point where they built a baseball stadium with no team to play there that sat practically vacant for five years before they finally got one.

I’m happy for the fans that HAVE believed, and HAVE gone to the games.  People like my Sister, and my Uncles.  People who’ve been supporting the team from the very beginning, through years and years of some pretty sucky game play.  Admittedly, there haven’t been a lot of them and the games with the biggest attendance numbers are generally ones where we play popular teams from other cities.  So it goes.  I attribute much of that to the fact that people who live in Tampa seem to live under the impression that St. Petersburg is a lot farther than a 17 mile drive across a bridge.  I can’t explain it, but it has always been this way.  St. Petersburg is viewed as some kind of alien world that is only visited under great duress (the only exceptions to this seem to be people who are recent transplants to Tampa, but eventually their desire to make The Great Drive begins to dwindle).

So yeah, for those reasons I’m thrilled.  Hell, I might even watch the World Series if they go.

BUT…

This whole cowbell and mowhawk thing has got to fucking go.