I’m usually not a stat nerd but every now and then I’ll look at the standings in baseball. Here it is the halfway point of the
season and the Tampa Bay Rays have the best winning percentage in baseball at .605. Yes, the Rays are in first place in the American League East. I watched a few games and this is an exciting team to watch. They remind me of the St. Louis Cardinals during the Whitey Herzog era of the 80’s, always a threat to steal and just enough power for the big inning. Case in point, B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford and Jason Bartlett are in the Top 10 in the American League in stolen bases and the power seams to come from Evan Longoria ((pictured right- Thanks, Getty Images)) with some help from Eric Hinske. Another reason is like the Redbirds of the 80’s, the Rays have good enough starting pitching to keep them in games but have a closer to nail down the win. The 80’s Cardinals had Bruce Sutter and then Todd Worrell. The Rays have Troy Percival.
Yet the Rays are still an afterthought in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. Attendance is barely above last years pace. Come on Rays fans (if there are any). Jump on the bandwagon. This looks like a team that is in it for the long haul.
The Jolly Roger Rookie Rant
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would like the way my career path started. I think I made $15,000 a year my first job out of college, the very bottom of the pay scale. Now the Jolly Roger feels that unproven rookies who are drafted in the NFL should start at the bottom of the salary food chain and have the option to renegotiate. What a novel idea. The owners would love it, get the NFL Players Association to sign off and what a breakthrough, now the owners can protect themselves.
Commissioner Goodell may have power and influence with player conduct matters but this is biting off more than he can chew. The NFLPA and the NFL are already on a collision course for football suicide with the opting out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that threatens the 2011 season. Now this, a rookie salary scale and the Jolly Roger wants this addressed during contract talks. It’s like taxing the wealthy, it sounds good but not practical. The precedent has already been set, (See Jake Long and Matt Ryan.) Oh sure Ricky Williams signed a low ball contract with the New Orleans Saints after they drafted him way back when and he found out he could not afford the good stuff, if you know what I mean, on his salary. Which leads me to this……
Paging Dr. Feelgood!!
Ricky Williams wants to become a doctor. That’s right, the running back who left the Miami Dolphins to find himself and smoke marijuana, would like to prescribe drugs rather than use them. He told Yahoo Sports the following: After football, Williams wants to return to Texas to finish his degree in education. He has a long way to go and needs about 70 credit hours. After graduating, he wants to go to medical school to be an osteopathic physician so he can offer patients a holistic approach to healing.
“When I retired and I had a chance to be by myself outside of being a football player, I found I enjoy helping people and I had a gift for making people feel better,” he said.
Williams said he reads a lot of self-help books, often with metaphysical subjects. But nothing too wild, he said.
“I’m not a UFO guy,” he said.
Let’s see if Ricky Williams still has the gift of running away from defenders. If not don’t expect Bill Parcells to show a good bedside manner and Williams’ football career will be up in smoke.
That’s it, I’m spent
--John Wilkerson
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