why i hate the Tampa sports teams

it's come up on more than one occasion here that i am NOT a fan of my "local professional sports teams". let me explain to you why, in light of tonight's Red Sox game against the Devil Rays. it was broadcast on television down here on FSN (Florida Sports Network). in my experience, sports announcers are supposed to remain neutral & objective. it's something i was accustomed to, living in New England. it was nothing to hear the local announcers & commentators even criticize the play of a local team. it's not that they didn't want them to win, but if they performed poorly, they weren't afraid to say so.

so back to tonight's game. there was a call out on the field. it was the top of the 9th, 2 outs, Tampa at the plate up by 2 runs, one man on third. the batter hit the ball, the man on third headed for home but the play they went for was the 3rd out at first. the play was made, but very very close. the first base umpire called the runner safe & that would have left a runner on first & the Rays now up by 3 & still with 2 outs. of course the Red Sox protested the call. that's what you do on a close call like that. there was some exchanging of words & the manager had to come out & get between Schilling & the umpire as it was Schilling insisting he had made the out.

can i stop here & say that the tv announcers were GLOATING about how Schilling clearly didn't make the play even as the replays were showing it was a very close call but appeared that he had beat the runner to the bag. at this point the umpires are conferring & after a quick discussion in which i can only imagine that there was the exchange of second opinions from other perspectives, the umpire reversed the call & made that definitive hand motion that the runner was being called out. now i would expect to see the Rays manager get mighty peeved about this. i wasn't at all surprised to see him slam his hat to the ground, mouth off & get ejected from the game. but what floors me is the commentary, how the people who are supposed to provide neutral calling ofr the game for the viewers, can say the following: "are you kidding me?? clearly this is the wrong call. you can't reverse a snap judgment call that's been made just because it's argued. you can't reward the defensive team for not doing their job. it's obvious that the Red Sox just got a hometown call. and it's a case of the World Champion Red Sox (said extremely sarcastically btw) getting preferential treatment over the Devil Rays just because the Rays are having a losing season."

give me a freaking break. no one is giving anyone "preferential treatment". the umpires get to call the game & they have the right to confer on a call that's close. period. but that's how it is with Tampa sports. their teams can suck, be the worst in their respective leagues, yet somehow it's all a conspiracy against them because EVERYONE knows that they can do no wrong, they are in reality the greatest teams playing & would have every championship if the officials would stop spinning all the calls in the other teams' favor.

please. maybe i wouldn't have such a bad taste in my mouth about the local teams if i didn't have to hear announcers & commentators sing the praises of losing teams season after sports season ad nauseum. at least in New England when our teams stink & deserve to lose we aren't afraid to admit it & be critical of how they could improve. we wish they would be champions but when they aren't champion caliber material, we don't live in delusional dream worlds. we keep supporting them & hoping for next year & major overhauls taht will make the teams better. c'mon. the Red Sox didn't win a World Series in 80+ years & no one ever made excuses for them. every Spring we hoped & every October we just shook our heads & hoped that the next year would be different.

and so my loathing of the Devil Rays, Bucs & Lightning thrives, alive & well thanks to the inane delusional self-promotion of the sports casts i am subjected to.

vent over.