What also bugs me about putting "hockey moms" or even "soccer moms" out there as your "everywoman" is that is ignores the sizable income one needs to support kids in these activities. Where I live, people pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to allow their kids to participate in soccer and hockey leagues (for whatever reason, baseball seems to be cheaper). And then you need the parent whose schedule allows her (or him) to drive kids to all the practices and games. These are definitely activities for the middle and upper middle classes, so privileging the political views of relatively well-off "hockey moms" may drown out the concerns of the "leave my kid the subsidized after school program while I work" moms.

I demand that you take back your prediction of a Ray's victory.

I'm a Rays fan and I can't believe we have gotten this far. The secret of this very over achieving team is to operate under the radar and somehow find a way to win. When you and others predict a Rays World Series victory you undermine our strategy.

We have no .300 hitter; we have no closer. So c'mon, don't make us the front runner here!

Basically someone (the new team owners) realized it was a stupid name. And since removing the Devil preceded their first winning season, this move now seems like genius. Also, as the Rays, the team can continue to use the actual marine-life Ray as symbol, but also use the rays of the sun (their new logos and uniforms include some of these latter rays as well).

And re: free parking for car poolers at Tropicana Field -- yes, it's great, but even greater would be a mass transit system that could provide alternatives to driving. That we don't really have.

First, to all you Sox fans who are showing some respect for the Rays, thanks! It's been a while in coming, but it's nice to hear. I promise if any of you manage to get tickets to a Rays-Sox game at Tropicana we won't have our security people "taze" you like they did to some overzealous Sox fan last week.

But to be honest, the Rays really aren't this good. Seriously, I've been happily following them all season, and their wins are all, like, 3-2. I think the Red Sox line-up remains scary, Jason Bay is a decent replacement for Manny, and Beckett and Lester are unlikely to have two miserable outings in a row. So the series is far fromm over.

As for switching Kazmir and Shields in the order -- I hope Maddon does it. The face saving reason he'll give -- Kazmir has been reasonably effective at Fenway (an ERA of just over 3.00) and Shields has been pounded (an ERA over 10.00). The real reason -- let's throw Kazmir, who has been awful, to the wolves (e.g. Dice-K) on Thursday -- so we'll lose 8-0 instead of 2-0 -- and let Shields pitch a game they might actually win back home on Saturday.

bizona, either Maddon has to concede that he's not going to pitch Kazmir at all, which for whatever reason he's chosen not to do, or he should use him tonight. Kazmir has been inconsistent, and tonight's game is the closest you'll find in postseason to one that is expendible. If the Rays lose, they then need to win one of two from the Sox at home. If however, they pitch Shields tonight and Dice K has a great game and they lose, then they would have to use Kazmir on Saturday in what would then be an almost must-win game. So I see it as a way for Maddon to not completely dump Kazmir, but not have him pitch a really crucial game.

I really want to second your terrific post. It's not, as one poster seemed to think, just about who left the game early -- I'll bet some diehard fans with long commutes were out of there before the 7th inning. It's about a sense of perspective.

I love baseball and have followed my home team (which has changed as I've moved) since I was 9 years old, and my home teams have often been stinkers. But I don't get the sort of glorification of the "long-suffering" fan, and exaltation of fans from places like Boston and Chicago for "suffering" with their teams over the years. Its as though people want to get some kind of acclaim for being the Mother Teresas of fandon. You are not better people for obsessively following losing teams, any more than you'd be better people if you routinely slogged through bad books.

Really, just enjoy the game. Of course we all get more into it when something's at stake. Complaints about "bandwagon fans" are like saying I don't have a right to vote in the presidential election because I failed to get equally passionate about last year's county sheriff race.

And speaking of voting, as an Obama supporter and a Rays fan, I've been seeing the fate of my two favorite current causes as intertwined all summer. Sox fans who cringe at the idea that their team now represents the entrenched establishment -- get over it! You stopped being underdogs a long time ago. You are the new Yankees!