Feb 04
Andy Gray of SI.com spoke with professional wrestler (and actor and hip-hop artist!) John Cena who is apparently responsible for the rivalry between the Rays and Red Sox…
SI.com: I couldn’t help but notice you were spotted with a Tampa Bay Rays hat earlier this season. But you’re from Boston? What’s the deal?
JC: I was just trying to stir up a division rivalry that was dead in the water. I live down here in Tampa and I’d like to move back to Massachusetts…When the Rays starting to getting hot, the story for the whole season became, ‘When are they gonna slow down?’ So I took it upon myself to try and stir the pot and try and create a division rivalry. When you think of AL East, you think of Red Sox-Yankees. It was cool to see a new team in the mix and I wanted to make the most if it.
And we thought we hated the Red Sox because of their elitist attitude, their pink-hatted loud-mouthed fans and of course Julian Tavarez and Coco Crisp.
We are just waiting for Cena to don a Bucs cap to create the next big rivalry in the NFL…PATS-BUCS!
/steps down from soap box. raises hands and slowly backs away from Mr. Cena
John Cena talks Red Sox-Rays, future WWE stars and his top diva [SI.com]
Feb 04
Just the links this morning, we will back later today.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Marc Topkin reports that the Rays are still working on long-term deals with Willy Aybar and Dioner Navarro. The Rays are negotiating a two-year deal with Aybar, although it sounds like they are far apart on the second year. Negotiations with Navarro don’t sound as if anything is imminent. [St. Pete Times]
- David Chalk will be back in a couple of weeks with his second annual “Your Team Ain’t $#!t” compared to the Rays series. In the meantime, let’s hit the wayback machine and remember a time when Chalk was the first and only writer bold enough to say the Rays were better than the Red Sox in 2008. [Bugs and Cranks]
- Marc Lancaster has the details for this year’s Fan Fest which will be held February 14 at The Trop…What better way to kick off Valentine’s Day with your loved ones. You can get her a nice framed picture with her and Evan Longoria sitting at a table in the background. Sure beats another night at Olive Garden. Or not. The special guest at Fan Fest will be Joey Chestnut, he of the Coney Island hot dog eating contests. No truth to the rumor that he will be battling Dioner Navarro to see who can eat the most fried Cownose Rays. [Rays Report]
- We don’t get into fantasy analysis around here, but we were a little perplexed when one writer devoted an entire post to the sleeper status of Willy Aybar. And they base this on the hope that Aybar will either compete with Akinori Iwamura for the starting second base job or he will be traded…Neither will happen. [Baseball Handyman]
