I'm back from a lost weekend in Tampa. First, the Sox give away four unearned runs for Wells, pull to within one then have one of the youngsters blow the game up. Then for Sunday's game, we went with a couple plus their 3 year old. Knowing that he was unlikely to make it through the game, I suggested we leave at the end of fifth, when we were up 6-2, partially so that I could make it back to south Florida at a reasonable hour. Good idea, because the bullpen, including Papelbon, gave the game back and Tavarez f*cked it away in the tenth. To top it off, with Tampa being the Yankee spring training site, there are far too many Yankee fans. It almost felt like I imagine it would be at the Toilet.
So the Sox are in free fall, and I really don't give a crap right now ... what I wanted to share with you guys is the fact that the Devil Rays have come up with a new promotion designed to give the team some sort of home field advantage. Friday night they gave out cowbells, with the expectation that people would bring cowbells to the games on an ongoing basis. It was definitely annoying, but probably not as bad as thunderstix, which they are obviously emulating.
So ... when they are trying to get the fans into it, what does the scoreboard say?
MORE COWBELL!!
Unfortunately, they haven't licensed the SNL sketch, which is pretty lame. They should at least show the sketch during the pre-game, before they go over when you're supposed to pound your cowbell.