Rays to Drop Games So Sox Can Nab Division Title?

We like the sound of this . . . a giant foam thumbs up to Frank Coffey and his eTrueSports Goodfellas for making our end-of-September:

MLB Demands Rays Drop Remaining Games Selig: “We Want The Red Sox To Win The East”; Manager Joe Maddon “Irritated”

New York – MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced that baseball has requested that the Tampa Bay Rays “play ball” and lose their remaining 8 games. “We want the Red Sox to win,” said Selig, who after congratulating the Rays for losing on Sunday to the Twins cautioned the club to make certain all losses were  “plausible.” 

“No one – including their fans – gives a crap about Tampa Bay,” explained Selig. “No one goes to their games. No one watches them on TV.  No one will watch them in the post-season. That’s bad.”

“Bud told me, ”You’ve had your fun,’” explained Rays manager Joe Maddon, “and that we had to finish second. He said it was time to get back to losing like we always do. I don’t agree with that.”

Maddon, who could be guiding the Rays to the greatest single season turnaround in baseball history, admitted the conversation was ”pretty irritating,” even though he understood that baseball was a business focused on making money.

“Bud explained that it was all about TV ratings. Ad money. And I understand we gotta keep food in the owners’ mouths,” said Maddon. “But geez whiz, asking us to lose? That’s cold.”

Maddon said he had a meeting today with Rays’ team owner Stuart Sternberg to discuss the situation. “I don’t know what he’s going to say. This is pretty delicate,” said Maddon.

Despite having the second-best record in the American League at 92-62, Tampa Bay is drawing barely 21,000 fans a game, the league’s lowest figure.

“Most people in Florida are afraid of heights, explained Maddon (Florida is the flattest state in the nation) “and our fans have to drive over high bridges to get to Tropicana Field. That’s just too much to ask of folks.”

Almost nobody – literally – is watching on TV either. Television ratings for the 75 Ray games broadcast on FSN Florida are the lowest ever reported according to ratings company AC Nielsen – and have prompted the team to pay its 2,000 some-odd viewers $4.00 per game to tune in.

“We just can’t stay in business if we have to pay people to watch,” explained team owner Stuart Sternberg. “That’s simply not a viable business model.

“You know, it’s lonely at the top,” said Sternberg, “look at poor Mr. Bush. Maybe we don’t need it.”  

Surprisingly, a number of players seemed to understand the request to embrace defeat. “We don’t make any money, we hardly ever get arrested,” said outfielder B.J. Upton. “We deserve to lose.”