Tampa Bay Rays remember their 'awful' time in Philly during 2008 World Series
With the Tampa Bay Rays in town to play a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park, it’s not hard to reminisce about the 2008 World Series.
With the Tampa Bay Rays in town to play a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park, it's not hard to reminisce about the 2008 World Series.
The Tampa Bay Times' Marc Tompkin caught up with Rays players and staff to see how they remembered their time in Philly during the World Series.
Most of the Rays did not have fond memories:
OF Rocco Baldelli:
I hate doing this. This is awful. This is like tortuous thinking about this. ...
Anybody who talked about the city of Philadelphia at that time, nobody is exaggerating any of those thoughts and comments. Whatever the opposite of hospitable would be to you, that's what the people of Philadelphia were to us at that time. ...
3B coach Tom Foley:
It stunk. Not a whole lot of good memories of Philadelphia from 2008. It was a great year, it just ended badly. And it ended there. ...
Pitching coach Jim Hickey:
My ex-wife was there and she was appalled at the behavior of their fans, especially toward ours. At one point she went to get the security guard, who was actually an on-duty police officer, and he laughed at her and didn't help at all. ...
Who can blame the Rays for their ill will toward this fair city? In all fairness they did lose the World Series, that sting has to linger.