It's great to be here at Wrigley Stadium! -- Jeff Gordon

I had an amusing thought this morning (which are the best thoughts to have, I might add. Prove me wrong, I dare you!) as I was watching a little Sports Center on ESPN. They were showing highlights from the Tampa Bay game yesterday, which I believe Tampa won, though I wasn't paying much attention because I was musing on my amusing thought. Oh, I think they were playing the Orioles. If you don't keep up to date on baseball stats, and I'll admit I often don't because my favorite team, the Reds, is usually not relevant to the post season discussion and because I don't get a lot of baseball in this area; then you probably haven't noticed that the Rays are doing a pretty good job this year and are currently in second place in their division, just a game and a half behind Boston. Of course if you don't tend to keep up on baseball stats you probably don't know that Tampa Bay changed their name from the Devil Rays to just the Rays, or perhaps your still reeling at the news that Tampa has a team.

Anyway the amusing thought that I was musing was that how sad would it be, and by sad I mean absolutely hilarious, if Tampa were somehow able to win the World Series before the Cubs could win another one. That would mean that in their short span of existence both Florida teams would have won a combined three world series (at least) before the mighty, large market Chicago Cubs, who probably draw more fans in a single game then both Florida teams combined draw for a season; could win one in a hundred years of trying. (That was a cumbersome sentence. You might need to reread it.) It would also mean that both of the Florida clubs would have won a world series before the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers a.k.a. the Washington Senators, Washington Nationals a.k.a. the Montreal Expos and the Colorado Rockies. For some reason I think this is very amusing. Of course in order to pull this off the Rays will have to win arguably the most difficult division in baseball, though the Yankees are trying to help them out with that this year. Granted they could also make it by being the best of the rest and get the wild card as well.

Another thought that has struck me in all of this; why the Florida Marlins? Why not the Miami Marlins? Traditionally baseball teams have been named after their cities, i.e. the Cincinnati Reds, the Boston Red Sox, the St. Louis Cardinals. Why the sudden statesmanship with the newer teams? Arizona, Colorado, Florida; what's up with that? They should be the Phoenix Diamondbacks, the Denver Rockies, and the Miami Marlins. Does baseball really think they're fooling the other residents of those states into thinking that they're "state" team is going to play in multiple cities? Do people in Flagstaff really think they'll get to host a couple of D-backs games a year at the local municipal diamond? Do people in Aspen and Vale even care about anything other than money, let alone whether or not they've got a baseball team representing them? If baseball truly believed this could help attract more fans and build a stronger fan base why don't they rename the other teams? Something like: the Missouri Royals, the California Dodgers, the Minnesota Twins, the New York Yankees! Just say them aloud, it sounds ridiculous! What is baseball thinking?