The Tampa Bay Rays haven’t made the playoffs since 2013, but after a 90 win season, Blake Snell and company are now poised to return to the October baseball scene. Joe Maddon’s mantra from 2008 season, “9=8” still brings me back to the glory days and I am calling for a slight adjustment to the forgotten battle cry.
The thought process was that 9 players took the field for 9 innings a game, playing as hard as they could (The Rays Way) 162 times a year with one goal in mind, be one of the 8 teams to make the playoffs.