MLB’s Rays credit wins to saying, ‘Get behind me, Satan’

Sorry for the absence. I’ll have you know my first Yom Kippur was pretty awesome, and I’ve written a first-person account of my exploits—OK, it’s not that sexy—for next week’s paper.

Unfortunately, the Day of Atonement was followed by the Dodgers choking in Philadelphia and giving up Game 1. They’ll have a chance to even the series tomorrow night before returning to Chavez Ravine, where I’ll see them go up, hopefully, 3 to 1 Monday.

Also playing tomorrow night are the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay

Rays—last year baseball’s worst squad and this year miraculously four wins from the World Series. There’s a divine factor that works into this story, similar to the Colorado Rockies’ run last fall. The Dallas Morning News religion blog draws attention to a phenomenon I thought of earlier this year but never made mention of and, therefore, deserve no credit for. It goes:

Well, last November, they officially changed their name.

Once they threw off their Devil, good things started to happen.

Sorry, Rays. But everybody knows God is a Dodgers fan. Just ask Sandy Koufax.