Tampa Bay Rays AL East-Winning Celebration A Reminder Of What’s Missing This Year And Beyond

Kevin Cash spent the final month of the 2007 regular season with the Red Sox, which meant the future Rays manager got to participate in one of the wildest clinching celebrations known to man in the late-night hours of Sept. 28.

The Red Sox, who’d spent the previous four-plus months in first place but saw their lead over the Yankees fall from 11 1/2 games to as few as 1 1/2 games twice in September, cut their magic number to one by beating the Twins, 5-2. But the game ended with the second-place Yankees leading the woebegone Orioles by three runs, so it appeared as if the Sox would have to wait until Saturday to try to clinch on their own.

Just in case, though, most of the Sox players and coaching staff stuck around the cramped home clubhouse. And then Hall of Fame-bound closer Mariano Rivera blew a three-run lead in the ninth — ex-Red Sox outfielder Jay Payton laced a game-tying bases-clearing triple — before the Red Sox clinched their first division title in 12 years when Melvin Mora laid down a walk-off bunt single in the 10th.

It took about three seconds for the party to begin and the room to fill with the smell of champagne and cigars. Even players who’d left Fenway stormed back — everyone except famously reticent outfielder J.D. Drew.

Closer Jonathan Papelbon, sporting only a T-shirt and a protective cup that covered up the front but not the back, sprayed beer on general manager Theo Epstein and owner John Henry. (In real time, this was entertaining and not viewed as a warning sign of a potentially troublesome personality)

The most notable sight, though, was that of manager Terry Francona, smoking a cigar and leaning so far back into a chair in front of his office that it looked as if he’d been absorbed by the upholstery. Managing is a uniquely stressful job, especially in Boston, and Francona looked relaxed for the first time since Opening Day.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of something like that,” Francona said. “It was like a bunch of 13-year-olds. Never seen so many old men, myself included, cheer for a bunt. Getting to watch these guys do this is as gratifying as it gets.”

On Wednesday night, when the Rays beat the Mets 8-5 to clinch the franchise’s first AL East title in 10 years, Cash got to be the manager who experienced a division-clinching celebration of his own — one that was entirely different than the party he participated in with his Red Sox teammates a few nights shy of 13 years earlier.

“There’s not too many banners hanging up there (at Tropicana Field) that say ‘American League East champions,’” Cash said afterward. “And there’s going to be one next year.”

But with the pandemic demanding a different, lower-key celebrations, the Rays eschewed the dog-pile at the pitcher’s mound and instead put on their masks and lined up for an exchange of high fives, handshakes and hugs. Someone shot off a canister filled with confetti.

“Being respectful of the situation and not putting any of us at risk — we’re going to the postseason, we definitely don’t want the celebration or anything like that to derail all the accomplishments for this season,” Cash said before the game.

There was no champagne or beer inside the clubhouse, just more confetti as wel as Silly String that was swept up by the Rays themselves. Some players smoked cigars in the dugout but eventually, everyone headed to the bus dry and, well, sober.

“We don’t have champagne or all the beer that we could ever ask for to drench everyone, but we’re having fun with it and definitely trying to soak this up as much as possible,” Rays centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “It’s a little weird, but that’s OK. We’ll take it anyway we can get it.”

Still, the low-key celebration served as a reminder that the raucous clinching parties that used to appear on television screens every September and October may be a thing of the past. Who knows when circumstances will again allow dozens of people to spray beer and champagne while shouting at each other in a poorly ventilated room?

Hours before the Rays’ win, Cash acknowledged it’d be bittersweet for players to clinch a division without the subsequent euphoric release of partying deep into the night.

“We should all recognize that these players are missing out — we’re missing out, for good reason,” Cash said. “So you feel for the players. You feel for the players and what they’ve gone through over the last two months. And if celebrations come, you feel for them not being able to do it maybe the quote unquote traditional way, or what we’ve seen in the past.”

Plus, as validating as it had to be for the on-a-budget Rays to win an AL East usually dominated by the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox, a division title doesn’t carry the cache it did in 2007, when there was just one wild card team per league, or in the quarter-century between 1969 and 1993 when only division winners reached the playoffs.

This season, there will be more non-division winners (10) than first-place finishers in the playoffs. The Rays are going to finish with the best record in the AL, but a couple bad nights this week against the eighth-seeded Yankees or Blue Jays could end their season (The Yankees or Blue Jays will be the eighth seed even though the eighth seed will have at least two more wins than the Astros, who are the sixth seed despite a 29-30 record because they’ll finish second in the AL West. Don’t ask).

And if Rob Manfred gets his way, an expanded playoff field will remain in place the next time Major League Baseball gets to conduct something resembling a normal season (Spoiler alert: He’ll get his way) Even if players and teams can soon why go crazy upon winning a division, why bother going crazy celebrating qualifying for a tournament that will almost surely include at least one team that finished in third place in its division?

“This is really special, this is a big deal,” Cash said.

It used to be bigger, in more ways than one.