WILMINGTON, Del. - The World Series snores here.
Tuesday afternoon, Rays reliever J.P. Howell awoke from a deep sleep, went to his hotel room window and opened the curtains.
"Where are we?" he said.
In Delaware, that's where. Our second smallest state, the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, has become Rays Nation. The American League champions fled here because they'd checked out of their Philadelphia hotel before epically soggy Game 5. In the middle of the night, their buses reached Delaware. Valley Forge was probably full up.
"Our motto all year was kind of 'expect the unexpected,'" Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, "and the fact that we wound up in Delaware was kind of par for the course for us."
Here are the Rays, in their first Series, surreal enough. Now they're holed up 30 minutes south of the Phillies until rain (or snow) relents enough to resume the bizarre, suspended Game 5, now down to Game 1/3. Tuesday was a no-go. At last report, baseball commissioner Bud Selig was gathering two of every animal, though he's having a hard time finding two of Jonny Gomes.
The Rays aren't complaining about the delay.
First, they're bivouacked in the elegant and historic Hotel du Pont in downtown Wilmington, which opened in 1911, the year before Fenway Park, "a magnificent hotel," Rays skipper Joe Maddon said.
George Washington did not sleep here, but the du Pont has hosted several presidents, from Taft to JFK and beyond. My personal favorite notable guests: Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa.
Second, the Rays have yet to disappear.
"We're still here," Rays reliever Grant Balfour said. "The more we're here, maybe the more we believe we're destined to do this."
Their season could have ended Monday at Citizens Bank Water Park. It goes on. They saw good karma in them thar raindrops.
"God's been on our side since we kicked the devil out," Rays reliever Trever Miller said.
Up next is baseball's Oklahoma Land Rush. Three innings, give or take a half inning or extra innings, to determine whether Philly parties on down or the Rays take it back down to the Trop.
But there was a distinct vibe in the Rays' clubhouse after Game 5 was suspended with the score 2-2. It was as if they'd won.
"We get to play another day, man," Howell said.
And the du Pont gets fresh royalty.
This is the closest Delaware might ever get to a World Series. The state has no major professional sports teams, though Wilmington has the Blue Rocks, a Kansas City Royals farm club. Delaware has no national parks, seashores, battlefields, memorials or monuments. It has no commercial air service or network-broadcast TV stations. But now it has the Rays.
A woman checking in asked about the hubbub. "Special VIPs" the desk man whispered.
Now - what to do? A concierge handed you ideas. There was the Delaware History Museum, the Delaware Museum of Natural History, the Delaware Toy and Miniature Museum, Old Swedes Church. Or, if you were up for it, you could walk across the state and back.
Trever Miller stood in the lavish lobby. He sniffed. "What is that?"
"Pumpkin pie scent," a du Pont associate said. "It's filtered in."
"Nice," Miller said.
Smells like ... victory.
Delaware's Team is on the case.
TAGS: Tampa Bay Rays
 
 
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