RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The economy had nothing on sports this past weekend, which was a wild one. The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays played for more than five hours beginning Saturday night and ending Sunday morning. In the end, the Rays tied the American League championship series at one game all. They will play game three today in Boston. The Los Angeles Dodgers bounced back last night to cut the Philadelphia Phillies' lead in the National League series to two games to one. In the meantime, three of college football's top for teams lost on Saturday. Commentator John Feinstein joins us now to talk about it all. Good morning, John.
JOHN FEINSTEIN: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Well, let's begin with - as I just did, with the Rays and the Red Sox. Specifically, the Rays' pretty amazing story.
FEINSTEIN: You know, I don't want to say that something funny is going on down there. But there's a guy going around, I think collecting souls in the Tampa Bay area because the Rays never finished better than 20 games below 500 going into the season and then went 97 and 65. So just do the math there. The devil maybe involved somehow in this miraculous run. But they played great baseball all year, they won their first series, they won that game at 1:37 in the morning, as you said, in the leavening(ph) Saturday night, they've got great young pitching, their fans have finally come around and are coming to the ball park, and it's the best story baseball has seen in many years. Ten years of total frustration, and now a year of pure joy.
MONTAGNE: So, what's your opinion? Can they make it worth selling all those souls to pull this off and beat the defending World Series champions?
FEINSTEIN: Remember, we never found out what happened to Joe Hardy in post season. He left after winning the pennant for the senators. But I think that it's going to be difficult. The next three games are in Boston. The Red Sox are always tough in Fenway Park. But in a short series and in a situation like this, you never say never. If the Rays can win one of these next three in Boston and get the series back home to Tampa, they have a puncher's chance to win this series. Yes.
MONTAGNE: If the Red Sox do win, how great would it be if they ended up facing the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez?
FEINSTEIN: What a scene Manny Ramirez coming back to Boston for the World Series would be. He was so loved for eight years in Boston, helping them the two World Series and then basically ran himself out of town with his behavior. He's been extraordinary. He's on a contract drive for the Dodgers because his contract is up at the end of this year. And if you were to come up in the first standing at Fenway Park in gain one of the World Series, the boos would be heard very clearly in Los Angeles and probably across the Pacific Ocean, too.
MONTAGNE: Now, let's turn to football. Number one, Oklahoma. Number three Missouri. Number four, LSU. One, three, four, all losers on Saturday, what's going on?
FEINSTEIN: Well, what's going on is Alabama. Number two is the luck team in that group because it didn't play. College football just has more balance than it ever has. There are no dominant teams anymore. Every time you label a team dominant, it loses. Georgia started the year number one, lost. USC would then became number one, they lost. Oklahoma, they've lost and now Texas steps into the role of number one after beating Oklahoma and its next three games are all very difficult games. I think we're going to see this go on this way for the rest of the season and it's a lot of fun to watch, to be honest.
MONTAGNE: Just finally before I let you go, Penn state, quite a story in itself.
FEINSTEIN: Well, Joe Paterno, 81 years old, has such a bad leg that he's coaching from the press box, not from the side lines. But remember it was three years ago, all the people at Penn state wanted to force him into retirement. And now, they're undefeated. They're ranked third in the country. Their next two weeks are Michigan, which is always a tough game for them even though Michigan amazingly lost to Toledo, Saturday and at Ohio State. But it's really great to see Joe Paterno have this revival.
MONTAGNE: John, as always, thank you.
FEINSTEIN: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: The comments of John Feinstein whose most recent book is Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Unforgettable Season. And you are listening to NPR News. This is Morning Edition. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
