Thursday, October 16, 2008

A match up with brotherly love possible?

I don't want to get ahead of the game here regarding the Rays, the Red Sox are still dangerous. A rattlesnake can still bite you until you cut off it's head. But, it's sort of ironic to ponder a matchup with the city which has been so involved in providing championships in other sports for the Bay area.

Philadelphia, the city which spreads it's brotherly love to the Bay area.

Bucs-
In 2000 and 2001 the Bucs qualified for the playoffs, but were quickly eliminated from the tournament 21-3 in 2000 and 31-9 in 2001. Those loses opened the door to send Tony Dungy packing and Jon Gruden to take control of the Bucs.
In 2002, Gruden led the Bucs to their season best record of 12-4, and once again, an eventual playoff matchup with the Buzzards. This time, the outcome was vastly different. The Bucs dominated the game in Philly and won their first game ever when the kickoff temperature was under 40 degrees, walking out of the Vet with a 27-10 victory and tickets to San Diego and eventually a World Championship. (something Philly is still looking for)

Lightning-
The Lightning in the 2003-2004 season won the Southeastern Division with a 46-22-8 record.
The Lightning eventually played the Philly Flyers in the championship game before advancing to the Stanley Cup series. Philly was defeated 4-3 by Tampa, and Tampa captured the Stanley Cup over Montreal.

So Philly, we are ready for some more of that brotherly love so we can close out a hat trick of championships of the major sports in our region at your expense.