Why Tampa Bay Rays Fans Should Be Satisfied with 2011 Season

Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler fielded the ground ball and flipped it to shortstop Elvis Andrus for the force out, which ended the Tampa Bay Rays' inning, game—and most importantly—fairy-tale season.

After all the Rays had gone though to get to October, going down in four games to the Rangers (the same team they lost out to last year) served as a rather dull ending to a year that was anything but.

Now the Rays go into another offseason of uncertainty, just like the last one. But after seeing how Tampa Bay turned out after free agency last year, concern should be moderate.

The Rays lost their best power hitter in Carlos Pena, who also won a gold glove at first base. Their franchise player, Carl Crawford, left the Rays to take his services to the rival Boston Red Sox and their fat pocket books.

The Rays also lost other key components, such as Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza and Rafael Soriano, who left along with most of the other members of the bullpen.

It didn't matter. Somehow, some way, the front office and manager Joe Maddon assembled a bullpen of spare parts that turned into a solid group.

Kyle Farnsworth became a true closer, Joel Peralta became a strong setup man and the Rays once again made good moves that no one believed were good at the time they were made.

The one signing that backfired on the Rays was the signing of Manny "Retirement" Ramirez, the controversial steroid user, who retired rather than face a 100-game suspension from MLB.

Even with the Manny debacle, it didn't matter. Neither did an 0-6 start. Or being $122 million dollars behind the Red Sox in terms of payroll.

Boston went out and not only snatched Crawford from the Rays, but also grabbed Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego. Boston was crowned AL champs before the season even started. It didn't matter.

After a hot start with MVP-like numbers, Gonzalez cooled off, along with the rest of Boston's lifeless September squad—which blew the division and then the Wild Card.

To whom, you might ask? You guessed it.

Crawford never cooled off because he never got hot in the first place—other than the fact that he's now on the hot seat to perform next year before the masses of passionate BoSox fans at Fenway.

While Crawford was laying an egg bigger than the "Monstah!," his replacement in Tampa Bay, the 24-year-old Desmond Jennings, was hitting for a higher average and stroked only one less home run than Crawford did in 67 less games.

What's more impressive is the fact that Jennings stole more bases than Carl Crawford, who often led the league in stolen bases in his time with the Rays.

And on the final weekend of the regular season, Jennings made a diving sideways catch that clearly showed that Tampa Bay had found a replacement.

In the final game of Boston's season (you know, the one that capped off the worse collapse in baseball), Crawford dropped the fly ball that scored the final run.

How ironic.

And what about that collapse? While the Rays seemed dead in the water come September, the Boston faithful were checking their calenders, hoping October would just get here already.

It never came quickly enough—and then it never ended up coming at all, as the Rays accomplished the biggest standings comeback in a final month of a season.

Nine games back didn't matter, and neither did their 7-0 deficit against the Yankees in the final game of the regular season, in which they stormed back in a story you'd have to see with your own eyes to believe.

No one would've believed James Shields would have had the year he did if you told them before the beginning of the season. Same goes for Casey Kotchman, the gold-glove caliber and .300-plus-hitting first baseman.

The rotation carried Tampa Bay quite a long way, although David Price ended the season with a record below .500.

It didn't matter. Jeremy Hellickson made his way on top of many AL Rookie of the Year ballots, and Shields led the league in complete games, easily becoming one of the league's top hurlers once again.

So while the last memory of the Tampa Bay Rays' season may be of Adrian Beltre hitting three home runs for Texas and Jennings' ground out to end the game, it certainly doesn't matter when all the memories of what this team accomplished this season are taken into account.

The one where a guy that lost the first-base job with a low-.100 average (Dan Johnson) punched a ball out of the yard when the Rays were down to their final strike.

And the memory of Evan Longoria hitting a rocket over the small wall in left field, sending the Trop into a frenzy and capping off a fairy-tale September.

So yes, the Rays season is certainly over, but as players and seasons come and go, these Rays have, and always will, go beyond expectations.

And that is truly something that matters.