New York Radio Hosts Accuse Tampa Bay Rays Of Cheating Following Series Win Over New York Yankees
The Tampa Bay Rays are the best team in baseball. Entering Monday's games, the team is 28-7, four games better than the Atlanta Braves for best record in Major League Baseball. They're coming off a series win over the New York Yankees.
And New York radio hosts don't believe that Tampa Bay could achieve this success legally. Evan Roberts and Craig Carton host an afternoon show on WFAN in New York.
They went on a rant essentially accusing the Rays of cheating their way to the league's best record.
"I was very skeptical with what I saw this weekend," Roberts says. "I know who they're not good. They're 19-3 at home? HELLO!
"Sometimes you don't need evidence. Sometimes you gotta say 'what I'm watching doesn't make sense.'"
Starting an allegation with "sometimes you don't need evidence" is genuinely hilarious. I'd love to see a high-powered attorney walk into a court room, look a jury right in their eyes and exclaim "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury... sometimes you don't need evidence!"
That would go over well.
New York radio hosts can't believe the Tampa Bay Rays are legitimately the best team in baseball
The problem is that the Tampa Bay Rays are usually pretty good. They've won the AL East in two of the past three seasons and made the playoffs in four straight.
Sure, this season they're putting up crazy numbers, but baseball seasons are long. This is just a great stretch by a good team.
Plus, the implications are that the Rays are cheating, especially at home. That harkens back to the Houston Astros scandal.
New York radio hosts can't believe that guys like Christian Bethancourt are legitimately leading the Tampa Bay Rays to the best record in baseball. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
The Astros used devices at home to know what pitch opponents were going to throw. But the Rays are winning in large part due to their pitching.
They lead the league in ERA ... and not by a small margin. The Rays team ERA is 3.01. That's over 0.3 runs better than the next-best team in the league.
Coincidentally, the second-best team is Houston (3.32 ERA).
Leave it to the New York media to complain that the team with a payroll under $75 million is cheating to beat the team with nearly four times that budget.