Buy:

Boston Red Sox: In about one week they went from 5 down to the Rays to .5 up.

Philadelphia Soul: The Soul cruised to become Arena Football champions with a whoppin’ 70-35 win over Cleveland.

Tiffany “Hot Chips” Michelle: The last woman standing in the World Series of Poker in on a roll into the later rounds.

Rick Rhoden: Winner for the 7th time of the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. I guess some people are good at whatever they do.

Sell:

Tampa Bay Rays: Last week’s big buy dove quickly. Losers of seven straight going into the all star break, can they come back and keep this up for the second half of the year?

Green Bay Packers: Should they let Favre back? Should they release him? Should they keep him as backup? No matter how you look at it, this can only bring bad PR to a well-run, well-respected fanchise.

Tony Romo: Placing third in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, can this guy do any better than almost winning something important?

The Home Run Derby: The derby is supposed to bring people to baseball. It should consist of household names. Big Stars. Great Players. Hello people! A-Rod is not competing in NY! Does that make any sense? Shame on the MLB for caring too much! We want to see stars, not guys who are having a career year!

The date: July 5th, 2008. The Tampa Bay Rays sat comfortably in first place, 5 games over the second Red Sox, 9 over the Yankees. They were the winners of seven straight, including a sweep of the Sox. Everything was perfect, nothing could go wrong . . .

Today is July 13th. The Rays have just lost their seventh straight. If Boston defeats Baltimore, a game that they’re winning 2-0, they will hold first place going into the all star game by half a game.

Now here is the real question: Which Rays are the real ones? The winners who seem like the only they are doing more than winning is having a good time, or the Rays who had their streak, but really are a second or third place team at heart?

GYA out

The Tampa Bay Rays have been the darlings of the MLB for almost two months now. However, after their 13-2 loss to Cleveland today they’re only up a game and a half over the steadily approaching Red Sox. Even as a Sox fan it’s been great to watch the Rays this year (and keep my fingers crossed that the Yankees don’t make the playoffs, and finish in third), but can they keep it up? They’ve lost four in a row, including two key games against the Yankees, which could have catapulted them to a much more comfortable lead in the AL East. This may just be a cold streak, and will wear off after the all star break, but they are a young team without much experience, and is it possible they’re hitting the rookie wall?
As far as the answer? Only time will tell.
GYA out

GYA here, introducing a new section coming to you hopefully every Monday called Buy and Sell. Basically, in the world of sports, who’s stock rose this week and who’s dropped.

BUY:

Tampa Bay Rays–Winners of seven in a row, and leader of the AL east by 5 games over the Red Sox, this team just keeps on rolling.

Rafael Nadal–Finally getting over the hump and beating Roger Federer in the match of the century, doesn’t get much better than that.

The Williams Sisters–Venus and Serena both made it to the finals of woman’s singles at Wimbledon, and the champions of woman’s doubles.

Spain–First the Euro and now Wimbledon, Spain is the winner of both large international major championships this week.

SELL

Seattle Mariners–Now 18 games under .500, and 18 back in their division, this team is a mess.

Chicago Rush–The regular season arena football champs lose at home in the divisional playoffs to the Grand Rapids (who finished the regular season 7-9) 58-41.

MLB Allstar Rosters–If this game now means something, stop letting the fans vote and send the actual best players from each league. The winners of a popularity contest play for something important, not the ones who deserve it most based on performance.

Roger Federer–Winner of five straight Wimbledon titles couldn’t defend his terf agains the young gun. 1-13 on break points didn’t help him. Neither did 52 unforced errors.

GYA out.