The Red Hot Tampa Bay Rays Akinori Iwamura Evan Longoria Carl
The Tampa Bay Ray s are finishing up the first half of the MLB season pinned as a major contender for the fall classic. In the July 14, 2008 issue of ESPN The Magazine, Remember That Cute Little Team from Tampa Bay That Everyone Used to Beat on?, writer Steve Wulf reports on the once MLB doormats (nine basement finishes in 10 years) to the team nobody wants to mess with all the through the eyes of their most loyal fan Raymond Ray the mascot.
In Brandon Webb is Busy Resting, Buster Olney hit the road to shadow the Diamondbacks righthander for six days. Olney writes, Webb is as laid back as a seventh-inning stretch in spring training. Webb, baseball s winningest pitcher this season, gives fans a day-to-day look at how he keeps his cool between starts.
Fans can go to ESPNthemag.com for all-access footage of The Magazine s road trip with Brandon Webb.
In addition, The Magazine s diamond guru Buster Olney also gives up the goods on second half predictions, players on the move, fantasy magic and why the All-Star Game matters this year.
Olney s Five Fearless Forecasts: No.1 By mastering a changeup and continuing to refine his mid-90s heat, Rays lefty Scott Kazmir will be the difference in the AL wild-card race. No. 2 Bolstered by Troy Tulowitzki s return from a quad injury, the Rockies will rebound from their awful start and rejoin the race in the equally awful NL West. No. 3 The Mets will miss the playoffs, but GM Omar Minaya won t be fired in the middle of the night. (Maybe in the morning though.) No. 4 Despite a frighteningly thin rotation, the Tigers are off the critical list. They can hit their way back, says a rival GM. No. 5 I m sticking with my best preseason pick: The Cubs are going to the World Series for the first time since 1945. But the Red Sox will win the big ring again.
And Rick Reilly weighs in on 10 ways a newly signed NBA rookie can go belly-up.
Other features in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine include:
La Pistola. With the 2008 NBA Draft in the books, it s time for absurdly early 2009 buzz. So here it is: Ricky Rubio is the next Pete Maravich. Chad Nielsen reports.
Going Once Going Twice Sold! To The Man with the Unhealthy NASCAR Obsession. To get a piece of racing action, just head to a NASCAR auction, where stock car glory can be snapped up for about the price of a gallon of gas. Adam Winer reports.
One Story/5 Ways to Tell it: The World Series of Poker. It started 38 years ago in Vegas, a little ol poker tourney between 30 high rollers. Today, the WSOP is the strongest hand in the game and everyone even Congress wants a piece of the action. Eddie Matz reports.
Access Hollywood. Romantic lead, action her, pitchman: Braylon Edwards wants to play all types pf parts, including watch your back LeBron King of Cleveland. Carmen Renee Thompson reports.
Those Who Stay Will Be____. Champions? Contenders? Suckers? As Rich Rodriguez retools college football s most tradition-bound program, Michigan men want to know: how will his team fill in the blank? Bruce Feldman reports.
The Wrong Side of Great. In a 1996 Adidas ABCD basketball camp, Tracy McGrady s vicious dunk over James Felton was the beginning of something very big for him. For Felton, it was the start of something very sad. Bruce Feldman reports.
It s Time for the Devil Salute, Dude. As cycling tries to polish its image, upstart Rock Racing has the sport s establishment a little nervous. Shaun Assael reports.
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Rees in the tables on Qidingshenxian
U.S. star Reese Poker in Las Vegas on the 4th morning at home in their sleep, died aged 56, Si Qianceng suffering from pneumonia. Rees has served three times in the World Championship Poker champion, also won the highest stakes may be the history of the game.
Brilliant record
390,000 yuan of gambling won the 140 million
Rees poker career from the start is full of legends, in the early 1970s, he had just graduated from Dartmouth College and went to Stanford University to attend business school when, after Las Vegas, the poker table in the killing Three parties, since it began poker career. He s a classic, was in 2005, in the five-HORSE poker game, with 50,000 U.S. dollars (about 390,000 yuan) in this gambling, won the 18 million U.S. dollars (about 140 million yuan).
Friends recalled
The strongest players and good low-key
He tables on the very successful, but low-key people, so that he made a lot of friends, including his opponent had lost. Reese s close friend, with the poker star Brunson said: I know him 35, he had never tried to anger or speak loudly, I know temperament is the best, certainly the strongest poker players in history .
Director of the World Poker Championship, she also said: I remember a Duju, he made 1 million U.S. dollars bet, but when he bet it is looking like a few yuan in general. Brunson and Reese last become business partners, Search for wreckage from the Titanic, to do sports betting consultants have tried, but all failed. Riess and his wife recently divorced, the existing 1-1 following a female and female, Reese s funeral was held in Las Vegas on the 5th. (Xinkuai Bao)
