To continue to help build the UK American Sports Fans community we bring you the second instalment of our new The FansOwn feature, where fan groups are invited to write a topical piece about their team to introduce them to the wider audience.
This week it’s another excellent guest post which comes from Guy Phillips of the twitter account of Tampa Bay Rays UK fan group @UKTBRays – thanks to Guy for supporting the feature and we hope you continue to enjoy reading what the UK’s football, baseball, hockey and basketball fans have to say here in The FansOwn. Keep checking back to read more from the fans. You can also check out more UK fans over on our Fan Wall. If you want to be up on the fan wall, tweet us your pic to @uk_sportsfans. Now…Go Rays!
This weekend sees the Tampa Bay Rays travel to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers in a three game series; the third game of which will be shown live on ESPN in the UK on Sunday night / Monday morning at 1:00am.
This has all the makings of a great matchup, not only because the Rays (66-45 at time of writing) and the Dodgers (61-49) have two of the better records in baseball but also because they are both home to leading candidates for the Rookie of the Year award in their respective conferences – Wil Myers from the American League and Yasiel Puig from the National League. This will be the first time the rookie sensations have faced each other, and both of them have transformed their teams since arriving. So how did they get where they are today?
Yasiel Puig was born on 7th December 1990 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. He played in his native country for his hometown team Cienfuegos from 2008 until 2011, his breakout season coming in 2009-10 where he batted for a .330 average (AVG), with 47 runs batted in (RBIs), 17 home runs (HR) and 78 runs scored (R) in 327 at bats. In 2011 he was playing for the Cuban national team at the World Port Tournament in the Netherlands and he tried to defect to the US but was unsuccessful and was suspended for the 2011-12 Cuban season as punishment.
In 2012 he successfully defected to the US and became a free agent in MLB, where he was snapped up by the Dodgers on 28th June of the same year to a seven year, $42 million deal. After a promising start in the Minor Leagues he had a setback when an infection in his right elbow required surgery and he was out of action for several months. Following a short stint in Puerto Rico he had an awesome spring training with the Dodgers in 2013 where he hit for a .526 AVG.
After another small stretch in the minors he was called up by the Dodgers to first team action on 2nd June 2013 to play Right Field, and ever since then he has been phenomenal. In his first at bat in his first game for Los Angeles he recorded his first hit, in his second game he hit 2 HR and had 5 RBIs and in his fourth game he hit his first career grand slam. So far in the 2013 season he has a .376 AVG, with 11 HR, 25 RBIs and 40 R in 205 at bats, and along with his great batting skills he has been a human highlight reel for defensive plays – the most recent being a bobbling catch while bouncing off a wall on Saturday afternoon at historic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.
Wil Myers was born just three days after Puig on 10th December 1990 in Thomasville, North Carolina. He was drafted out of Wesleyan Christian Academy of High Point, N.C. by the Kansas City Royals with the 91st pick of the 2009 MLB Draft. He played for various Minor League affiliates of the Royals between 2009 and 2012, with highlights including being named in the Midwest League All-Star team in 2010 and being selected to play in the 2012 All-Star Futures Game – an annual exhibition game held during All-Star weekend where young prospects from the US face off against prospects from other countries around the world.
On December 9th 2012 Wil was traded from the Royals to the Rays as part of a seven man trade along with three other young prospects; in return Kansas City got starting pitchers James Shields, Wade Davis and a player to be named. He started the 2013 with the Durham Bulls, the team depicted in Bull Durham starring Kevin Costner – which, if you haven’t already seen it, is well worth watching.
Myers was called up by Tampa Bay on 17th June 2013 and made his Major League debut the next day against divisional rivals the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. He was held hitless in his first game but got his first hit in his second – which happened to be the same day as it was the second game of a doubleheader. But it was on 22nd June that he caught the attention of baseball fans across the globe. In a game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium he hit his first home run – a grand slam off the ace of the Yankees pitching staff CC Sabathia. From that moment forward he has been terrorising pitchers across the league and even has a trademark bat toss; a show of confidence whenever he hits an home run which irks some fans but delights others. Since the All Star Break Wil (or #WilPower as he is known to his fans on Twitter) leads the Major League AVG with a monster .417, he’s tied for first in HR with 5 and is second in RBIs with 15.
Wil and Yasiel are just two of the reasons to keep an eye on this series over the weekend – there will also be two of the best pitchers in the league in the Rays’ David Price and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw as well as other MLB Stars like Evan Longoria, Ben Zobrist, Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez; and it all adds up to one of the most highly anticipated Interleague Series of the 2013 season.
