After ending the regular season with the second best record in the league, the Tampa Bay Rays now look like a lackadaisical team on the brink of elimination. SLAP!

Manhandled by the Texas Rangers, the Rays and are just 9 innings away from an early exit, down two games to none in their ALDS. How ’bout we throw in a backhander too. . .SLAP!!

With their season suddenly on the brink and their fan base long gone; the Tampa Bay Rays are the recipients of the Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week.

How about a couple for their fans too, you know the ones who barely have the energy to jump on the bandwagon of a 96-win team that won the AL East title.

Truth be told, no one should have expected any different from this team… or this area.

The Rays went 5-5 in their last 10 regular season games and were 13-14 in the month of September. Needless to say, that’s not exactly the best way to carry momentum into the playoffs. And I’m sure the call for a ‘plaided out ballpark’ didn’t help either.

It’s one thing to ask your fans to ‘white out’ the stadium to intimidate your opponent, but it’s quite another to ask them to support their team by wearing plaid. That’s about the least intimidating pattern you can pick, besides polka dots.

But Joe Maddon and his plaid dreams aren’t the only ones at fault here; the Rays fans deserve some of the blame as well. Instead of rooting for their team and rallying behind home-field advantage, the Rays ‘fans’ were too busy making Kitty DJ videos (watch below), playing shuffleboard and following Dancing with the Stars.

As if it’s not humiliating enough for these players to call Tropicana Field home, they now don’t even have the support of their own city. Any hope of a bandwagon jump was derailed after the Rays got shut out on Thursday. And now that the Buccaneers have a winning record (2-1), there is no need for Tampa Bay fans to watch baseball anymore. And I completely understand.

Who honestly wants to watch a team that was on the losing end of two no-hitters this year, one of which being a perfect game? I don’t care what your record is, if that happens to you twice in one season, then your fate has already been determined.

And just so we’re all clear on this, throwing a no-hitter like Garza did does not cancel out being the victim of one.

The way I see it, the Rays only have two options in order make this post-season memorable. They can either A) Start hitting the ball and have an epic comeback or B) Wear plaid uniforms for the rest of the series and bunt during every at-bat. Other than that, there is really no hope for this team.

Personally, I would love to see option B run its course. I know it’s a long shot, but anything is possible when you believe.

Used with permission of the author.

Logan Rhoades is a Los Angeles-based writer and contributor to Sports Climax. With an extensive knowledge of ESPN topics and celebrity gossip, he is known for mixing sports and pop culture to entertain his readers. Check out his “Skip to My Logan” blog and Follow him on Twitter @loganrhoades.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

DETROIT, Mich. – The buzz in Detroit’s sport’s scene that is picking up steam is surrounded around Red Wings rookie goaltender Jimmy Howard.Expect to hear chants of Ozzie, Ozzie! if Howard has a game even remotely close to the one he had on his home ice last night in a 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks.

A candidate for NHL rookie of the year, 26-year-old Howard has looked anything but during this second-round NHL Playoff series against the San Jose Sharks.

After a rough start in the first-round playoff series against the Coyotes, Howard buckled down and posted a shutout and a few one-goal games and his heavily-favored team took the series in seven games. Since then, Howard’s journey has been a roller-coaster ride, one that starts at the top of the track and spirals down at a high rate of speed.

Now trailing the Sharks 0-3, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock is starting to look like a rookie himself.

Why would a coach with a Stanley Cup winning goalie on the roster, come into these playoffs having prepared only to play his rookie while disregarding his playoff-experienced goalie.

Chris Osgood was between the pipes and led the Red Wings to their last Holy Grail in 2008 with an outstanding 1.55 GAA and last year took the team to a Finals Game 7 against the Pittsburgh Penguins with another impressive GAA of 2.01. Yet Ozzie has started just one game since January 27th.

Babcock now finds himself with his hands tied by handing the torch to a rookie who appears to be choking in these playoffs.

Howard has let in a few goals that his hometown media is referring to as “soft goals” but the explanation regarding those goals should include the words “Pee-Wee mistake”.

One in particular is the game-tying goal last night that all but eliminated the Red Wings in these playoffs.

Sharks rookie Logan Couture had the puck near the goal line at a near impossible angle and managed to flip the puck past the shocked and dumbfounded Howard.

If Howard was hugging the post as goalies are taught in Pee Wee hockey, it would have been impossible for that puck to go in the net and the Wings may have suddenly found themselves back in this series with the next game on home ice and a chance to tie it up at 2-2.

Detroit has a history of pulling goalies as quick as Sparky Anderson would yank his pitchers when they hovered around the 100-pitch mark. This year however is a different story with Babcock going into the playoffs prepared to play only Howard.

The timing of Osgood’s benching and absurdness of this whole ordeal has to make you wonder if there is a lot more involved with this; what is going on in the locker room?

Osgood has seen the ice for just one start since the Olympic Games in Vancouver, you know the Olympic Games where Babcock coached the Canadian Team, the one where Osgood wasn’t even given an opportunity to tryout for the team.

Since the Olympics ended and the NHL returned to play, Osgood has been implanted on the end of the bench, except for the one lone start April 4th and another game on March 3rd when Howard was yanked after letting in 4 goals on 21 shots.

At this point it would be criminal for Babcock to ask Ozzie to put on the pads and try to bail out the Red Wings like he did in the 2008 Stanley Cup winning year.

That season, Babcock yanked Dominic Hasek in favor of Osgood and weeks later, Ozzie was hoisting another cup.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™