Will the Rays Shine Over Tampa Again?

As MLB.com observed last night, the Super Bowl is over and it’s time to get back to baseball. No doubt yesterday’s Super Bowl shall go down in history as the most poorly officiated such championship in its history - as it should. They should know better than to put the Super Bowl on the day the planet of communication and visual-mental assessments turns on its ear in the sky. But what do I know? I’m from Arizona and though not a Cardinals fan per se, I was rooting for the team from my state. But the layout of the football classic did make me think of other sporting considerations involving both Arizona and Tampa Bay. Baseball!! Seems like everyone wants to know if the Tampa Bay Rays can repeat in the playoffs in the 2009 season. You know the Rays - the American League’s last standing team in 2009 with more players you’ve never heard of than say Arizona.

On March 31, 1998 at 5:08 P.M. the first of two pitches to be thrown that day that would mark the start of a brand new baseball teams hurled though the Florida air. (Data obtained by phone from the Rays’ communication office). That pitch made the horoscope astrologers would call the official chart of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays official. It’s a funny thing about those Devil Rays. The first nine years of their franchise they floundered, flopped and typically fell way behind the rest of the teams in their division. Then, before the 2008 season the team deleted the word “Devil” from the team name. In the “well, wouldn’t you just know it” category, in the 2008 season the Rays beat the Red Sox in the American League Championship and went to the World Series to play the Philadelphia Phillies. They lost the Series, but hey, they made it to the Fall Classic. That’s a lot of hot dogs, beer, rowdy cheering and other American stuff.

Christians would say the Rays’ success was because they finally put Satan behind them.

Numerologists would say the deletion of those five letters changed the team’s numerology to a far more fortuitous fate.

So what do astrologers think?

Most, but not all, professional baseball teams took the field of play the first time under the sign of Aries. Like the Diamondbacks of Arizona who also started play later the same day, the Rays’ horoscope contains a heap of planets in the self-starting, impulsive sign of Aries. There’s the Sun (identity, team ego, branding), Mercury retrograde (communication, signs delivered by coaches, running, hand-eye, coordination, skill), Mars (drive, bat speed, pitcher’s velocity, aggressiveness) and Saturn (oh by the way, the coaches are gods as far as you’re concerned, play by the rules and practice, drill, practice and drill). Then there are three dwarf planets in Aries: Ceres (underdog, community service/outreach programs, hopes of snatching players up in drafts and trades), Eris (upsetting of traditions). These Aries qualities fall into the slices of the horoscopic pie that reveals the nature of one-to-one relationships - and who with this knowledge would not love to be a fly on the wall in their locker room; and the piece of sky pie that goes with other people’s money, sex, taxes, stubbornness - whether individual stubbornness or the unwavering dedication that can be applied to practice and drill. Maybe this sector (the 8^th house) could also rule things Satanic.

During last year’s season, the dedicated Saturn and fan of strong work ethics and drill, formed patterns to the team’s planet of optimism, Jupiter and to the karmically motivated nodes, which promoted the theme of “it’s their time.” As well, this patterning appeared along an axis of statistical notoriety for athletic accomplishment, success, potency and aggregation, according to the discoveries of French researcher, Michel Gauquelin. In October, the planet of sudden shifts in the winds of fate, Uranus backed into a confrontational pattern with the discipline planet. Cracks in the magic lamp appeared and the Phillies knocked out the Rays’ lights.

This year the season commences with a retrograde Saturn back in the Ray’s 12^th house - one of the favored Gauquelin sectors. After being strong in early May given long balls, unconventional play and such, Saturn turns direct mid-month. Checkpoints appear as to the team’s solidity, endurance and enthusiasm for practice. Of course, for the drilled and disciplined teams, Saturn shines on them with great favor; teams that tire or ignore discipline fade in Saturn’s regard. Heed the check points. Shore up weak spots and get team defense back on track. Make it clear: Sloppy play will not be tolerated.

Come June, Ceres, the resident advocate for underdogs, lost causes and resolution of unfair abominations, connects with the nodes in June, stimulating a surge of belief in the team magic and fate. This is followed by player diversification in mid-June which should create noteworthy changes in personnel, perhaps bringing promising prospects forward in mid-June. At the end of July, the heat of the summer bears down on tired pitching arms just as Saturn leaves the protection of the Gauquelin phase. Most likely, slow erosion gains a foothold and even with a late September surge, it does not appear to be the stuff of repeats... unless a major team addition makes a wallop of a difference.

Oh, do you mean like the acquisition of the highly touted Pat Burrell from those dang Phillies who defeated the Rays in the World Series? Something like that. Most notably, Burrell’s “star” chart gets the strongest pushes this year from Mars, who runs with streaky surges through his chart. These hot streaks contribute to times of great influence by Burrell in late May through early June, again late May and late July through the early part of August and one last burst as the third week of September occurs. The last of these pushes comes off like a pure adrenalin surge. There’s a lot of expectation on Burrell’s shoulders, and one player does not a team make.

As September closes, a decent season should be in the record books, but not the stuff of World Series potential.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks commenced play the same days as the Rays, bringing back the Arizona-Tampa Bay-Pennslyvania team connection. Does this mean the same fate awaits the D’Backs this year? The Rays have always played their birthday twin D-Backs tough; how coincidental is that? The D’Backs commenced play far to the west of Florida and six hours later. The Moon in the D’Backs chart lies deeper into the sign of Gemini and the D’Backs have an entirely different arrangement of planetary pepperoni on the horoscope pizza. All the strong Aries energy for the Arizona team goes to the sector of the chart addressing strong coaching, daily work ethics and practice makes perfect mentality. But more on the Diamondbacks after I watch them a few times in spring training. The off season player transactions by the Snake’s management, especially regarding pitching, have been disappointing at best, and let’s not even discuss the treasonous management/ownership move of Jeff Moorad, whose birth data yet eludes me. Arizona fans will move on, as transformative planets demand they do, and ready their psyches for the season.

In looking ahead, look forward to the Opening Day 2009 chart, which cannot be done until first pitch hurls through the air, and discussion of how the unfolding steroid scandals shall gain momentum with pending legal proceedings and Jupiter, Node, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius all opposite the sign of Leo - the signs of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Stay tuned.

Baseball is back in the air. Already there have been ball player sightings in Arizona!