Enjoy the Ride with Holland the Pup: An Open Letter to the Tampa Bay Rays

Holland writes a fan letter to her team this time in “Enjoy the Ride.”

Hi guys, it’s Holland the Pup checking in from Michigan this time. I’ll be calling Michigan home for the next little while and my dad, Traveling Food Dude, and I have been doing a lot of driving to get here. During our time on the road we made sure to be checked in to a dog-friendly hotel wherever we were in time to watch our beloved Tampa Bay Rays play in the World Series. It has now been a couple days since the World Series ended and I want to congratulate the Los Angeles Dodgers on their championship season, and I also want to write this open letter to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Dear Tampa Bay Rays:

There is no doubt 2020 has been difficult on almost everyone on the planet and, as your #1 doggo fan, I want to say thank you for all your hard work, dedication, enthusiasm, and sportsmanship during your fantastic season. I love how you not only used your individual talent but also worked together as a team to prove to baseball fans around the world that the Tampa Bay Rays are for real.

It seemed like a lot of baseball analysts tried to find a word to describe your game and all along I wanted to tell them they were overthinking it and that you’re a good team because you are all good players. Well, actually you are all more than just good players, you are some of the best baseball players in the world. You are also great teammates and have great chemistry. I love it when I see humans working together to do good things and everyone from the players to the ownership group to the coaching staff to the scouts and to the staff back in Tampa who work behind the scenes should all be very proud of what you accomplished this season.

I bet Kiwi was very proud of his human dad, Kevin Kiermaier, just like I was proud of all the players. So thank you for the sacrifices you made to keep us entertained during these crazy times and thank you for showing us that hard work pays off. You represented Tampa Bay in such a great way and I’m proud to call Tampa Bay my home. I know you’ll be poised to do even better next season.

I hope some of the Rays players and staff see this letter and realize how much I love them all. I’ve been to 11 MLB stadiums (not bad for a doggo, eh?) including both Tropicana Field and Dodger Stadium and I can’t wait to visit more in the future.

One of my favorite Rays players is Austin Meadows because I got really close to him when he played right field against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park and I watched from the public viewing area they have behind the right field wall. One of my other favorite players is Blake Snell because he wears #4 and that’s my Tampa Bay Lightning hockey jersey number. Maybe one day those guys will see the video of me running the bases at the Field of Dreams Movie Site in my Tampa Bay Rays jersey.

Well, this season was definitely exciting and a big congratulations and thank you to my AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays. Until next time, enjoy the ride.