Rays All-Star Bryan Baker refutes Yankees bias after end-of-game celebrations

Last trade deadline, Tampa Bay Rays closer Bryan Baker had to reckon with the destabilizing reality that not only had the Baltimore Orioles dealt him, but they'd sent him within their own division. "I can't seem to get out of the AL East," he told Yanks Go Yard's Adam Weinrib with a chuckle. "I don't hate it."

This year, he's no longer the one on the run. He's the one being chased — his Rays are in first place with the Yankees narrowly keeping pace, thanks to a late and surprising end-of-half split.

Baker is a bombast on the mound, exploding with fiery adrenaline after the final out a la Joba Chamberlain. You love it when he's on your team and you hate it when it's the last thing you see after the squad you root for has gone down softly.

In person, though, Baker is mild-mannered and affable, the ultimate on-field transformation. In case you're wondering if he saves a little something special for the Yankees — completely fair, especially based on the way some of last week's games ended — it seems you'd be sorely mistaken.

Bryan Baker of the Rays admits he celebrates every end-of-game strikeout with the same intensity

"I think it feels good to beat anybody. I think almost any game I'm gonna be pretty fired up," Baker told YGY. "I think I'll be more fired up if the game ends on a strikeout. I think that's where you'll see some of those ... get to let out a little more emotion because you feel like you did something cooler to end the game."

"But yeah, I think I'm just as fired up about beating the Twins on a Tuesday night at the Trop as I would be in any other scenario. I think it's important to maintain that competitive edge and that's what I try to spread to my teammates. It's a long year, and every single game matters," Baker concluded.

In essence, Baker isn't a Yankees enemy. He's a lot more like a guy we'd want in our fox hole, someone whose "one game at a time, every game's important" mentality mirrors both the Playoff Knicks and the Yankees team with urgency from earlier in the season that we loved so much.

Who knows? Maybe his tour of the AL East isn't quite over yet.

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