COMMENTARY
It was, without debate, the second-most significant date in the history of the Tampa Bay baseball franchise. Game No. 162, eight years ago. Rays 8, Yankees 7. And Chaim Bloom, at that point an assistant minor-league director, seventh on the baseball operations totem pole in the team’s media guide, missed it by design.
“Basically,” he said in part, looking back on it earlier this year, “I decided that my commitments to my family were more important than being around for a game whose outcome I was at that point not going to be able to influence.