The Rays Tank: Happy Fourth Of July, Everyone

Here's a question that's been bugging me since last night: how did the 1812 Overture become a Fourth of July tradition? It's not like the piece has any real American connections; it was composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (hint: not an American) and was based on Russia's victory over Napoleon and France in their Patriotic War of 1812. For the longest time growing up, I thought it was based on our War of 1812, but that's was apparently a bit of hometown bias on my part.

I'm going to guess it's the cannons. And the fact that it's such a rousing, exciting piece that goes so well with fireworks. It's downright explosive...much like the Rays are whenever they wear their patriotic caps. Here's hoping their wear the blue version of those caps today, because they're so much easier on the eyes (and the Rays didn't do half bad on Memorial Day wearing them).

Anyway, if anyone has any idea how/why the 1812 Overture got adopted into our pop culture, I'd love to know. Otherwise, have a fantastic Fourth of July!

• So the epic Andrew Cashner / Trevor Bauer match-up last night ended up being a huge disappointment. Cashner left after two innings with an apparent back injury, and Bauer got lit up by the Padres. But before they both left the game, they still had some nasty pitches that look great in GIF form.
• Ivan Nova is apparently a Twitter prankster.
• Wait, Oliver Perez is still in the game of baseball? And not only that, but his velocity is back up and he's succeeding? Mind blown.