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New unis, new colors, new players and a new vibe in downtown St. Pete
So the fam and I went to the Rays game today for my son's Little League day at the Trop, and what I saw was a lot of exciting new changes and very little of the same old, same old Devil Rays attitude that permeated the last decade+ at the giant concrete cylinder in St. Pete.
The first thing you notice when you walk up the antiquated tile walkway that leads to the rotunda is the new mural that adorns the front of the building. Bright and colorful and bursting with that Ray of light, it beckons like a giant welcome sign pleading with fans to come see what's inside.
Trouble is once you step inside you are quickly reminded that the Dome is still the Dome, no matter how much paint you slap on the place, and it's a grim reminder that baseball was meant to be played outdoors, not inside a giant air-conditioned grain silo.
And suddenly the irony of the Rays utilizing a sunburst logo becomes amusingly obvious.
Until you look around the place and see all the signs, artists renderings and videos touting the proposed new waterfront stadium the Rays brass has been pushing for the past several months, and then it becomes apparent that the logo is a not-so- subliminal hint that yes, one day this team will live to play in the light of day.
If the team can get $400 million dollars from the taxpayers for an outdoor stadium that will expose the team and its patrons to the uncomfortable midsummer conditions of South Florida.
And suddenly the silo doesn't seem so bad.
As far as the team goes, as soon as you look at the starting lineup you are reminded that the changes have not just been cosmetic ones. The starter on the day is highly-touted 2004 draft pick Jeff Niemann, a long (6'9") lanky right hander who the team hopes will be one of the cornerstones of a young stud rotation, along with Scott Kazmir, James Shields, Matt Garza and fellow hot prospect David Price.
On the field the lineup is as good as many teams in the league: All Star Carl Crawford mans left; future All Star BJ Upton, who blasted a key homer in this game, covers a ton of ground in center; and they have a couple of terrific corner infielders - 2007 MVP candidate Carlos Pena, who has already slammed 6 homers after hitting 46 last year, and potential 2008 Rookie of the Year winner Evan Longoria, who was just brought back from the minors after a controversial late spring demotion, looks like a franchise player at third.
The problem with the Rays is the same one that has been plaguing the team for the last decade: pitching. Most of the staff is too young (see above mentioned starters, plus Jason Hammel and Andy Sonnanstine), too old (setup man and taser target Al Reyes and closer Troy Percival, whose arm could fall off at any time), or just plain mediocre (all the rest.)
And therein lies the problem of why this team will be better, but not nearly good enough to contend for a playoff spot for a few years. They desperately needed to acquire a decent veteran arm to anchor the young staff and provide experience in the battles against the top tier clubs, especially now with 2007 strikeout king Kazmir shelved with arm troubles.
And until they do, plus upgrade the bullpen from the current collection of has beens and never was', this team will be exciting, teasing and sometimes pleasing, but not good enough to take it to the next level.
So its okay to buy the new color gear (which fans are doing in droves), get on board the bandwagon early, support the young studs and watch the team grow from a cellar-dwelling laughingstock to an up-and-coming contender.
Just don't expect it to happen overnight.
Maybe by the time they get into that new stadium.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
It's the new Rays of Tampa Bay
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Rays exact sweet revenge in the snowy Bronx
Small Markets 7, Evil Empire 6
What kind of moron schedules baseball games in early April in places like Detroit, Chicago and New York?
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tampa Bay & New York Gm 2 rained out
Hometown hero Dukes tries to rehab his rep by signing autographs at spring trainingFor example this ESPN.com cover story on Elijah Dukes this afternoon. From Karl Ravich to Pete
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Gammons to Dickie V. everyone is singing the praises of the Rays' troubled-but-talented trio of B.J Upton- Delmon Young-Elijah Dukes. That's partly because they are fascinating case studies of what athletes who are incredibly gifted & talented can do to throw their careers away, and partly because America loves those types of stories, whether they turn out to have happy endings or not.Somewhere a Disney writer's burning a hole in the hard drive of his HP Notepad over this kid.
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So for now the media will hype Dukes and Young & Upton as well, by going over their numerous arrests, suspensions and immature quotes while touting their physical abilities and what they can do with a baseball. And while they pretend to want these guys to succeed in their careers, they would be just as happy to write juicy columns about their failures and how they wasted opportunities. After all, those make good movies, too, just not the Disney kind.Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Delmon's Dominating, Dmitri's Dumped
While Devil Ray rookie Delmon Young continues to make major league pitching look silly- he's currently batting .400 (16-45) after a 2-4 night in a win vs. the Twins- older brother Dmitri has reportedly been released by the Tigers.
Although Young spent time earlier in the season on the DL while being treated for alcoholism, Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski cited "strictly performance-related" reasons for the release, and Young left without talking after the Tiger's 5-4 loss at home to Seattle.
Both Dmitri and Delmon have a history of temperamental &/or abusive behavior, and it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere along the line Dmitri's critical views of the team and other off-field issues hastened this decision. Just speculation on my part but to release a guy who has hit 82 home runs and knocked in 267 runs for you since 2002 at this point of the season, right as they playoffs are about to start, well when there's smoke...
Who knows, maybe the Rays will pick him up to spell Travis Lee. If so, hide the women & children of Tampa Bay!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
D-Rays lose but turn rare triple play
Rays hit 3 HRs & play stellar defense, but come up short to Seattle, 4-3
The Rays were having another one of their FAN-tastic bobblehead giveaways; great I thought, another addition to my collection of sports memorabilia, or as my wife calls it junk. Who would the player be, I wondered? We soon found out it wasn't a player but a bobble-anchor desk of TV announcers Joe Magrane & De-Wayne Staats! D-Ray Fever- Catch It!
We get to the field and look for our seats, and lo & behold they are beauts: 2nd row from the field on the 3rd base side, so close I could see Adrian Beltre counting his stolen millions in his head while cracking his neck and spitting repeatedly during the National Anthem.
With the lowly Mariners in town (they have a worse road record than TB) and unknown pitchers Cha Seung Baek(who beat Boston earlier in the week w/ a 2-hit gem) and J.P. Howell starting, I didn't expect to see much excitement; judging by the sparse crowd, neither did anyone else. In fact I though the most excitement was going to come from the Mariner Moose mascot battling Raymond all night in an all-out a mascot war (always fun). 
But there was some excitement on this night, and it began in the first inning.Howell was getting lit up like a roman candle early- the first 3 batters reached on a single (Ichiro, even slimmer up close), walk .1.jpg)
(Lopez) and RBI single by Take the Money & Run Beltre. Howell was behind everyone and they were just teeing off on his 3-1 fastballs. But just when it looked like the M's were going to blow it open in the first frame, which would have sent my wife and I to the Brew Pub early, a strange and rare thing happened: 104 RBI man Raul Ibanez battled Howell to a full count before striking out looking; at the same time Beltre took off for 2nd (was it a missed hit & run or was THM&RB running on his own?), & catcher Dioner Navarro threw a seed to SS Ben Zobrist covering 2B. Beltre tried to stop to let Lopez get home, but Lopez hesitated and Ben tagged Beltre, & then he must've heard what I was yelling from my box seat: "he's breaking for home!" Zobrist wheeled and threw another seed back to Dioner who blocked the dish and tagged Lopez for a "did I just see that?" strike 'em out- caught stealing- caught stealing home TRIPLE PLAY! The "crowd" went wild; we high-fived each other and everyone either said "do you believe that" or "what happened"? Turns out it was the first 2-6-2 Triple Play in MLB history and only the 7th since 1900 that started with a strikeout. I told the wife, "a triple play is pretty rare, so even if nothing else we saw a little history"- she seemed excited, or maybe it was the Bacardi Breezers.
The crowd (and my wife) was still buzzing when Rocco Baldelli stepped up to lead off the Rays bottom of the inning. I swear on my kids I said to my wife and newfound front-row buddy "hey, he just hit a leadoff homer the other night, watch him hit another one"-BOOM- Baldelli blasts one to deep center for a game-tying bomb and the crowd went wild again. I'll tell ya, 7,000 people can get pretty rowdy when the conditions are right. As far as excitement goes, you can't really beat a history-making triple play and leadoff, game-tying homer in the first inning.
Unfortunately it was downhill from there as the Mariners tacked on 3 runs and held the Rays scoreless until the 8th. That's when they mounted a little rally, courtesy of their talented kids.
With the score 4-1 in the bottom of the 8th Delmon Young, who had been 0-7 in his first homestand thus far, blasted a shot into the seats to close it to 4-2. Although the Rays got 2 more men on, a DP by Wiggy killed the rally. But after a nice 13- pitch ninth by Jon Switzer kept them in the game, the Rays got 2 quick outs in the bottom half before Zobrist stepped up and grooved one into the leftfield bleachers of M's closer JJ Putz to make it a 4-3 game. But anyone who follows the Rays knows their hideous record in 1-run games, so it's no surprise what came next: Baldelli drove one to deep center, again (all 4 of his AB's went to CF), but Ichiro caught it at the wall for the final out.
So the Rays lost and Seattle broke their 12 game road losing streak, but my wife and I looked on the bright side: we had awesome free tickets (thanks, Nancy), saw a historic play & 3 Ray youngsters hit HR's, and we got Magrane/ Staats Bobbledesks. What more could you ask for?
Friday, September 01, 2006
Delmon's Dynamite
Young phenom's Chi-Town debut a mashing success
Whaddaya know. Turns out the kid was right. He was ready for the Big Leagues.
With a phenomenal performance in his first series in the majors, the D-Rays rookie RF wowed his opponents, teammates, and coaches. He may have also silenced some of his critics and doubters who thought the pressure of Major League Baseball would crack the kid like a nut.
Check out the numbers from his first 3 games vs. the World Champs:
Tuesday: 2-for-3, HR, 2 RBIs, 2 runs. Hit by first pitch; homered for first hit.
Wednesday: 2-for-3, 2B, sac fly, 2 RBIs. Both hits came with two outs.
Thursday: 4-for-5, 2B, run. Started winning rally with 10th-inning single.
Grand totals: 8-11 (.727), 2 2Bs, 1HR, 4RBI, 1(big)HBP, 1 blown catch, 1 ton of praise.
Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen has already punched his ticket to the Hall after witnessing Delmon's destruction first hand. After denying that he instructed series-opening starter Freddy garcia to hit Young with the first ever pitch he saw as a big-leaguer, Young went on a tear that culminated with a rally-starting single in the 10th inning yesterday that preceded Jorge Cantu's game-deciding 2-run base hit. In between he misjudged a fly ball by Jermaine Dye in the first inning of game 1 that went for a 3-run HR, ran the bases flawlessly while spraying the ball to all fields, and hit a 2-run jack into the bully for his first major league homer in his 2nd career AB.
All of that activity promted the garrulous Guillen to proclaim:
"He's a future Hall of Famer..he has a long way to go, but this kid's not scared. He's for real."
So Delmon passed his entry test. We'll see how he fares at home this weekend vs. Seattle. I'll be at the game Saturday night and get an up-close look at the kid, and I'd love to ask him one question:
did his teammates gave him a Perrier shower after his first game?
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Delmon Young makes D-Rays, ML debut
Troubled & talented phenom gets callup for tonight's game 
This is what we here in Tampa Bay have been waiting for. A big storm is blowing into town, full of hot air and carving a path of destruction in its wake. And no it is not named Ernesto(Click the title link for Gary Shelton's humorous column comparing Delmon to a hurricane). No, the kid known as The Bat Tosser for his infamous heave of his lumber that struck a minor league ump, earing him a 50 game suspension has made the big leagues. Batten down the hatches!
Aside from the bat incident, this kid has been making waves in the Bay area ever since he was drafted with the #1 overall pick in 2003. I believe that because his big brother, Dmitri of the Tigers, was already a major leaguer, Delmon considered it his destiny to be here, and he immediately let everyone know it; he wanted to be in the majors from day one, never mind three years later. So as time went on, and the Rays continued to suck, and Delmon put up numbers at Durham and stewed, this whole situation blew up into a Category 4 on the Prima Donna Scale. After his suspension ended he told a USAToday writer that he and fellow phenoms BJ Upton and Elijah Dukes should already be with the big club, because they are like 30 games out of first and they suck. Plus the showers at Durham were horrible and the big boys shower with Perrier. Okay. Reality check time.
Now that you have finally achieved what you believe to be your birthright, young Delmon, you better be careful what you wish for. Because even in a non-baseball town, your actions and words have preceded your talents, and that will get you booed anywhere. So if you can't hit a curveball, or you lose a ball in the Teflon Trop roof, or you mouth off to one of your teammates or coaches, well good luck to you. Because humility can be a painful thing when you're having it shoved back in your face.
Good luck, Delmon; would you like a lemon for your shower?
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