"The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game is part of our past. It reminds us of all that was once good and could be again."     - Field of Dreams

                                            

                                                          

It was the morning of the first anniversary of the attack on the Word Trade Center, September 11, 2002. My wife and I were feeling empty and believed that we needed to do something that day to celebrate America. For years I have been participating in Veterans Day and Memorial Day remembrances at the V.A. Hospital in St. Pete, but this was not the same. It wasn't the same as the Fourth of July either. The Fourth is a celebration and the anniversary of 9/11 was not a celebration. We finally decided to go to a baseball game. What could be more American than a baseball game? Besides, our beloved Red Sox were in town to play the Devil Rays. So there it was; my wife donned her #5 Nomar shirt and I, my retro Teddy Ball Game #9 home jersey and off to Tropicana Field we went.

                                        

We arrived a couple hours early for the game and had a chance to see Petey warm up, and Nomar work out and Manny look for a bathroom in left field. We actually spoke with Brian Daubach for a while and were thoroughly entertained watching Derek Lowe toss candy to the kids by the Red Sox bullpen.

    

We knew there was going to be some kind of ceremony to honor those lost during the 9/11 tragedy but neither of us was prepared for what they did. There were fire trucks and ambulances all over the place. The players were introduced to the base lines like the All-Star game or the World Series; escorted by fire fighters, paramedics or policemen from all over the Tampa Bay area. Tommy Franks officiated over the ceremonies and brought a contingent of Armed Forces personnel from McDill Air force Base. The names of all those who lost their lives on 9/11/01 were put up on the giant scoreboard. The whole thing was moving and we knew we did the right thing by going to a baseball game to celebrate America.

    

The Red Sox won, Petey got his 18th and Manny never found a bathroom in left field (although there is one out there). That didn't matter though. What the Devil Rays did to honor those who died during this horrible tragedy and those who put lives and safety on the line every day so moved me that I felt I somehow had to pay them back. That winter I became a season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays andI have held them ever since.

                                    

I have been a life long Red sox fan and more than likely will die that way. I actually caught six straight opening days when I went to the Latin School in Boston. Now, what was I doing with seasons tickets to the lowly Devil Rays? In the beginning I justified it by knowing I'd get to see the Sox play nine or ten times a year but I started getting hooked. I started to bleed when the Rays lost, which happened quite frequently. I began chastising the ownership for not doing more to put a better product on the field and I decided that after the 2003 season I was going to surrender my tickets; after all, the ownership was horrible and the personnel were atrocious. When the time came to do so I relented. I realized that even though the Rays sucked I was enjoying Major League baseball in person forty to fifty times a year. What could be better than that? If I didn't use the tickets the first couple of years that I had them, they went to waste, but no more. Somebody is always looking

for them.  Hell I could make a fortune if I wanted to scalp them when the Yankees or the Red Sox are in town.

    

Lately I have grown weary of listening to the many negative comments that come my way about the Major Leagues even being in St. Pete. These comments make no sense to me as there has been a long history of Major League baseball being involved in this community. The fact is Branch Rickey brought the Cubs to St. Pete in 1913 for spring training. In 1922 the Boston Braves came to town. Another fact is, more Major League spring training games have been played in St. Petersburg, Florida than in any other city in the country. At one time or another it has been the spring training home to Orioles, the Giants, the Mets, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns.

    

In the 1980s local leaders decided it was time to make St. Pete (and Tampa Bay) a Major League city. The Twins, Giants, White Sox, Rangers and Mariners all considered moving to the area but they all decided to stay put. I believe all these teams were just using Tampa Bay to extort new stadiums or better deals from their communities. In 1990, the city of St. Petersburg built the Florida Suncoast Dome (now called Tropicana Field) for the sole purpose of luring a Major League team here. However the 1993 expansion went to Colorado and Miami and MLB nixed the sale of the San Francisco Giants to a group from Tampa Bay who would then more that team to St. Pete. In 1995 an expansion team was finally awarded to a local group headed by Vince Naimoli. The first game was played March 31, 1998 against the Tigers. Wilson Alvarez threw the first pitch, Wade Boggs hit a home Run and Ted Williams was in attendance. None of this was enough. The Rays lost 11-6 and 98 more times in the inaugural season.

    

Jose Canseco joined the Rays prior to the 1999 season. Wade Boggs got his 3000th hit as a Ray that same year. The next year they acquired Greg Vaughan and Vinnie Castilla and the following year a can't miss player named Ben Grieve. There were big expectations but Castilla couldn't hit outside of Colorado, Vaughn was always hurt and Grieve missed. Canseco, Fred McGriff and Randy Wynn weren't enough to get it done. They all finally left and we spent the next couple of years fielding players named "who's that" and "where'd he come from" and "Huh?". There was one exception though. A tall, skinny 20 year old kid who could run like the wind was patrolling left field at the Trop. His name was Carl Crawford and he was someone to build our hopes on. Guys like Aubrey Huff, Rocco Baldelli and Toby Hall started to develop. We acquired Julio Lugo for almost nothing after he was no longer welcome in Houston. Tino Martinez signed for one year in 2004 and we were starting to look respectable. Lou Pinella was hired as manager in 2003 and did a great job. But he was given nothing more than what was already here to work with. We just had no pitching and ownership would not spend any money to get any.

    

The talk of contraction came up in 2005. This gave Mr. Naimoli another reason not to spend any money to upgrade the team. His argument against spending was always the same. As soon as the community started supporting his team he would upgrade with revenues generated from that support. His attitude always seemed to be that the community owed him and the community took exception to that. As a result corporate sponsors backed out and fans stopped coming to the ballpark. One quick story about Vince Naimoli might explain everything. The Devil Rays organization contracted a local High School band to perform (for free) during the inaugural game in 1998. Mr. Naimoli insisted that they pay for their seats at the ballgame. They left the stadium after the performance. 

      

When Stuart Sternberg took over from Naimoli as managing general partner, things were definitely looking up. However, having had the experience of shelling out millions to the likes of Castilla, Vaughn, Alvarez, Ben Grieve and a host of other worn out stars the Rays took the tack of developing the organization from within. They traded for prospects and drafted well. Cast-offs from other teams (like Brendan Harris, Josh Wilson, Al Reyes and Carlos Pena) have become more than productive members of the team and of the league. Harris is hitting around .300, Pena is second in the league in homers, Reyes was leading the league in saves before going on the DL  and Josh Wilson has been a solid everyday player at both second and short.

                                   

I know that I am not just wishing on a star when I say the outlook today for the Rays is bright. They currently field the best outfield in baseball with Carl Crawford (25 years old), B.J. Upton (23) and Delmon Young (21). The pitching, led by Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Edwin Jackson will be a pleasant surprise in 2008. Akinori Iwamura is a magician at third and Carlos Pena will only continue to get better with innings played. Most experts credit the Rays with having one of the richest farm systems in baseball. The AAA Durham team and the AA Montgomery team are both going to their leagues playoffs. The Southern League's Most Valuable Player was Evan Longaria, a 21-year-old power hitting third baseman and the League's Most Outstanding Pitcher was Chris Mason with 15 wins and a 2.53 ERA. The patience we have all been forced to deal with should be paying off in the very near future. But for today, even going through another 90-loss season, watching these kids play has been a real treat. They play hard; they are exciting; they never give up. As long as they display that intensity and attitude I will not give up on them.

    

I have read many comments on this Blog saying that there are no Devil Rays fans and that simply is not the truth. I have met Dick Vitale at the Park. I have met Robin Roberts (who you can find around the Rays' bullpen at many games). Many of the WWE wrestlers including Brian Knobbs, John Cena and Hulk Hogan are local residents who attend a lot of the Rays' games and some do promo work for them. Our Governor even comes to the Trop. How many times has he been to a Marlins game?

    

Then there is the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. This Place of Worship used to be located in Hernando County but two years ago moved to the Trop. It now takes up 2 floors and admission is free. This is a "do not miss" for any real baseball fan. The memorabilia here is incredible. I saw Rico Petrocelli there a couple of weeks ago signing autographs.

    

Now it is time to wrap this up. The Rays have only been in existence for ten years and most of their history probably falls under the categories of hardships, suffering and waiting. But we have a lot of things going for us now. We have an exciting young team and an ownership with a plan. We have no rainouts at Tropicana field. We have no rain delays (Ask a Marlins fan about rain delays). It is always 72 degrees even when it is 90+ outside and the air is so wet your hair won't dry without help. The seats are big enough for me (6'4", 220lbs.) to be comfortable. Last, but certainly not least, I have seen baseball games in at least 25 different ball parks in this country and I'll tell you this,         

                   

                       the "Babe Watching" at the Trop is second to none.

                  Go Rays!                 

                                                         

 

Warren Spahn does not get enough respect.

Watching last night's historic game between the Mets and the Cubs was a great event for me. Tom Glavine's 300th win was something special. If only the Billerica, Massachusetts native played his career at Fenway where he belonged.  Oh well, I can dream. I really enjoyed the broadcast and the tributes Glavine received once it appeared that that he was definitely going to get the victory.

 This morning I was thinking how fortunate I was to have seen three of the greatest lefthanded pitchers of all time in my lifetime. Tom Glavine, Sandy Koufax and Warren Spahn. I started to wonder why Warren Spahn seems to be a forgotten man. He is never discussed in the same light with the other all-time great pitchers yet his record overshadows most of them.