Blurbex

Tampa Bay won twice last night — on the field and in the stands. After years of watching Red Sox fans turn Tropicana Field into their own personal pep rally, I was particularly gratified to be in the midst of a decidedly Rays partisan crowd.

Oh, there were Sox backers, for sure, but they were decidedly less loud — and often deliciously drowned out — by the Rays faithful, many of them newly converted and appropriately zealous. On the handful of occasions that a “Let’s Go Red Sox” cheer started to kindle, a hometown counter-chant quickly doused it out. Rays fans were particularly enthusiastic in heaping boos on Manny Ramirez, the Boston star who’s been bullying low-level team functionaries of late.

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With online voting for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game closing out Wednesday night, it seems a good opportunity to assess the Rays players most likely to go. You’d think, with the best record in baseball, that the local club would stand to place more than the mandatory one player on the American League roster.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

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Watched nine innings and nearly three hours of baseball last night. Again. I’m still amazed that I have that capacity, because baseball has always been a bit on the slow side for me.

It’s all about the Rays, of course. Watching them become a good team has been a kick, then a thrill, then something of a preoccupation. And the more you watch, the more you get an affinity for the team, and the guys on the team, the more you learn about game situations via illuminating analysis by the TV announcing team of Dewayne Staats and Joe Magrane.

The game is still a bit on the slow side for me, but it’s never boring (these days) and, during tense situations (like last night’s 9th inning in a 5-4 Rays win) can be as exciting as any other sport.

• During last night’s game against the Red Sox, it sure seemed like a Rays crowd.

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My father lives in Brewster, Massachusetts, and just celebrated his 90th birthday. As you might expect, he’s a big Red Sox fan. But even up in Red Sox Nation, the Rays are raising eyebrows. Here’s my father’s take (sent to me via email) on a recent Rays/ Marlins blowout:
“Rays scored almost as many runs as there were fans in the stands last night. I wonder if your area deserves such a fine team? Will the attendance improve next week when the Red Sox come to town?”
Um, yes. Because the stands, sadly, will be filled with Red Sox fans.

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Man, was that fun. Sitting along the third bass line in a sea of Cubs fans last night at Tropicana Field, and having the last laugh. And being artfully obnoxious to boot.

I picked up my media credentials at the Trop and grabbed a seat in the last row of the press box. It being a professional environment, there’s no cheering allowed in the press box. I went to a concession stand and bought a 24-oz. Bud Lite and brought it back to my seat. That’s when I found out there’s no drinking in the press box.

I was in the mood to drink. I was in the mood to cheer. I joined my pal Bobby J, who was sitting close to the field in a morass of blue — bright blue emblazoned with “C’s” and “Cubs,” way more so than the dark blue of the Rays.
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This year, for the first time, NBA pundits allowed themselves to utter, albeit rather apologetically, a heretofore blasphemous statement — that Kobe Bryant might actually might be as good as Michael Jordan. Bryant’s performance in the playoffs — up until the Lakers/Celtics final — seemed to justify that discussion.

Bryant’s disappearing act, especially last night, when the Celtics stomped the Lakers by 39 to win the championship in six games, should put that talk to rest.

Let me stress that I’m no more a fan of Jordan than Bryant. Why? I could go into specifics, but sports-o-philes know: There are just some players you hate. And Bryant and Jordan are high on my list. (Bryant may be alone on top.)

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• The Tampa Bay Rays went 3-6 on a road trip before returning home and taking a series (2-1) against the Florida Marlins over the weekend. I wondered how a losing road trip might hurt attendance when the Rays returned home.

Turns out, not so much. The Marlins series drew 79,393 fans to the Trop. That’s pretty respectable for a Major League baseball club, damn near remarkable for the Rays (there wasn’t even a post-game concert).

Has attendance at Rays games crossed over the tipping point? Let’s hope so. The Chicago Cubs — who’ve never played at the Trop — come in for a three-game set starting Tuesday, so that should help keep folks coming through the turnstiles. If the Rays can sweep out the best team in the majors, or win the series, the momentum picks up even further.

…The Ray are getting a lot more love from national media, but in today’s New York Times, in a complimentary story about the Tampa Bay club, the writer referred to pitcher “Scott Shields.” It’s James Shields.

• I don’t watch a lot of golf but tend to tune in during the major tournaments, just to see if it’s close and might end up in a playoff (which is what happened yesterday at the U.S. Open, when Tiger Woods hit a putt on the 18th hole to force a showdown today with 45-year-old Rocco Mediate. [Go Rocco.)

Watching golf on TV, I’ve noticed that certain members of the crowd —gallery, in golf-ese — tend toward strange behavior. (more…)

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I think I crossed a tipping point over the weekend. It’s exciting, and a little scary.
As recently as a few weeks ago, I would sort of stumble across Rays games on TV, watch a few innings until I lost interest. Kept up with ’em in the papers. It was about last week that I started checking out page 2 of the sports section to see who they were playing and when/where the game was on. If I thought of it, I’d tune in for the beginning of the game, watch a few frames. Hang around if the game was good, but hardly ever catch the whole contest.

That’s changed. (more…)

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Tried to find the SI issue with the much-hyped cartoon-style cover yesterday, but the clerk at the South Pasadena CVS told me they’d long ago sold out — and that customers had told her they couldn’t find a copy anywhere in Pinellas. Anyone actually own a copy of this about-to-be-a-collector’s item? And does this mean Tampa Bay is actually beginning to (gasp) care? Even though Monday’s crowd was the lowest in the majors?

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I always figured sitting a few seats down from Jack at a Lakers game was a pricey proposition. Courtside seats. Los Angeles. Big bucks, huh? I found out last night just how pricey.

If someone had asked me prior to last night’s telecast (when they flashed the courtside ducats on the screen) what they cost, I’d probably have said about a grand. I was wrong.

Courtside seats for 2008 L.A. Lakers Western Conference Final playoff games cost
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A woman can win. Even if her opponent is a wildly popular dashingly handsome tall African-American man.

OK, it’s just Dancing with the Stars, and the woman is a former Olympics figure skater (Kristi Yamaguchi) and the man is a professional football player (Jason Taylor).

But what do you wanna bet Hillary will take it as a sign?

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I bounced between the Spurs/Hornets game 7 and the Rays/A’s game last night. After the dreaded Spurs won, I switched off the TV and went to bed. Didn’t even check the Rays score. They’d been down 3-0, Shields looked shaky and I just really wasn’t up for any more bad news.

It was just a few minutes ago that I had time to check the Rays final and, of course, was stoked to see the team came back for a 7-6 win in 13 innings. If they had lost, I might have started to get that “uh oh” feeling, as in “uh oh, three consecutive losses, maybe the wheels are starting to come off, maybe that fabulous start was nothing more than that.”

I’m trying to become a Rays fan, I really am. Which is hard, because I’m not really a baseball fan. I’ll never be like my friend’s fathers when I was a kid; they’d sit their asses in lumpy easy chairs and watch every inning of every Mets game. I can’t even watch every inning of one game, but it is fun toggling back to the Rays telecast during the night and watching a few at-bats, maybe even a full inning or two.

I became a temporary hockey fan when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup a few years ago, and I’m hoping I can stay more than a temporary Rays fan.

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Just back from St. Petersburg City Council gathering where the first-place Tampa Bay Rays moved their proposal for a $450 million waterfront ballpark another step forward. This time it was a financing plan on how they and taxpayers will come up with that cash.

The news: The Rays aren’t looking at using tax-increment funds generated by growth in the downtown area as was previously widely discussed. They are, however, looking to continue to get tourist taxes and other city dollars now devoted to paying off the Trop. The plan calls for using $70 million that the Rays expect from the sale of the Trop to a private redeveloper

Here’s quick breakdown on the financing:

• $150 million from the Rays (presumably in the form of rental payments over 30 years)
•  $70 million from the sale of the Trop to retire that stadium’s $13 million a year debt, which currently runs through 2016
• $100 million from tourist taxes (which presumably would require county leaders extending it beyond its current sunset in 2016).
• $55 million from parking fees generated at the new ballpark.

That last figure seems the shakiest; the Rays want the city to lease it thousands of city-owned parking spaces downtown on favorable terms so the team can resell them to fans.

Download the Rays Financing Plan Handout

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