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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.

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…)

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.

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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?

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?

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.

 

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

I was listening to Steve Deumig on 620 The Sports Animal the other day when a Yankees fan called in. Steve started needling the guy, and it got onto the topic of which team is better, the Yankees or the Rays. Steve’s take: The Rays (of course). He even threw in a choice “the Yankees suck,� “they’re old,� etc.

But how about this hypothetical? If someone gave you 10 grand and said you had to bet it on whether the Yankees or Rays would have a better record at the end of the season, where would you put your money? I’m guessing that Deumig would say the Rays, but he’s an experienced gambler, and I wonder if he had the opportunity to win some free money, whether he’d put it down on the Yankees. Yeah … he would.

This little musing does not come from a Yankee fan, not by any means. Inasmuch as I’m a baseball fan at all, I like the Rays. And I think that, right now, the Rays are indeed a better team than the Yanks. As far as putting money down, though, the pin-stripers from the Big Apple have too much history and experience. I’d have to bet on New York to have a better record at season’s end.

(Above: Honda Grand Prix winner Graham Rahal, the author’s grandsons David and Sam – the latter a little miffed because his brother, not he, had just caught one of Rahal’s autographed caps – and an unidentified fan, also hoping for souvenirs. All photos by David Biddle.)

If you’re a complete ignoramus when it comes to auto racing, it helps to have with you as your guide and your photographer a complete racing freak. My partner’s son David is just such a freak, and my first experience at the Honda Grand Prix (gotta get those brand names in – the Grand Prix is nothing if not an intensely branded event) benefited immeasurably by having him on hand to interpret.
After our edifying encounter with Gene Simmons, we spent the next day at the Acura Sports Car Challenge, part of the American Le Mans Series, or ALMS (“Alms! Alms! Alms for the poor!�). Though essentially just the pre-show to the main event on Sunday, the ALMS race proved useful as a way for me, racing dumbass, to pick the brain of David, racing connoisseur. He showed me a lot, and also took pictures of it.
Some of these pictures were of merely prurient interest (for me, not for David) Like this one (below) of Penske driver Ryan Briscoe, who makes a good argument for orange jumpsuits. Which brings me to an important point for all potential race-car fans of the female or gay persuasion: The eye-candy factor. Between the drivers and the firemen and the weekend jocks, well, you need to attend more races, honey, I’m tellin’ you.
But David, being knowledgeable, was also able to spot some historic moments which had no (well, only a little) prurient interest, like this meeting (below) of race-car royalty: Michael Andretti, his son Marco and racing godfather Roger Penske.

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Doesn’t sound like such a great idea since that Celebrity Apprentice thing, does it? But that’s what we got the other night in St. Pete. Or rather, that’s what my 10-year-old grandson David got.

On Friday night, Grand Prix Eve, we were on the verge of getting a table for six at St. Pete hotspot Parkshore Grill when the hostess told us, “I’m so sorry. Gene Simmons just took your table.� It was kind of an honor, in a perverse way, to have your table swiped out from under you by a quasi-celebrity, and since Gene Simmons was apparently the only quasi-celebrity other than the drivers to show up for race weekend (no Dempsey, no Letterman), this qualified as a brush with semi-greatness.
But David, the grandson, wanted more than just a brush. An aspiring rock star, he took it upon himself to ask the long-tongued one for some gen-yoo-wine rock-star counsel.
After we’d been seated at our own table for six, David went in search of Simmons’ table and proceeded to interview him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Simmons, I don’t mean to interrupt your dinner, but I just got my first electric guitar and I have my own band called Lack of Focus, and do you have any tips?�
Simmons, in his sans-KISS-makeup, bushy-black-hair, reality-TV persona, paused for a few seconds and answered, politely, “First off, change the name of the band to L.O.F., because Lack of Focus is really kind of long, and when you’re signing papers, you don’t want it to be long.� Then he asked, “How many people are in your band?� David told him four, not including himself.
“OK,� he said. “That’s a good amount. What kind of music are you going to play?�
“Kind of like your kind of music,� David replied.
“Aerosmith…. Classic rock,� Simmons offered.
“Yeah, yeah.�
And then Simmons said, “Remember this: It doesn’t matter how many bad choices or good choices that you make because you have so much time ahead of you to make up for it.�
Then he autographed David’s napkin.
Autograph? $XX on EBay. Career advice from a man who knows how to stretch out a career beyond all reason? Priceless.

Fox Sports is reporting that Brett Favre has decided to hang up the jock strap after 17 incredible seasons as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. You can’t argue with Favre’s timing, seeing as his retirement follows his best season in years. Fox’s Jay Glazer sums up Favre’s final campaign this way: “He led the Packers to the NFC Championship Game after passing for a stunning 4,155 yards, looking very much at times like a younger version of himself. In addition he threw 28 TDs â€â€� including an overtime Hail Mary pass to beat Denver in front of a national audience â€â€� and had a 95.7 quarterback rating. He was also voted into the Pro Bowl following the 2007 season but declined to go.” Not bad for an old man.

Favre’s exact placement on the list of history’s greatest QBs will be the source of endless debate, but there is no doubt that he’s an automatic Hall of Famer and a Top-5 All-Time quarterback. My favorite Favre memory is this pass to Antonio Freeman, which I didn’t believe at the time and still have trouble grasping:

And really, who can argue with these kids?

From the CL intern desk:

USF has not scheduled any official events to celebrate the Bulls upset victory over West Virginia last Friday, but you wouldn’t need the university to sponsor an event to know we’re excited.

Within half an hour after the game, there was a Facebook group called “I rushed the field when we beat West Virginia!� As of today, there are 114 members of a group called “Who’s West Virginia?�

The real fun started after the UF vs. Auburn game on Saturday � which the Gators lost. The target turned from the Mountaineers to that certain school two hours up I-75 from here.

Now, I’ve been to Gators Café and Saloon on Treasure Island for many Saturday Swamp slaughters. I’m usually decked out in a blue tank top and orange hat, but this weekend was different as I finally had my own team of which to be proud. I was nearly pummeled by a 5-foot-11-inch, blonde, face-painted Gator girl who caught me celebrating Auburn’s field goal.

You know USF students are excited when we start trash-talking the Gators. There are already 647 members in the group called “USF beat Auburn when UF couldn’t!� I joined it as soon as I got home.

The most in-your-facebook group of the bunch? USF is #1 in Florida!

� Kat Clement

(Kat Clement is a USF-St. Petersburg journalism student. She was selected for a CL spring 2008 internship.)

So much was wrong with the latest feature in “Encounters,� the St. Petersburg Times’ “small but meaningful� feature series, starting with its being on the front page of this morning’s paper.

I like learning more about the love bugs. They affect everyone and everything. I plan my day around avoiding them. So I appreciate the effort staff writer Amber Mobley made in getting the knowledge out there.

But using it to rant about the downside of being a singleton? Lame, lame, lame. She claims, “Love bug courtship is like your own experience with mating. Cold, brief and impersonal.� Please. Speak for yourself. Better yet, come to a girls night out with the CL staff and we’ll introduce you to some quality hotties.

The story was full of painful dating clichés. But Mobley’s biggest mistake was giving into the stereotype that promiscuity in females is “dirty,� while the Casanova status of males is okay, referring to the female bugs as “hoochies� while the males bugs got to be “lusty lovers.�

I’m an advocate for reciprocation and prefer equal opportunity love fests, such as that offered by Salon.com on the hotness of Hugh Laurie. The story may have knotted the boxers of some male readers, but the ladies had a rare chance to completely objectify this fine specimen of man for his mind and body. I concur. We can play doctor anytime.