Rays players call out fans...right or wrong?

Tropicana Field in August /Courtesy: Me

By now, most of you have read about the Tweet from Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price, calling out his teams fans for not showing up in the stretch drive. Quoteth Price "Had a chance to clinch post season spot tonight with about 10,000 fans in the stands...embarrassing". He later said "If I offended anyone I apologize I did not think it was gonna turn into this..."


That wasn't all. All-Star 3rd baseman Evan Longoria tacked on some more, saying in post game comments that "You'd pretty much like to think that a team in a playoff hunt, with an opportunity to clinch, that you could get 30,000 in here to cheer you on". He went on to ask how to get people to come see them play.

More on the issue from TBO.com's Tony Fabrizio RIGHT HERE

We think the guys make valid points, but, they probably shouldn't have shared them. If you've ever been to the Trop, you'd understand why so few actually go. We attended a game in August and there were maybe 15-18,000 in attendance. They were playing another 1st place team, Texas.

Fans at the Trop/Courtesy: Me

We don't blame the fans in this one. The Trop is located in downtown St. Petersburg, perhaps one of the most desolate alleged big-city downtowns in the country. Really, there is nothing that would draw someone from the Tampa area there.

Sure, they are called the "Tampa Bay" Rays, but they are a good 30-minutes from Tampa. There is a much bigger population base in Tampa, in St. Pete, the average age demographic has got to be in the late 50's to early 60's. They aren't hard core sports fans.

We realize the recession hit the area pretty hard, but we truly believe if the team were in the city of Tampa, we wouldn't be having this conversation. We also say that after living in the "Ultimate" apathetic sports city, Atlanta. This we think is different.

The Rays are trying to get a new stadium. Their owner seems to want to do the right thing and get them out of St.Pete. The Mayor of St. Pete, while we sure is an honorable man, is fighting this hard. Unfortunately, the Trop is not a baseball stadium, never has been a baseball stadium and never will be. It just isn't.

We'll keep an eye on this, though we guess that during the playoffs, the stadium will suddenly fill up. The games mean more and at some point, they may end up playing the Yankees, a team with a rather large fanbase in the area.

Check out the postgame comments from Longoria courtesy of Tom Korun and WFTS-TV in Tampa...

BREAKING: Brandon Morrow Loses No-Hitter, Finishes One-Hitter

After 8-and-two-thirds innings, the Tampa Bay Rays Evan Longoria poked a ball into shallow right field to break up the Toronto Blue Jays' Brandon Morrow's no-hitter

Carrying the no-hitter into the ninth, Morrow got Jason Bartlett to fly out to center to start the inning. Ben Zobrist drew a walk and Carl Crawford flew out to left field to set up Longoria.

Longoria sent a dribbler in between Aaron Hill and first base, but Hill couldn't get to the ball in time. It caromed off his glove and into right field.

Here's the play, and obvious pro-Morrow fan reaction, until it gets pulled...
((HT: Rogers Sportsnet/MLB/MLBAM/dhami187))


Morrow had struck out 16 Rays to that point in the game.
Dan Johnson struck out swinging for the 17th strike out in a 137-pitch performance for Morrow, who improved to 9-6 on the year with the win.

The Jays won the game 1-nothing. Jeff Niemann was scheduled to start for the Rays, but was sent back to Tampa along with Wade Davis to have their throwing arms examined by team doctors. Andy Sonnenstine started in Niemann's place. Randy Choate, Dan Wheeler, and Lance Cormier mopped up in relief.

More when we know more...

Ray Fight! Ray Fight! Well, Almost... How About Fingerpointing And Raised Voices...???

After starting out 25-10 this year, the Tampa Bay Rays have turned into something just this side of mediocre in the American League East- something that cannot ever happen if you want to maker it out of the division alive by regular season's end...

It seems to be reaching a boil... BJ Upton and Evan Longoria got into it at the ballpark, and while it's not to the Zambrano-Lee scale, it's worth noting...

So, where do they go from here...???
That's the question and that's why this may be one of those seminal moments this season...
((HT: The BigLead via Bubbaprog/Sun Sports/MLB))


Winners never jog during play...
The HQ is siding with Longoria until further notice...

Watch Rays skipper Joe Maddon address the issue here, thanks to our friends at FSNFlorida/Sun Sports

American League Fans Love Longoria

Tampa Bay Rays 3rd Baseman Evan Longoria is challenging Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees as the most popular player in the American League. Longoria is the leading vote - getter for the American League All Star team but not by much. Longoria has totalled 1,560,358 votes while Jeter's numbers stand at 1,511,418 votes. Don't worry, I'm sure both will have a sizeable bonus in their paychecks for making the All-Star team.


Here are the returns:

First Basemen

1. Mark Teixeira - Yankees 833,960 Votes
2. Kevin Youkilis - Red Sox 832,751
3. Justin Morneau - Twins 729,175
4. Miguel Cabrera - Tigers 649,955
5. Chris Davis - Rangers 461,183

Second Basemen

1. Ian Kinsler - Rangers 1,173,494 Votes
2. Dustin Pedroia - Red Sox 923,416
3. Robinson Cano - Yankees 624,394
4. Aaron Hill - Blue Jays 536,612
5. Placido Polanco - Tigers 424,889

Third Basemen

1. Evan Longoria - Rays 1,560,358 Votes
2. Alex Rodriguez - Yankees 678,227
3. Michael Young - Rangers 655,398
4. Mike Lowell - Red Sox 438,123
5. Scott Rolen - Blue Jays 369,517

Shortstops

1. Derek Jeter - Yankees 1,511,418 Votes
2. Jason Bartlett - Rays 698,095
3. Elvis Andrus - Rangers 584,462
4. Marco Scutaro - Blue Jays 471,298
5. Cesar Izturis - Orioles 261,953

Outfielders

1. Jason Bay - Red Sox 1,101,649 Votes
2. Josh Hamilton - Rangers 989,710
3. Ichiro Suzuki -Mariners 794,104

Source: Major League Baseball

Photo Courtesy: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Longoria & Soto Top Rookies

The envelop please. The American League Rookie Of The Year is.... Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays. This was a no brainer. Longoria slugged 27 home runs, drove in 122 runs and batted .272. Clearly the best rookie in the AL.

The National League Rookie of the Year is a catcher, Geovany Soto of the Chicago Cubs is the winner. Soto batted .285 with 23 home runs.

Guess who the last Cubs was to win the Rookie of the Year award? Jerome Walton in 1989. What ever happened to Walton.

Photos Courtesy: Getty Images

Evan Almighty- ((Don't Say Devil)) Rays Lead ALCS

The Tampa Bay ((don't say Devil)) Rays are now up 2 games to 1 in the American League Championship Series with a 9-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park. The ((don't say Devil)) Rays knocked four homers in the game off Red Sox pitching. Evan Longoria ties a rookie record for homers in a post-season... Jon Lester proved human... and not at a good time...

((HT: TBS/MLB/MLB.com))

Throwing Stuff Out There

I’m usually not a stat nerd but every now and then I’ll look at the standings in baseball. Here it is the halfway point of the season and the Tampa Bay Rays have the best winning percentage in baseball at .605. Yes, the Rays are in first place in the American League East. I watched a few games and this is an exciting team to watch. They remind me of the St. Louis Cardinals during the Whitey Herzog era of the 80’s, always a threat to steal and just enough power for the big inning. Case in point, B.J. Upton, Carl Crawford and Jason Bartlett are in the Top 10 in the American League in stolen bases and the power seams to come from Evan Longoria ((pictured right- Thanks, Getty Images)) with some help from Eric Hinske. Another reason is like the Redbirds of the 80’s, the Rays have good enough starting pitching to keep them in games but have a closer to nail down the win. The 80’s Cardinals had Bruce Sutter and then Todd Worrell. The Rays have Troy Percival.

Yet the Rays are still an afterthought in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. Attendance is barely above last years pace. Come on Rays fans (if there are any). Jump on the bandwagon. This looks like a team that is in it for the long haul.

The Jolly Roger Rookie Rant

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would like the way my career path started. I think I made $15,000 a year my first job out of college, the very bottom of the pay scale. Now the Jolly Roger feels that unproven rookies who are drafted in the NFL should start at the bottom of the salary food chain and have the option to renegotiate. What a novel idea. The owners would love it, get the NFL Players Association to sign off and what a breakthrough, now the owners can protect themselves.

Commissioner Goodell may have power and influence with player conduct matters but this is biting off more than he can chew. The NFLPA and the NFL are already on a collision course for football suicide with the opting out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that threatens the 2011 season. Now this, a rookie salary scale and the Jolly Roger wants this addressed during contract talks. It’s like taxing the wealthy, it sounds good but not practical. The precedent has already been set, (See Jake Long and Matt Ryan.) Oh sure Ricky Williams signed a low ball contract with the New Orleans Saints after they drafted him way back when and he found out he could not afford the good stuff, if you know what I mean, on his salary. Which leads me to this……

Paging Dr. Feelgood!!

Ricky Williams wants to become a doctor. That’s right, the running back who left the Miami Dolphins to find himself and smoke marijuana, would like to prescribe drugs rather than use them. He told Yahoo Sports the following: After football, Williams wants to return to Texas to finish his degree in education. He has a long way to go and needs about 70 credit hours. After graduating, he wants to go to medical school to be an osteopathic physician so he can offer patients a holistic approach to healing.

“When I retired and I had a chance to be by myself outside of being a football player, I found I enjoy helping people and I had a gift for making people feel better,” he said.

Williams said he reads a lot of self-help books, often with metaphysical subjects. But nothing too wild, he said.

“I’m not a UFO guy,” he said.

Let’s see if Ricky Williams still has the gift of running away from defenders. If not don’t expect Bill Parcells to show a good bedside manner and Williams’ football career will be up in smoke.

That’s it, I’m spent

--John Wilkerson

((Thanks for the photo, Getty Images. That's Ricky on the right, #34, from 2006))