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In ballpark, one can see Rays of hope start to shine
© St. Petersburg Times Our professional baseball team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, has completed 12 of its 162 scheduled games for the 2002 regular season, and yet so far is not in last place in the American League East. This, by itself, is reason for some satisfaction. On top of that, the Rays have acquired something that lends cachet to any team, namely, a portrayal in the popular cinema. I am referring to the current Hollywood film The Rookie, based on the true story of former pitcher Jim Morris, who reached the big leagues at an unusually advanced age. Obviously a single movie cannot put us on par with the oft-portrayed New York Yankees, nor even, say, the Cleveland Indians, a franchise depicted in the film Major League as a hapless team with an evil owner who would just as soon see the team fail as succeed. Of course I am not implying any kind of comparison there. At any rate "hapless" is not a word that should be assigned to this current incarnation of the Devil Rays, except perhaps for two particularly unfortunate innings of the young season to date, in which opponents scored 12 and 7 runs on successive nights. However, as an amateur observer I would say the best word to describe the team overall is "pesky." Pesky, and young. Pesky, and young, and cheap, since the team has the lowest payroll in baseball. Okay, I admit it. I love these guys. If more people actually saw them, they might love them too. Already, I notice teenage girls screaming "Jason, Jason," to the baby-faced leftfielder, and fans are becoming intimately familiar with the quirks of each player. In short, the team is developing its own personality, in a way that it did not with store-bought big names. It occurred to me, sitting in $14 outfield seats on opening night, that the more people there are in the stands, the better Tropicana Field looks. I know that a lot of people believe the dome is an abomination and that "baseball should be played outdoors." They are welcome to stay outdoors in August, but I will take the air conditioning. Most of the perceived unpleasantness of the dome disappears with a crowd. I also know that some of the franchise's decisions this year are unpopular with fans. Most notably, the team has decided to close the less-expensive upper deck for most games, and to keep fans in the discount seats of the Beach from migrating to more expensive seats without paying for them. But all of these negatives would be swept aside if the team simply won enough games. This is the age-old conundrum. I have this dread deep down that we are in danger -- that we are in a race against time. So I cheer for the pesky team to win more games than it is supposed to, just like the Indians in the movie. Last year, it was Montreal and Minnesota that appeared slated for contraction. But I wonder how much anybody would fight it -- the Devil Rays' ownership, the city of St. Petersburg -- if Major League Baseball offered everybody truckloads of money just to shut the thing down. Or even if they decided, high-handedly, to kill the Devil Rays and plop the Miami team down here, as though we wouldn't notice. Good things are happening in St. Petersburg. Tampa recently sent over a delegation to see how the downtown is thriving. There are art galleries and gallery walks, and restaurants, and music spilling into the streets. Baseball did not create a miracle on sterile Central Avenue, that land of failed sports bars, but I cannot help but believe it has helped the overall renaissance. Call me an apologist for owner Vince Naimoli, a hometown sucker, a cheerleader. Tell me how much you hate the dome, the beer prices, Vince (did I mention him already?) and the game in general. In fact, you can bend my ear about it all you want. I will be somewhere in the ballpark, keeping a scorecard and cheering with good reason at last against Mr. Steinbrenner's baseball team, not to mention all the others. -- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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Times columns today Howard Troxler Robert Trigaux Bill Maxwell Darrell Fry Susan Taylor Martin From the Times Metro desk Howard Troxler |
