ST. PETERSBURG - If the Devil Rays truly take measure of themselves against the Yankees, they are going to have plenty of chances over the next 31/2 weeks.
They play an exhibition today in Tampa, will spend most of next weekend crossing paths in Japan before playing regular-season games March 30-31, come back to play two at Tropicana Field April 6-7, then play two more in New York on April 13-14.
That's six of their first nine games against New York's nearly $200-million collection of All-Stars and probable Hall of Famers, but the Rays say they won't be awe-struck or intimidated.
"They have possibly the best team in baseball so everybody wants to measure up against them and see where they're at," leftfielder Carl Crawford said.
"We're going to have to go through the Yankees, so we have to tough it up and say, "Yeah, we know they've got a good team and we know they've got the highest payroll, but they still can be beat. They're humans just like us.' I'm just saying, "Don't be afraid because they're the Yankees.' They can be beat."
Slugger Aubrey Huff said the Rays always want badly to beat the Yankees. He'd like to win over some of their Tampa Bay-based fans, too.
"It's probably going to be worse this year," Huff said. "I'd love to see what it will be like when we start winning here, love to see how many of those Yankees pinstriped jerseys get dissed in our homefield."
RAYS RUMBLINGS: Rocco Baldelli will be one of the featured players in MLB's national TV ad campaign for Boys & Girls Clubs. Baldelli, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey and C.C. Sabathia taped their spots last week at Tropicana Field. "It was really cool," Baldelli said. "I had a lot of fun." ... Lou Piniella and Don Zimmer are shooting a commercial for Checkers. ... Baseball America ranks the Rays ninth for overall organizational talent in the latest Prospect Handbook with this description: "Premium prospects at the top of the organization take a back seat to no one." BA's top 10 Rays: B.J. Upton, Delmon Young, Doug Waechter, James Houser, Joey Gathright, Chad Gaudin, Wes Bankston, Seth McClung, Antonio Perez and Jonny Gomes. ... Several teams have expressed interest in infielder Geoff Blum. ... Edwards Guzman is a good bet as one of the extra players going to Japan; Fred McGriff likely won't go in hopes of attracting interest from another team. ... Toronto manager Carlos Tosca gave a good review of ex-Jay Mark Hendrickson: "He showed us a curveball that I hadn't see before. And his tempo was better."
JUST WONDERING: Wouldn't Josh Hamilton have a better chance to get his life right if he could face up to what has gone wrong? And wouldn't it be good to know if someone was helping him?
EX-RAYS FILE: Bubba Trammell went to spring training as the Dodgers starting leftfielder but, with Shawn Green moving back to the outfield, may now have trouble even making the team. ... Cardinals manager Tony La Russa hasn't been too impressed with Marlon Anderson's bid to win the second-base job: "He really hasn't had too many smart at-bats. ... Defensively he hasn't played great. He hasn't had a standout spring yet." ... The Braves were happy to get Rule 5 pitcher Alec Zumwalt back. "He's got a real nice future ahead of him as a pitcher," GM John Schuerholz said. ... Alex Sanchez, now with Detroit, is talking about swiping the AL stolen-base title from Crawford.
OLD TIMES: With Tuesday's game canceled, Zimmer, the Rays senior adviser, will get the chance today to visit with his old Yankees colleagues and cohorts. Asked last week about the chances of reconciling his feud with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Zimmer was pretty clear: "Never."
MISCELLANY: The Red Sox are more than doubling the cost of some Green Monster seats, from $50 to $110. ... Former major-leaguer Darnell Coles owns two Subways in downtown St. Petersburg. ... The Giants now think RHP Robb Nen will be healthy enough to start the season. ... A Massachusetts developer wants to move the Expos to Connecticut and call them the Colonials. ... Alfonso Soriano said no when the Rangers asked him to play shortstop in a recent exhibition. ... The Mariners may have interest in Pittsburgh C Jason Kendall; the Dodgers like Baltimore RF Jay Gibbons and/or LF Larry Bigbie.
- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
