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TOM JONESNew players. Possible sellouts. A buzz in the air. Yes, Tampa Bay, that's baseball that people are talking about.
ST. PETERSBURG - In a community that has lauded a Super Bowl champion and applauded a playoff-bound hockey team, Tampa Bay might be about to become a baseball market, too.
Tonight, the Devil Rays might have their first sellout since the first game in franchise history. More than 2,000 paid $10 to show up at Tropicana Field last week at 5 in the morning to watch them play - on television. The average attendance for spring training was their best ever.
Sponsorships are up. Tickets sales are up. Merchandising is up.
Suddenly, and finally, the Devil Rays are the talk of the town.
"We hear it all over, we see it all over, we feel it all over," Rays general managing partner Vince Naimoli said. "Really, it's amazing."
Manager Lou Piniella was more to the point: "There's a buzz."
When did the buzz start? Perhaps it was when the typically frugal Rays spent money in the offseason to acquire several well-known free agents and had their first winning spring. Or perhaps it was momentum gained from the media coverage of the team's historic trip to Japan last week. Or maybe it can be traced back to before last season when the Rays gained credibility by hiring the personable and successful Piniella, a Tampa native.
"Forget spring training, forget what happened here the other day when all those people showed up to watch on TV, this all has been building for quite some time," general manager Chuck LaMar said. "This is the most excited this community has been since Major League Baseball came to Tampa Bay."
The Rays sold out their first game when 45,369 attended the March 31, 1998, game against the Tigers.
The Rays, who have finished last every season of their existence, haven't come close to a sellout since the inaugural game and are always near the bottom of the league in attendance. There is optimism, though, that a good walkup crowd tonight against the Yankees, a popular team with a local following, could give the Rays their second sellout.
The Rays also have sold a significant number of tickets for Wednesday's game and are cautiously optimistic the first two home games will be the largest crowds for consecutive games in team history.
Maureen Mendizabal, 39, grew up a Pirates fan in a Pittsburgh suburb, but moved to the bay area in 1992 and is a converted Rays fan. She, her husband and three children (ages 16, 13, and 9) live in Safety Harbor and are typical of the fans newly attracted to the Rays. The Mendizabals recently bought two full season tickets and three 12-game packages.
"We saw at the end of last season how they were getting better and we were going all the time the last month of the season," Mendizabal said. "So we took the plunge with season tickets. They are so fun to watch now and it just seems they are way more exciting than they used to be."
Mendizabal caught such a case of Rays fever that she was late to daily Mass last week because she was listening in the church parking lot to the last inning of the season-opening victory against the Yankees.
Meantime, the Rays are attracting local business. They signed sponsorship deals with Checkers, Volvo, Dodge, Progressive Insurance, Hebrew National and the Florida Lottery.
The question, though, is what happens after the initial clamor of the season dies down. Will the fans still be there, will the buzz go away?
To that end, Dave Auker, the team's senior vice president of business operations, said the Rays have increased their ticket and sales staffs.
"We've talked about how the team is better and that translates into ticket sales," Auker said. "Last year, people (in the business community) sensed we were getting better and now it's our job to parlay that into good business."
Nothing, though, helps the product like winning.
"What we've got to do now is play well on the field," Piniella said. "There's an expectation there now and we need to meet those expectations."
If they do, the Rays believe they can become as popular as the Bucs and playoff-bound Lightning.
"I think Major League Baseball is a social event more than anything else," LaMar said. "And when you win, it becomes the thing to do. We'll see it here. The more we win, the more it's the thing to do in the community: go to a Devil Rays game."