Photo gallery What went wrong: What the fans say 400 telephone interviews conducted from Feb. 2 – 12, 2005, from randomly chosen households in Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas counties of people who describe themselves as “baseball fans.” What do you think? Post your thoughts in our guestbookIs anyone watching? The Devil Rays are hoping to rebuild their attendance. Here is how they have drawn for games at Tropicana Field. Seven-year itch Through their first seven seasons, the Rays stack up as one of the least successful expansion teams in baseball history. Here are the seven year records. Keeping pace A big reason the Devil Rays can’t compete with the Yankees on the field is that they aren’t even in the same ballpark in terms of payroll. Here is a look at how the disparity has grown over the years.
[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
Aubrey Huff works on his swing in a batting cage.
[Times photo: Michael Rondou 2004]
The Devil Rays and Toronto Blue Jays meet in the first of a four game set at Tropicana Field, Monday, June 28, 2004. Joey Gathright singled, then went head first into third on a single by Carl Crawford in the 5th inning. Third baseman Eric Hinske makes the late tag.
Devil Rays spring training. Stars in the making, both first round picks for the Rays Delmon Young, left, and B.J. Upton await their turn in the batting cages.
[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
Rays' center fielder Rocco Baldelli follows through on a throw to the plate.
The Devil Rays are celebrating a birthday today. The team has turned 10.
Wish it good fortune and wish it good cheer, because so far it has had little of either.
What will it take to turn one of the major leagues' least successful franchises into a team area fans will embrace, not to mention pay to see?
Certainly, better players might help produce a few more victories. But for the Rays to make significant improvement, say some who have watched the team since it was awarded to St. Petersburg on March 9, 1995, it's going to take major changes in the way Major League Baseball conducts its business.
"The economic system stinks for a market like yours," said former Red Sox CEO John Harrington, chairman of the expansion committee that awarded the Rays. "The honeymoon is over. A major thing has to happen. The Devil Rays have to be put on a level playing field with the Yankees and Red Sox."
To do so, he said, will require collective bargaining concessions from the players such as increased revenue sharing among the teams or, though unlikely, a salary cap on player payrolls.
A slightly more feasible development, though not imminent, is realignment, which could move the Rays out of the American League East and away from financial powerhouses in New York and Boston. The Rays will have a payroll around $30-million this season but will play 38 games against the Yankees ($200-million) and Red Sox ($135-million). Tampa Bay was 9-29 against New York and Boston last season, 61-62 against the rest of the league.
Commissioner Bud Selig said he is a proponent of geographical realignment, but added, "All those realignment discussions will be in the future."
An interim step could be a rebalanced schedule in which the Rays would play a fairly equal number of games against their AL opponents. That is how the schedule worked during Tampa Bay's first three seasons (1998-2000). A return, for example, to the 1998 format, in which Tampa Bay faced the Yankees and Red Sox 12 times each, would eliminate 14 games against those teams.
"It's just tough to play in that league, and against New York and Boston 38 times a year," said former Rays pitcher Joe Kennedy, now with the Rockies. "Reporters here ask me about being on a young team before, and I say there's one difference: We don't have to play Boston and the Yankees 38 times a year. That's the biggest reason they haven't won more than 70 games."
"I know there are many who like to jump on local ownership, but that would be ignoring the root problem, and that is Major League Baseball's inability to even the playing field," said Bob Carter, a St. Petersburg business-management consultant who worked for the Rays. "It's unfortunate that Major League Baseball has stuck us in a division with the heaviest spenders in all of baseball."
Of course, playing the Yankees and Red Sox has its advantages, such as the revenue from the bigger crowds. Of the Rays' total attendance of 1,164,911 last season, 374,248 came to see New York and Boston, 32.1 percent.
But that still doesn't come close to leveling the financial playing field between small- and large-market teams. Short of a salary cap, that equity will have to come from revenue sharing.
"Revenue sharing will keep going up and you'll see it gets even better," Selig said. "In my opinion, there's no question as we continue to change the system, all that will enable (the Rays) to compete."
But that is out of the Rays' control.
What the team can control is the continued development of young, highly regarded players such as Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford, Aubrey Huff, B.J. Upton and Delmon Young - and the smart use of money to keep that talent around long enough to compete for a playoff spot. They've headed in the right direction in recent years, improving from 55 victories in 2002 to 63 in 2003 to a record 70 last season.
But that only is part of the job. Off the field, the franchise must find ways to entice new fans to Tropicana Field and create an entertainment experience that makes them want to come back.
"The Japanese have a saying they call kaizen, which is for continuous improvement," managing general partner Vince Naimoli said. "That's the mode we're in. We have to continue to improve now."
"That was the same mantra on the business side," said Dave Auker, the Rays' senior vice president of business operations. "We felt some real momentum in the offseason. If you can build on that momentum with your fans, that's kind of the marching orders. Let's keep pushing in the right direction."
Before Carter worked for the Rays, he chaired a 1999 task force organized by former St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer and charged with determining ways the team could better connect with the community. Suggestions ranged from forging stronger ties with charitable, service and corporate groups to advertising more to casual fans.
"Over the years they have probably touched on every one of those things," Carter said. "They've done a real good job. It's been kind of quiet. They've not made a lot out of the progress they've made, but they've made fantastic progress."
Carter said the team could be making the same improvements in the standings if not for baseball's economic system.
Exactly why Harrington insisted the system must change.
"I really believe something has to happen," he said. "The players saw what was needed (regarding steroid testing). If, eventually, the players become selfless and realize for baseball to enhance itself in the long run by leveling the playing field bit by bit, it would be good for the industry as a whole."
Meantime, MLB vice president John McHale said his organization will wait and see how it shakes out; whether fan interest in the bay area can be raised, whether Tropicana Field turns out to be the right venue in the right place and how the Rays handle their fertile farm system.
"I don't think anybody is producing more high-quality prospects than this farm system, nobody in the game," McHale said. "Nobody in this office wants them to have to emulate the old Montreal Expos in bringing them up and shipping them elsewhere."
McHale, who spent 10 months in the Rays' front office, said a team can work in St. Petersburg.
"It can," he said. "I think we need some further adjustments to our system. We may need some further adjustments within the structure of divisions within the league, and we may need some time for the positive elements of the current collective bargaining agreement to have more extensive effect."
"It's like the old fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, you know?" Naimoli said. "Would you like to jump-start and be a hare and get to the finish line quicker? Yeah, it's possible. But on the other hand, one of the great advantages of the tortoise is slow and steady, right? And when you get to the finish line, you can continue to finish."
Fischer can't wait.
"When the day comes when we are successful, we would have lived through all this," he said. "Absolutely it will mean more."
Times staff writer Marc Topkin contributed to this report.
