Making news for all the wrong reasons

By MARC TOPKIN
Published July 10, 2005

Coming up with a plan to market the Devil Rays might be the most difficult job in the organization, harder than managing, or general managing, or even trying to figure out who is really in charge of what.

We're sure the folks who came up with this year's theme had only the best intentions when they launched Watch It Happen. But there is no way anyone could have known just how much was going to happen.

And almost all of it bad.

Consider the Rays have had four players decide they'd rather not play than play for them, the first player suspended under MLB's new drug policy, managing general partner Vince Naimoli draw embarrassing attention after throwing a scout out of the Trop for using his bathroom and for getting in an altercation with a fan, a nasty brawl with the Red Sox, manager Lou Piniella in a war of words with Boston pitcher Curt Schilling, two members of their starting rotation sidelined with personal problems and another player take an undisclosed leave of absence, Piniella blast the new ownership group and create a ton of speculation about his job stability.

Plus, they've played some of the worst baseball anyone has ever seen, routinely challenging all sorts of historical marks of futility.

And consider this - they are just at the All-Star break.

1. Carl Crawford. May not be an All-Star but is their best player.

2. Danys Baez. Has done more than his share to boost ailing pen.

3. Julio Lugo. Power is down but is top hitter with runners on.

Biggest (pleasant) surprises:

1. Jorge Cantu. In spring training, Rays weren't sure he was ready.

2. Damon Hollins. Made best of chance after 10 years at Triple A.

3. Scott Kazmir. Has gotten much better much quicker than expected.

Biggest disappointments:

1. Aubrey Huff. It's taken an awful long time for him to get hot.

2. Dewon Brazelton. Eight losses, a 6.84 ERA and three weeks AWOL.

3. Rob Bell, Lance Carter, Jesus Colome, Travis Harper, Trever Miller, etc.

Sometimes, the only way to explain things is to say it could only happen to the Devil Rays. Consider:

OF Marty Cordova retired rather than come to spring training; INF Roberto Alomar and OF Danny Bautista retired during spring training; OF Chris Singleton was released in May, came back last week for two days, and decided he would rather retire. C Charles Johnson took an unexplained five-day leave of absence before playing his first game and was later released.

OF Alex Sanchez, who had four career home runs at the time, was the first player suspended under baseball's new policy against performance enhancing drugs. Then, with a team-best .346 average in June, Sanchez was released.

OF Rocco Baldelli missed the first half of the season recovering from left knee surgery, having been hurt in October playing with his 6-year-old brother. A week from starting a minor-league rehab, he blew out his right elbow and had Tommy John surgery that will keep him out until the spring.

Kelly Frank, the woman who plays the mascot Raymond, broke her arm in a fall and missed two months.

Rob Bell went on the DL for "personal and psychological reasons" after suffering anxiety attacks on the mound. Dewon Brazelton went AWOL for three weeks after being demoted to Triple A with no explanation though manager Lou Piniella said the specifics were "between the team psychologist and whomever."

The Rays have been bad much of the season, but they have been particularly awful in the eighth innings. Ten times in the last 50 games they have taken a lead into the eighth and lost. Through their first 87 games, they had been outscored by a stunning margin of 92-28, including 52-10 on the road. They have blown a major-league high 16 saves.

On rare days, when they play near perfectly, the Rays can look like the NL East-leading Washington Nationals.

But most days on the road, they look like the Washington Generals, the team that traveled around the country with the Harlem Globetrotters and, no matter what happened during the game, ended up losing almost every night.

The Rays began their road schedule 4-28, matching the worst start in modern history - since 1900. Their current 8-35 mark is the worst at this point since the 1963 Mets and worst among AL teams in more than 70 years, since the 1932 Red Sox were 7-36.

The Rays are on pace to finish with a 15-66 mark (.185) that would rank among the worst all-time:

When the Rays are involved in big innings, they don't mess around. On the plus side, they had a glorious first inning against Oakland May 25 when they scored 10. On the other side, twice they gave up 13 runs in an inning, both times at Yankee Stadium (the second inning April 18, the eighth inning June 21), becoming the first team in history to give up 13 or more in an inning twice in the same season.

The Rays allowed a team-record 12 hits (including four homers) and 27 total bases in the 13-run June debacle, but what made it even more special was that it completed a historic collapse, as the Rays turned a 10-2 lead into a 20-11 loss.

There had been only one other time in baseball history that a team led by eight or more and lost by nine or more, and that was May 7, 1999, at Cleveland when the Rays did it then too.

"Lou (Piniella) said, "I haven't ever seen anything like this,' " said first-base coach Billy Hatcher, the only Ray in uniform for both games. "I said I had. He said there was no way. And I said, "I swear to God.' "

With the Rays 20-39, manager Lou Piniella said before the June 9 game in Cincinnati he thought they had hit "rock bottom." Since then, they went 7-21 and were outscored 186-109.

The Rays went into play Saturday having allowed a major-league-high 540 runs, putting them on pace for 1,006 over the full season. With no signs of getting better, they could become the 12th team in modern history to finish in four digits.

The Rays became the first team in major-league history to give up five grand slams in a 10-day span, according to SABR's David Vincent. They also were the first to give up five in the month of April.

Dewon Brazelton lost his first four decisions away from the Trop, running his career road record to 0-15, the first pitcher to do that bad since Kent Peterson lost his first 18 for the Reds from 1947-49.

The Rays became the first team to lose four straight games in which they led by at least three since the 1955 Kansas City A's, and the first team to blow leads of five runs or more in back-to-back games since the 2002 Padres.

All-Star closer Danys Baez didn't get his first save opportunity until the Rays' 16th game, the latest a team went into a season without one since the 1988 Orioles went 22 games.

The Rays were the first team to give up as many as 34 runs over a three-game series in Cincinnati since the 1898 New York Giants. (Yes, the 1898 Giants).

Travis Harper on June 21 became the 25th pitcher to allow four homers in an inning, the 11th American Leaguer. The last pitcher to do so was Cincinnati's Jose Acevado on Sept. 8, 2004.

The mid-game brawl between the Red Sox and Rays on April 24 was bad enough, resulting in discipline against six players and both managers. But it got uglier a few days later when Boston pitcher Curt Schilling blasted Lou Piniella on a radio show, saying he "forgot how the game is played" and claiming that Rays players referred to him as "this idiot." Piniella was stunned and hurt at the criticism, and fired back the next day in a statement, saying he had "forgotten more baseball" than Schilling knew and that Schilling should "be really embarrassed at the cheap shot he took." They meet again July 18 in Boston.

As bad as their season has been, the Rays - or the hapless Rays, as they are often referred to in the tabloids - can take some solace in the misery they have inflicted on the Yankees. Consider that the only stadium in which they have a winning record this season is Yankee Stadium, where they are 4-2. And more than a quarter of their wins - seven of their first 26 - were against the Yankees.

1 - Win in Sunday day games.

2 - Winless road trips this season.

4 - Combined homers by Travis Lee and Julio Lugo.

11 - Times Rays have been swept in a three-game series.

12 - Total margin of defeat in eight losses on a May road trip.

13 - Categories in which the Rays pitching staff ranks worst in AL.

20 - Pitchers used so far, four shy of the team record.

33:24 - Length of Yankees' 13-run half-inning on April 19.

35:20 - Length of Yankees' 13-run half-inning on June 21.

60 - Player moves on and off the roster since opening day.

69 - Errors in 87 games.

13,302 - Average Trop attendance, 5,400 below next worst team.

There have been a few good things that happened:

Starter Hideo Nomo picked up the 200th win of his career between Japan and the major leagues, making him eligible for the high honor of induction into the Meikyukai.

Carl Crawford became the fifth player in history to have 150 stolen bases and 500 hits before turning 24. He also became the first player in more than 35 years to have a triple and a homer in the first inning of a game, and in another became the first American Leaguer in the last 17 years to have a triple and an inside-the-park homer.

Aubrey Huff surpassed Fred McGriff as the franchise leader in home runs (106) and RBIs (374).

In the span of one week, Eduardo Perez found out his wife was pregnant, hit two homers in a game off Randy Johnson and hit a walkoff homer to beat the Red Sox.

(Lou Piniella division)

"I haven't forgotten how to manage." - during an April 17 rant.

"The problem is we've got a new ownership group here that's changed the direction of where we're headed. They're not interested about the present." - during a June 12 rant.

"I don't know what to say. I hope to God it gets better. I really do." - after a June 19 loss.

"If we didn't play the eighth inning this year we might be in first place in our division." - after a July 1 loss.

(Open division)

"I feel like we s-- right now. That's the way I feel." - Julio Lugo after May 1 loss.

"I swear, it's almost to the point of "How can we lose today?" It's sick." - Aubrey Huff after a June 5 loss.

"I don't know if we're under a spell or something. We play so good, and at the end something happens all the time." - Jorge Cantu after a June 8 loss.

"All I know, is that it is a (bleeping) joke." - Toby Hall after a June 9 loss.

"I've never seen anything stink like this. This is bad. You can keep saying, "Keep your head up, keep your head up, good things will happen.' But good things never seem to happen around here." - Huff after a June 11 loss.

[Last modified July 9, 2005, 23:35:17]