Rays tales

By MARC TOPKIN
Published August 7, 2005

COWBOY UP

Aubrey Huff has some Texas in him and a potential country music career ahead of him, so it wasn't a total shock when he strolled into the Arlington clubhouse Wednesday showing off his new, full western getup: cream-colored ostrich boots, black jeans, black and silver belt, shiny buckle with the letter A, red embroidered shirt with a bolo tie and black cowboy hat.

"That's Texas right there," Huff said.

Huff and relievers Trever Miller and Travis Harper were making their annual visit to a Dallas area store, Cavender's Boot City, when Huff decided on the full ensemble. The only thing he missed were the spurs for his boots.

His, um, pad-nahs liked the look.

"It's part Waylon Jennings, part Merle Haggard and part Jesse Duke, I think," Miller said. "I think it's the hat that makes it."

"It's an aggressive cowboy look, and he went head to toe," Harper said. "It's hard to beat the shirt. But it's really not "working cowboy.' I think it's more of an "urban cowboy."'

Miller ended up with a pair of black ostrich boots but was disappointed the store was out of his size in a relatively new boot made from a skin that seemed rather appropriate for this team - sting ray.

"They're so popular. They were sold out," Miller said. "But should we be wearing our mascot?"

Rocco Baldelli can't play again until next spring, but that hasn't stopped him from trying to help the team.

During the final series of the last homestand, Baldelli started keeping the dugout chart of the Rays pitchers, a chore usually reserved for the next game's starter. When the Rays swept the Royals, manager Lou Piniella invited Baldelli to come along on the road trip and keep up the good work.

"It started out as a little bribe. Someone offered me $20 to do it," Baldelli said. "But now it's just me doing it. I'm not getting paid anymore."

Baldelli has quickly developed his own system of charting, which involves identifying the type of pitch, logging the result and keeping a running count. It takes a bit of work for someone whose penmanship is not exactly his forte and who used to get in trouble in school for frequently switching between print and cursive on the same page. Plus, he does it with his right arm, the same one on which he just had Tommy John surgery.

"I like to keep it neat," he said. "I keep it in print. And I don't like messy erasers, which is all we have. So I try not to make any mistakes. There's a lot of stuff. You've got to really pay attention."

The other pitchers like to give Baldelli all kinds of advice, so he usually ends up sitting with them.

"They probably just want to sit next to me," he said. "They like it a lot. They're big fans of having someone else do the chart."

The Rays lost for the first time Thursday with Baldelli doing the chart, but he said he agreed to keep up the work through the end of the two-week road trip then will re-evaluate. "I don't want to get overexposed as a chart keeper," he said.

"I saw when he took off his shirt. That was enough."

- LOU PINIELLA, manager on whether he had seen Aubrey Huff's new outfit.

[Last modified August 7, 2005, 01:30:25]