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White shaky, but Rays roll

By MIKE READLING and MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 2, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- Since signing as a free agent with the Rays in 1996, Matt White has been in a hurry to get to the major leagues. His key to getting there may be to slow down.

Replacing starter Travis Harper to start the third inning, White struggled through two innings in the Rays' exhibition opener against Notre Dame on Thursday at Florida Power Park, walking three and allowing two runs on three hits before settling down.

But White's shakiness did not carry over to the rest of the team as the Rays banged out 20 hits in a 17-4 win.

"It felt good to get back out there and get the adrenaline flowing," White said. "I did fine my first inning but I had a mental lapse in my second and walked the leadoff batter. It kind of snowballed from there."

White, 22, walked the first three batters he faced in the fourth, committed a throwing error trying to pick off a runner at second and gave up a run-scoring single before retiring the next three batters.

"The pitching was a little erratic but, the first time out, that's not totally unexpected," Rays manager Larry Rothschild said. "I think Matt got out of synch, especially for those three hitters, but he had a chance to get out of it and made good pitches after that."

The Rays benefited from a five-run second inning and a seven-run fifth, which featured a home run by Ron Wright and a three-run shot from Derrick Gibson. Both also homered in an intra-squad game Tuesday.

WHO TO ROOT FOR?: Rays managing general partner Vince Naimoli saw his college alma mater take the field.

Naimoli, who graduated from Notre Dame in 1959 with a degree in engineering and is a well-known Fighting Irish booster, presented the Rays lineup card to the umpires.

The idea to pair the teams came during a dinner Naimoli had with Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri two years ago.

"During the course of the conversation the idea was created for us to come down here and play an exhibition game against them," Mainieri said. "I told him I couldn't justify the cost to come down for one game but if he were to let us use the field to play some other college teams we could do it."

Hence the three-day, round-robin tournament that begins today at Florida Power Park. Notre Dame faces Florida Atlantic at 1 p.m., and South Florida plays Western Michigan at 4 p.m.

"I saw this as a great opportunity to get more college teams involved, particularly two more Florida teams," Naimoli said, noting Tampa Bay has played exhibition games against Florida State, Miami and South Florida the past three years.

MAS RADIO: The Rays signed a three-year contract extension with Mega Communications, keeping WBDN-AM 760 as the team's official Spanish flagship station through the 2003 season.

ANOTHER SIGNING: Shortstop Felix Martinez agreed to a one-year contract, leaving pitcher Doug Creek the only unsigned player. If an agreement cannot be reached, the team will renew Creek's contract today.

NOW PITCHING: Bryan Rekar starts today's game against the Marlins at Viera, followed by Bill Pulsipher, Travis Phelps, Mike Duvall, Tony Fiore and Esteban Yan. Jesus Sanchez is scheduled to start for Florida.

RAYS BITS: About 1,500 tickets remain for Saturday's game against the Braves. ... All students from Academy Prep attended the game against Notre Dame as guests of the team.

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