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By MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2001
MR. BILL: April 5 will be Bill Evers Day in Durham, N.C., in honor of the Rays Triple-A manager. City officials will use the occasion of the Bulls' season opener to honor Evers for his on-field success and his community involvement. Evers has a 1,012-859 career record, including the second most minor-league wins among active managers and a Triple-A best 244 victories over the past three seasons. Mayor Nicholas J. Tennyson will present a proclamation to Evers before the season opener against Richmond.
HAIR TODAY: After sporting a modest amount of hair the first five weeks of spring training, reliever Jeff Wallace went back to the bald look last week. I've been shaving my head for the last few years," Wallace explained. "I wanted to see what I had left. I didn't like it."
MINORS MATTERS: Paul Hoover has bounced between major- and minor-league camps probably more than any other player during the Rays' four years. We asked him to describe the biggest differences. First, he said, is the quality and quantity of the food -- big-leaguers peruse a decent spread at home, minor-leaguers wait in line to get a sandwich, a bag of chips and a sports drink. There is the disparate number of people in camp using the facilities -- 40 or so in big-league camp now, a couple hundred in minor-league camp. And there is the money -- big-leaguers get $906.50 a week for meals and expenses, minor-leaguers who are housed and fed at a local motel get $10 a week expense money. With the perks comes some friendly razzing. "I definitely get criticized more over here," Hoover said.
Alan Schwarz, writing in Baseball America: "Judging by how the last expansion turned out, baseball should be concerned less with the dearth of pitching than with the dearth of intelligent executives. There is no more benign way to look at baseball in Arizona and Tampa Bay than to say "Enough.' The D'Backs and D'Rays are simply D'Readful."
"I think I'm one of the few guys who really wants everybody to do well."
-- BOBBY SMITH, Rays second baseman
0: Extra base hits by Vinny Castilla this spring.
3: Left-handed relievers remaining in camp from the original 10.
1,298: RBI by Fred McGriff, seventh among active players.
Here is the fifth of our weekly guesses at what the 25-man opening-day roster will look like:
PITCHERS (11): Albie Lopez, Paul Wilson, Bryan Rekar, Ryan Rupe, Travis Harper, Tanyon Sturtze, Esteban Yan, Doug Creek, Ken Hill, Jeff Wallace, Rusty Meacham.
CATCHERS (2): John Flaherty, Mike DiFelice.
INFIELDERS (7): Vinny Castilla, Felix Martinez, Bobby Smith, Fred McGriff, Steve Cox, Russ Johnson, Damian Rolls.
OUTFIELDERS (5): Greg Vaughn, Gerald Williams, Ben Grieve, Jose Guillen, Randy Winn.
DL: Wilson Alvarez, Juan Guzman.