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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 2, 2001
I was one of the lucky ones to attend the Cal Ripken party at the Trop on Aug. 23. The crowd was electrified with emotion, cheer after cheer echoed through the 30,000. Ripken is a fine example of a sports icon for all to admire, young and old.
I enjoyed the night except for one moment: the booing of Vince Naimoli. Sure, I joined in and gave my Bronx cheer, but thinking back, I want to apologize to Vince. My family has enjoyed our games at the Trop over the last four years. We take our "buy one, get one free" coupons for general admission, which comes to $4 a seat, and buy our $1.50 Kiddie Corner hot dogs and sit contentedly watching the stars of baseball come right to our humble abode.
I don't really know the inner business scheme of things as far as Vince goes. Has he made mistakes? Probably. That sure isn't hard in an arena like MLB. I do believe that Vince and his partners went into this great venture with one thing in mind: Bring a competitive team to the Trop and the fans of Tampa Bay.
Things didn't work out that way, as of yet. But we hope this area will be able to keep the team. So Vince, from a family up in the cheap seats, we want to apologize for booing you. We know you want a winner just as bad as any fan, and we hope you will look out for the interests of this area in all your future decisions.
-- Robert Langenhan, St. Petersburg
For those still horrified by the memories of attending Rays games, I think it is time to revisit the Trop. The Rays have done a nice job bringing along a new era of youth, and along with it enthusiasm and passion that long has been absent.
The rapid progression and fundamental play of Toby Hall, Brent Abernathy, Jason Tyner and Russ Johnson supplemented with -- at last! -- solid play at shortstop and at the plate in veteran Chris Gomez has created a team that has shown it can compete with first-tier teams such as the Mariners and White Sox. The last piece of the puzzle remains finding if there is a capable closer in the organization -- sorry, Esteban (and Hal, in case you still want to stick with him), you are not the guy.
To John McHale, Chuck LaMar and Hal McRae, stay the course. The future for the Rays is certainly looking brighter.
-- P.A. Slattery, St. Petersburg
We followed our Florida team from Apopka through the regionals and all the way to the Little League World Series, with its heartbreaking outcome. What a gutsy team. Not until the next-to-last day of the tournament did the media mention Apopka was playing without one of its top hitters/pitchers. The rest of the team more than made up for this shortage.
Your article on the condition of the Apopka playing field (Little city endures big loss, Aug. 27), plus Apopka's famous football export (Warren Sapp) made us wonder why someone doesn't donate money to fix things. How about it, Mr. Sapp? Wouldn't it be nice to furnish a "field of dreams."
-- Lou and Ruth Wyss, St. Petersburg
What a disappointment. Not Apopka's loss, but the failure of the coaching staff to attend the postgame news conference. Two phrases come to mind: sore loser and ugly American. If the Japanese team had lost, would its coaches have been at the meeting? You can bet on it.
-- L. Wilson, St. Petersburg
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