Jan 30
One year ago on Rays Index we witnessed the first-ever (semi) celebrity wearing Tampa Bay Rays gear…in public!
Peter King Jumps On The Tampa Bay Rays Bandwagon [Rays Index]
Archive for January 30th, 2009
Jan 30
Here is a blogger that knows about as much about baseball as a hamster.
Throughout the season and into October, many baseball fans and media types waited for the [Rays] inevitable collapse, which never really came. I was one of them, never believing the Rays were for real. Honestly, I still don’t…How quickly I forgot about the Rockies making that run in 2007. I expect to just as quickly forget about the success the Rays had in 2008. In my mind, the 2008 season was a fluke, a perfect storm of pitching, defense and timely hits. I am already on record predicting a sub-.500 season for the Rays in 2009…
A typical Sox fan that doesn’t realize that the Rays are as similar to the Rockies as Julio Lugo is to Carl Yastrzemski.
A typical Sox fan that doesn’t realize there is actually baseball outside of the Northeast. A Sox fan that isn’t aware that the Rockies got hot late in the year in a weak division. On the other hand, the Rays were in first place every day of the second-half, in the toughest division in baseball.
Read the rest of World Series Not A Birthright For Red Sox Fans (378 words)
Jan 30
Rays Renegade wrote a piece wondering why bloggers do not receive any respect from the teams and leagues they write about. Rays Renegade is attempting to get credentialed by a “major league team”.
I wondered why there were not more credentialed bloggers with established sites or even talented new bloods with fresh outlooks in attendance. Now I am currently trying to find a way to get credentialed by a major league team, and I do have a journalism background, and at least 4 years in the industry, but I am also a blogger, and that has put me at a disadvantage…And with this fact comes the question, If I am qualified and able to produce a good article, or even submit a entry to get out another aspect of the team without bias or prejudice, shouldn’t I have the opportunity to showcase my talents too ?
This piece was later commented on by Ted Fleming at Examiner.com.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally, so the saying goes, and any blogger is capable of writing a tremendous piece, however, for every great article there are hundreds that would tear it down because we are in this know-it-all age with no checks and balances. Opinions are like rear-ends, everybody has one, so who is going to regulate the good from the mean spirited or simply the unqualified?
Simple. The readers will regulate the blogs, just as they ultimately do in mainstream journalism.
Jan 30
David Chalk of Bugs and Cranks recently attended a “sports-comedy variety talk show” in which Fernando Perez was a guest. Perez was apparently “funny as hell” according to Chalk, and Nando added an interesting twist to the Rays-Red Sox brawl when Coco Crisp charged the mound after being hit by James Shields…
Most enlightening was when Perez gave a behind-the-scenes look into the Red Sox-Devil Rays rivalry, saying that baseball teams routinely share weight rooms and mentioning that in September in Boston Coco Crisp and TMOTMCC James Shields were joking together about their altercation earlier in the season.
What the heck? You think Carlton Fisk and Lou Piniella would have been “joking together” in the weight room? We suppose the next thing is Chalk is going to tell us that pro wrestling isn’t real either.
Chalk also has a picture of himself with Perez. It is sad to see that neither person is still sporting a Mohawk.
Fernando Perez Is Awesome [Bugs and Cranks]
Jan 30
Happy 27th birthday to former Devil Ray Jorge Cantu, our favorite Jedi baseball player. His 69 extra-base hits in 2005 is the 44th most ever by a second baseman. Of course, calling Cantu a second baseman is an insult to most second basemen (-2.4 UZR* in ‘05 as a 2B). Still, it was nice to see a healthy (finally) Cantu hit 29 home runs in 2008 for the Marlins, with a 110 OPS+.
*Ultimate Zone Rating. Negative is bad. Negative is also the number of runs the player cost his team defensively as compared to an average defensive player at the same position.DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Scratch Carlos Pena from the list of Rays that will play in the World Baseball Classic. Pena had minor surgery on an abdominal muscle. He will be ready for Spring Training, but the surgery will keep him off the Domincan Republic’s WBC roster. Lancaster spoke with Pena who said the problem began in August saying he played through “extreme pain toward the end of the year last year.” [Rays Report]
- Evan Longoria still is not sure if he will be on the USA roster for the World Baseball Classic, but he is preparing under the assumption that he will be. [The Heater]
- Wow. First it was “Team X will be the new Rays.” Now we have somebody saying Matt Weiters is the “New Evan Longoria“…Why? Because Weiters is going to move to third base and help the Orioles to their first winning season since 1997, shocking the baseball world, winning the AL East and going to the World Series? Good luck with that. [Fanhouse]
- Eric Hinske has agreed to terms with the Pirates. [Raise the Jolly Roger]
- The Rays will start a new marketing campaign next week and unlike years past, this one will be geared more towards businesses…Gotta admit. One downside to writing about a good team is that prior to last year, there would have been an endless supply of jokes we could insert here. Now? Nuthin’. [Tampa Tribune]
- The Rays Party wants to know when the Rays are going to trade Reid Brignac…We doubt they will. At worst, Brignac is a cheap version of Jason Bartlett and under team control for the next six years. [The Rays Party]
- And we have yet another new entry into the Rays Blogosphere. This one comes via the MVN network. [Rays Review]
- Bill Chastain spoke with James Shields about preparing for the 2009 season. [MLB]
