Three years ago on Rays Index realized that having major league ballplayers read kindergarten-level books to area school children sounds a lot better on paper than it does in person.
Yes, But Do They Like Green Eggs And Ham? [Rays Index]
Three years ago on Rays Index we broke the news of the Rays biggest free agent signing. Matt Silverman signed free agent blogger Manny Stiles for $535. All the proceeds went to charity.
Devil Rays Acquire The Rights Of Free Agent Blogger For $535 [Rays Index]
Marc Topkin has a story on Sean Rodriguez and his dad Johnny Rodriguez. The elder Rodriguez is a manager in the Cardinals’ system. And while many dads hope their sons grow up to be big leaguers, Johnny took it to a new extreme with Sean.
Sure, he put in so much time working with his son Sean, making him swing the heavy 30-inch bat with the weighted doughnut as a 4-year-old, throw balls from the outfield fence all the way to the plate at age 8, field hard-hit ground balls until he fell over at age 10.
Was Johnny just an overzealous father that really wanted his son to be a baseball player a little too much? Um, it is much worse than that.
He had pushed him to be better, to be more prepared and more confident than anyone else, saying, proudly, “I always treated him like a player, never as a son.”
The most disturbing thing about that sentence is that Johnny says it “proudly.” Sean will be 25 next month and if Johnny had it to do all over again, it sounds like he wouldn’t change a thing.
And that folks, is effed up.
Let’s just hope for the Rays sake, that Sean Rodriguez doesn’t end up like Todd Marinovic.
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
click above image for boxscore
THE GOOD: Kelly Shoppach. Shoppach showed some of his power with his first home run in a Rays uniform…Dale Thayer. Thayer showed that he can work more than one inning by allowing just 2 baserunners in 2.1 innings.
THE BAD: Andy Sonnanstine. Of the 6 batters The Duke faced, he went to 3-balls 5 times, walking 3. He only survived the inning thanks to a double-play…Wade Davis. Big Dub wasn’t much better, walking 3 of the 9 batters he faced…Tim Beckham. Same ol’ thing as Beckham committed 2 throwing errors.
THE TELLING: The lineup used by Joe Maddon could very well be the same one we see during the season versus lefties, with Ben Zobrist at second, Gabe Kapler in right, Kelly Shoppach behind the plate and BJ Upton batting 7th…Desmond Jennings is expected to play today.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
