Archive for the 'Kevin Costner' Category

Sep 30

[KEVIN COSTNER] Kevin Costner Adds Shower Shoe Fungus To Rays Postseason

Kevin Costner Cork Gaines 5 Comments »

Wow. We thought the most embarrassing thing about being a Rays fan was Dick Vitale. Not anymore. Today we learned (via the St. Pete Times) that Kevin Costner and his band Modern West have recorded a song for the Rays playoff run. It is called “It’s All Up To You.”

Warning: The following song is not safe for people with a history of heart disease, pregnant women or anybody that has eaten in the last 24 hours.

Click here to listen to the complete song.

To think that at one point we actually wanted to name our first son “Crash”. Did we just type that out loud?

Kevin Costner loves the Tampa Bay Rays [St. Pete Times]

May 19

[THE HANGOVER] Rays Anger Baseball Gods By Forgetting To Change Out Of BP Jerseys

Akinori Iwamura, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, James Shields, Jason Bartlett, Joe Maddon hates my liver, Jonny Gomes, Kevin Costner, Scott Kazmir Cork Gaines No Comments »



THE GOOD: Ben Zobrist getting the start. Everytime he did something good, we were rewarded with shots of his wife Julianna. That’s it. That was the only redeeming quality of yesterday’s game.

THE BAD: Joe Maddon had some questionable (read: idiotic) pitching changes on Sunday. First he brings Dan Wheeler in to face Ryan Ludwick one day after Ludwick had taken Wheeler deep for a walk-off home run. First pitch on Sunday? Home run. But the really stupid move? After Wheeler walked the lead-off hitter of the 8th inning. A lefty was due up. So Papa Joe brings in Trever Miller. Seems fine with the lefty due up, EXCEPT IT IS A BUNTING SITUATION AND THE NEXT BATTER IS A RIGHTY. Why Miller, who was allowing righties to hit 8-25 (.320) prior to that at bat? Result? You guessed it. A single to left that scores 2. Game tied…More poor fundamentals. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, why on earth did anybody let Evan Longoria go out to the field without sunglasses? Sure enough, he lost a pop-up in the Sun. Eric Hinske was thrown out at second trying to stretch a double. And the pitchers walked 10 batters, 4 in the 8th inning alone. It is a miracle the Cards only scored 5…But the real reason the Rays lost on Sunday? They angered the gods of baseball. The Spring Training jersey in the regular season is idiotic. First of all they are acceptable for practice, but they are ugly and do not look like a major league baseball jersey. The pit-stain coloring is horrendous. The wide white stripe on the side clashes with the piping on the pants. Not to mention the color of the jersey is not the same as the cap. We’d expect that from an AAU team. Not from a major league baseball club. For all that is holy, please never do that again.

THE TELLING: Jason Bartlett was out of the lineup with an illness. This was siginificant as the very first batter for the Cards hit a ground ball in the hole, that Zobrist got to, but threw late to first. We have seen Bartlett make that play two dozen times this season…The Rays batters only went down 1-2-3 in 2 innings during the entire 3-game series. Both of those innings came on Sunday. While the Sox now have a 1-game lead in the East, the Rays and Sox are still tied in the all-important loss column…The Rays have a 1.5 game lead in the Wild Card standings over the O’s and the A’s.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • Don’t forget to VOTE for Carl Crawford to start the all-star game. If you haven’t voted yet today, go NOW! [MLB All-Star Voting]
  • We will have the Rays Index Live Blog-A-Baloo on Wednesday afternoon for game 3 of the Oakland series. The Live Blog-A-Baloo will be held right here.
  • A “24-hour bug” has hit the Rays clubhouse recently, but Jason Bartlett was the first player to get sick, and had to sit out yesterday’s game. [MLB]
  • Big League Stew called the Rays-Cardinals series the “best of ’08 interleague debut”, noting that the series “actually oozed playoff intensity at times” although we have to take exception to the suggestion that the Rays have a “fundamentally sound approach”. Clearly they did not see Saturday’s game with all of the baserunning mistakes or the 10 walks on Sunday. “Fundamentals” cost the Rays a sweep. [Big League Stew]
  • Rays of Light called yesterday’s games the first “Maddon-loss” of the season…They are too kind. [Rays of Light]
  • Jonny Gomes has only started 1 of the last 8 games, but should get 2 starts in the A’s series as they are scheduled to throw 2 lefties in the series. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Is Jonny Gomes shilling for Kevin Costner? Some (very) circumstantial eveidence suggests that Oliver Stone needs to be called. [Bugs & Cranks]
  • Yesterday, DRG linked to a story about Gary Shelton suggesting that the Rays roster is better than the Yankees roster. Today we have Bugs & Cranks offering a rebuttal. [Bugs & Cranks]
  • The same Bugs & Cranks writer (not David Chalk) thinks that the Rays “followed the lead of the perennially low-budget Florida Marlins by ponying up the money to sign one of their key stars, pitcher Scott Kazmir, to a four-year contract worth $28.5 million”…The Kazmir-deal is only the latest of a several long-term deals that the Rays have given to young players. Evan Longoria, James Shields and Carlos Pena have already been locked up long-term in the past few months. If anything, the Marlins are following the Rays and even then, they have a ways to go as one deal hardly compares to four. [Bugs & Cranks]
  • Akinori Iwamura has cut-down on the flyball outs and it has helped to the tune of 26 hits in the last 15 games. [MLB]
Nov 06

The Devil Rays Know How To Be Overdramatic

Kevin Costner, New Uniforms, Papa Joe Maddon Cork Gaines 8 Comments »


The time is almost here when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will announce to the world what we already know. And boy, you would have thought the Rays were set to announce the acquisition of Alex Rodriguez, Johan Santana, Mariano Rivera and the 2008 World Series.

New uniforms. New colors. New logo. New name. Everything is new and Tampa Bay has an All-Star weekend planned to unveil their changes to the public…The festivities kick off on Thursday afternoon in downtown St. Petersburg’s Straub Park, in a free night of excitement for fans of all ages. At 4 p.m. ET the interactive activities kick off the evening…At 5:30 p.m., manager Joe Maddon, Hall of Famer Wade Boggs and former Ray Fred McGriff will hit the catwalk to model the Rays’ new uniforms, logos and colors…Next is a special treat for any baseball fan, but especially those of classic baseball movies. At 6:30 p.m., Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West, will take the stage for a rock-and-roll concert…Thursday evening will conclude with an 8 p.m. fireworks show, but that’s only Day 1 of the entertainment.

That’s right folks. That is just day 1…with fireworks and Kevin Costner. Day 2 is even more jam-packed with F.U.N., including autograph sessions (you won’t want to miss Al Reyes and Dan Wheeler at Southgate Plaza), a picnic and free backrubs from Joe Maddon*.

We like to give the Red Sox and their Nation a lot of crap around these parts for being over-the-top and throwing their greatness in our faces all the time, but when they won their second title in four years, all they scheduled was a parade on some Duck Boats. As far as we know, the only fireworks were in Jonathon Papplebon’s pants.

We are still not sure if we are going to make it out for the festivities. We have a Kevin Costner Shitty Movie Marathon scheduled for those two days, including Water World and The Postman.

*Might have just been a dream we had last night.

Rays giving fans glimpse of new image [Devil Rays]
The New Tampa Bay Rays Uniforms [Rays Index]
Now appearing…[tampabay.com]

Nov 02

THE HANGOVERDevil Rays To Play "Home" Games At Champion Field. Queue The Soiled Underwear Jokes

Champion Field, Dewayne Staats, Evan Longoria, Jim Hickey, Joe Magrane, Kevin Costner, Matt Silverman, Todd Kalas Cork Gaines No Comments »

Team USA 3, Peo Saguaros 0.
Evan Longoria was 0-3 and is now hitting .308 in the Arizona Fall League. Justin Ruggiano did not play. On Wednesday, Longoria went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored in Team USA’s 5-3 win over Surprise. Ruggiano went 1-4 with a triple and an RBI.

Scottsdale 6, Surprise 0.
Mike Prochaska started and pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts. Evan Meek and Calvin Medlock each pitched an inning of relief striking out a combined 3 batters and allowing 2 hits. Each pitcher threw a wild pitch.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • The Devil Rays are currently in negotiations with Disney to play a a series at Disney’s Wild World of Sports for the second consecutive season. If a deal can be reached, the games will be played in the newly named Champion Stadium after a deal was reached with Hanes clothing. The Devil Rays playing home games in “Champion” Stadium? There is no way this ends well in the Blogosphere. [Orlando Sentinel]
  • Jim Hickeywill be back in 2008 as the Rays pitching coach. [TBO]
  • MLB4U has a list of all the free agents that the Devil Rays will not be pursuing this off-season. [MLB4U]
  • Does Matt Silverman have a new girlfriend? Nadya seems to think so. No details though. Damn it. [AOL Journals]
  • ArmchairGM takes a look at Evan Longoria. [ArmchairGM]
  • When we first read that Rays announcers Dewayne Staats, Joe Magrane and Todd Kalas were all up for the Frick Award we were taken back a bit. The award is presented annually during the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and is given to a broadcaster that makes major contributions to baseball. We were a bit surprised. They are decent, but never have we thought that they added very much to a game. Not bad. Not great…Then we read the fine print and realized that the only reason they are “up for the award” is because every announce with 10 years experience is up for the award. A final list of 10 candidates will be announced in December. We are still wondering why Bill Chastain decided that this deserved its own piece on DevilRays.com. [DevilRays.com]
  • Wanna meet Kevin Costner? Here is your chance. If we win, we are showing up dressed like his character from “The Postman”. [DevilRays.com]
  • Tampa Bay Sports Fanatic takes a look at how all the Rays farmhands are performing in the Arizona Fall League. [Tampa Bay Sports Fanatic]
Nov 02

THE HANGOVERDevil Rays To Play "Home" Games At Champion Field. Queue The Soiled Underwear Jokes

Champion Field, Dewayne Staats, Evan Longoria, Jim Hickey, Joe Magrane, Kevin Costner, Matt Silverman, Todd Kalas Cork Gaines No Comments »

Team USA 3, Peo Saguaros 0.
Evan Longoria was 0-3 and is now hitting .308 in the Arizona Fall League. Justin Ruggiano did not play. On Wednesday, Longoria went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored in Team USA’s 5-3 win over Surprise. Ruggiano went 1-4 with a triple and an RBI.

Scottsdale 6, Surprise 0.
Mike Prochaska started and pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts. Evan Meek and Calvin Medlock each pitched an inning of relief striking out a combined 3 batters and allowing 2 hits. Each pitcher threw a wild pitch.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • The Devil Rays are currently in negotiations with Disney to play a a series at Disney’s Wild World of Sports for the second consecutive season. If a deal can be reached, the games will be played in the newly named Champion Stadium after a deal was reached with Hanes clothing. The Devil Rays playing home games in “Champion” Stadium? There is no way this ends well in the Blogosphere. [Orlando Sentinel]
  • Jim Hickeywill be back in 2008 as the Rays pitching coach. [TBO]
  • MLB4U has a list of all the free agents that the Devil Rays will not be pursuing this off-season. [MLB4U]
  • Does Matt Silverman have a new girlfriend? Nadya seems to think so. No details though. Damn it. [AOL Journals]
  • ArmchairGM takes a look at Evan Longoria. [ArmchairGM]
  • When we first read that Rays announcers Dewayne Staats, Joe Magrane and Todd Kalas were all up for the Frick Award we were taken back a bit. The award is presented annually during the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and is given to a broadcaster that makes major contributions to baseball. We were a bit surprised. They are decent, but never have we thought that they added very much to a game. Not bad. Not great…Then we read the fine print and realized that the only reason they are “up for the award” is because every announce with 10 years experience is up for the award. A final list of 10 candidates will be announced in December. We are still wondering why Bill Chastain decided that this deserved its own piece on DevilRays.com. [DevilRays.com]
  • Wanna meet Kevin Costner? Here is your chance. If we win, we are showing up dressed like his character from “The Postman”. [DevilRays.com]
  • Tampa Bay Sports Fanatic takes a look at how all the Rays farmhands are performing in the Arizona Fall League. [Tampa Bay Sports Fanatic]