Apr 11
Fans do silly things, FML, Nice little offseason, Offense is offensive, RAYSHEADS, Sometimes cold isn't that cold, Things that make me want to club a stuffed baby seal, Things that make us hurt inanimate objects, Victory!, Vote or Die, We are mad as hell Jordi Scrubbings
When we need s sensible take, we always turn to our correspondent. Jordi Scrubbings is back with another take on the Rays…
I’ve been looking up a lot lately. Apparently, the sky is falling. I hear people are getting ready to fling themselves from skyscrapers, kiss their wives or husbands good-bye, and stock up on canned goods and bottled water.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. Yet I feel fine.
The Rays are in an early season slump. Word on the street is that I must react by “panicking” – whatever that means.
I’m not really sure how to panic for a sports team. After 9/11, I stopped talking to foreigners, cut communications with my neighbors, and even closed myself from my family. They could have all been terrorists. I tuned in regularly to the National Security Color Code Chart to see how safe I was. I watched my friends like a hawk to ensure they weren’t plotting against America. I also stopped eating French fries, French toast, Canadian bacon, and Taco Bell. I took every precaution.
A few years ago, after Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 28
Tom Jones of the St. Pete Times, who writes the blog “Tom Jones’ 2¢,” names the teams he believes have the most and least supportive fans in the major sports.
And who gets the honor of the “Least Supportive” fans in Major League Baseball? St. Pete’s own Tampa Bay Rays…
Least supportive: Tampa Bay fans set records for watching the Rays on television, but the criticism fans get for not showing up at Tropicana Field is deserved. Blame the economy, blame stadium location, blame whatever you want. Bottom line: The Rays had the second-best record in baseball last season but played to only 52 percent capacity. The other teams that played to less than 60 percent capacity last season were the Marlins, Mariners, Nationals, Royals, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Orioles, Indians, A’s and Blue Jays. Of those teams, only one had a winning record. And that was the Blue Jays, who finished fourth in the American League East. It also included all six of the majors’ last-place teams.
First of all, why use “percent capacity” as a measure of fan support? Would the Rays suddenly have the most supportive fans if the Trop’s capacity was only 20,000?
And second of all….what the eff Brutus? We have to read this crap from national writers all the time. Writers that always fail to mention the economy and the TV ratings. You mention that stuff and still bash the attendance. The same attendance that has shown steady growth in recent years despite the economy.
2¢ for this? We want our money back.
Feb 22
Our correspondent and Afrologist, Jordi Scrubbings, is back with another sensible take on things that drive most of us nuts…
“Absolutely!! Have faith in us!! RT @GtotheLee: @DAVIDprice14 there goes Soriano & Balfour is there anybody left to field a team?”- David Price on Twitter, Jan 14th, 2011
We live in a very fickle society, and many things we hold dear one day we have no problem parting ways with the next. We swap our phones, move on to other jobs, flip our homes, and even trade in our cars often times without the slightest regret.
We call it “upgrading” and we are modern masters.
Sometimes, however, we don’t the ability to move up. Sometimes life deals us a bad hand and we lose the very thing that comforted us the most. Sometimes we have to pull out the duct tape, bubble gum, toothpicks, and screwdrivers and do our best MacGuyver impression. Sometimes, like David Price said, we gotta have faith.
That’s not to say the 2010 Rays were Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 07
In addition to just checking back here every day, there are several other ways for you to get your Tampa Bay Rays fix and interact with other Raysheads…
- Subscribe to our RSS feed.
- Check out the “Recent Posts” and “Recent Comments” over on the right side of this page.
- Follow us on Twitter.
- Join the Raysheads Facebook group where you can discuss current Rays topics and share Rays pictures.
- Discuss the Rays at the new Raysheads Forum.
- And don’t forget…If you want to help out some local charities, you can participate in our First Annual Pledge Drive.
May 27
Time to bring back 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: Carlos Pena. Pena hit his league-leading 16th home run for the Rays’ lone score…Carl Crawford. CC stole his 30th base without being caught.
THE BAD: The Offense. No player had more than 1 hit. As a whole, the Rays were 0-12 with runners on base and 0-9 with runners in scoring position. Three times the Rays had a runner in scoring position with less than 2 outs and failed to score…BJ Upton. Remember when everybody was saying not to worry about Upton’s batting average because he is still getting on base a lot? Well, that OBP is now .285, and his wOBA is even worse at .279. Ladies and gentlemen, the worst leadoff hitter in baseball…The Starting Pitchers. The tRAs (think expected ERA based on a pitchers peripheral numbers) for the rotation: Matt Garza 4.85, Scott Kazmir 6.74, Jeff Niemann 6.61, James Shields 5.25, Andy Sonnanstine 6.09, David Price 10.64 (1 start).
THE TELLING: Reid Brignac started at short for the second straight day in the absence of Jason Bartlett and Willy Aybar was back at second…The Rays have lost 3 in a row since we stopped calling them the Devil Rays and they are actually playing more Devil Raysian than ever.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Carlos Pena. By default.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- We had co-winners of the contest on the RAYSHEADS Facebook group to guess the date of David Price’s promotion. Both winners guessed May 27th missing the correct date by 2 days. You might recognize one of the winners as the wife of a certain triple-A manager. [RAYSHEADS Facebook Group]
- Also, we never mentioned the winner of the RAYSHEADS Facebook group photo contest. The overall winner of tickets to a regular season game was this photo of the introduction ceremony from the ALCS last October. [RAYSHEADS Facebook Group]
- Jason Bartlett is now the 8th player on the DL. The Rays moved Aki Iwamura to the 60-day DL to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Joe Dillon to be called up. He was the player obtained for Adam Kennedy. Interestingly, Bartlett says the ankle isn’t that bad, but an MRI showed a sprain and the team doesn’t want it to get worse. [Rays Report]
- Pat Burrell had his mid-week return pushed back to at least this weekend as his neck is still stiff and the MRI on Brian Shouse’s shoulder showed that he will be out a few weeks. [Tampa Tribune]
- Her Rays is worried she may have jinxed the Rays and is now trying to unjinx the jinxed with her usual high jinks. [Her Rays!]
- Here is a screengrab from an ESPN.com poll. Even the four-letter is calling them the “Devil Rays” nowadays (thanks Brett). [Image]
- The Rays Party breaks down Andy Sonnanstine’s lefty-righty splits. [The Rays Party]
- Joe Henderson says there is no simple fix for the Rays, but that it could be a lot worse. [Tampa Tribune]
- Keith Law projects the first round of the upcoming amateur draft. He has the Rays taking Tommy Joseph, a high school catcher…The consensus seems to be that the Rays will draft a catcher, but this team isn’t one to draft for need because they know that nobody knows what this team will need in 3-4 years. [ESPN]
If the Rays’ system is light anywhere, it’s behind the plate, and Joseph is a legitimate first-round pick considering his arm and his power.
- Tyler Hissey and Brittany Ghiroli have survived week 1 of “BP Idol.” [Baseball Prospectus]
- The latest “Rank the Rays” is up. [The Rays Party]
- Gordon Edes suggests a couple of players for the Rays to target in trades including reliever Jose Valverde (“Houston would probably ask for Wade Davis) and Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa to play second base (“although they may be able to deal internally with the loss of Akinori Iwamura“). [Yahoo!]
- The St. Pete Times food critic takes on the concession stands at The Trop. [St. Pete Times]
Oct 10
Sometimes the stars align in such a manner, that we all have to just sit back in awe and admire the power. The Rays are in the ALCS against the hated Red Sox. This was the perfect time to conduct a Hajj and journey to our Mecca.
The good news is we will be in attendance for both games 1 and 2. The bad news is that there will not be any Live Blog-A-Baloos unless Marc Topkin let’s us borrow his laptop.
ROADTRIP TO THE TROP! And all RAYSHEADS are welcome to join us.
WHEN: Saturday October 10. ALCS Game 2 versus the Boston Red Sux
WHERE: Pre-gaming at Ferg’s Sports Bar (4 pm).
Check the Twitter updates in the sidebar for updates and more specifics.
Oct 04
Click on the image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.
Just want to let you know that we added an item to the Rays Index Store, based on requests, and in honor of The Mad Hungarian. It seemed silly that we did not have a shirt for The Mad Australian.
The Mad Australian: WHAT THE F#@% IS YOUR PROBLEM?
You: I…I…I was just looking at the t-shirts
The Mad Australian: WHAT? LEAVE ME THE F#@% ALONE. I’M NOT F#@%ING TALKING TO YOU
You: Um…I’m…I’m…I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t mean to cause any problems.
The Mad Australian: [throws a 97 mph fastball at your head]
You: [wet your pants]
The Mad Australian: GO F#@%ING SIT YOUR A$$ DOWN
You: [crying]
Do you want to piss of The Mad Australian? We didn’t think so.
RAYSHEAD by
C. A. Gaines is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Jul 29
Just want to let you know that we added an item to the Rays Index Store, based on requests.
No poem to mark the occasion today…but just know that if we had a daughter, we would buy this shirt for her and make it happen. Is there a bigger compliment that one man could ever give to another?
Click on the image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.
RAYSHEAD by
C. A. Gaines is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Jul 22
Just want to let you know that we added an item to the Rays Index Store, based on requests. It seemed silly that we did not have a shirt for one of the Rays’ All-Stars.
Ode To The Fat Catcher*
Behind the plate squats your rotundness
At the plate, your chubby digits enwrap the lumber
Flex and nimble, my eyes must deceive me
Short and plump – Like a stump
The Fat Catcher, we do love thee
*Hat Tip to TBSB, as they came up with the nickname
Click on the image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.
RAYSHEAD by
C. A. Gaines is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Jun 27
(click on image for larger version)
The above image is of thousands of Cownose Rays migrating off the coast of Mexico…presumably on their way to the Trop.
Now we ask you…What is more intimidating: The above image? Or the sunburst etched into the centerfield turf at the Trop?
Golden Rays photos of amazing mass migration [Telegraph]
