Archive for the 'St. Pete Times' Category

Oct 08

The St. Pete Times Has Some Explaining To Do

Boston Red Sox, FML, St. Pete Times Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

Below is a screenshot from the St. Pete Times. The image is of John Romano’s latest column and was posted to the tampabay.com website sometime prior to 10:30 last night (the entire article can be found here). The article is a typical “these aren’t the Rays we know and love” piece. And there is absolutely nothing in the article about the Red Sox, except to mention that the Rays finished ahead of the Sox in the standings (the image was fixed sometime around midnight; thanks to several people for the screenshot).

Would anyone like to try and explain that facking ginormous Red Sox logo that is basically slapping us in the face? A disgruntled Red Sox fan at the Times? Romano’s true colors? All of the above?

Jul 30

Postgame Shot Of Joe: Baseball’s Holy Trinity

Albert Pujols, Carlos Pena, Gabe Kapler, Grant Balfour, James Shields, Matt Joyce, MFIKY!, St. Pete Times, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Tribune, Uncategorized, Wade Davis Joe Rays Fan 18 Comments »

Joe is so giddy over the Rays win he doesn’t know where to begin? It was the Holy Trinity of baseball tonight: pitching, defense and a key hit.

* Wade Davis: Was this his best outing? Hard to argue. Once he got past the first, he was simply dominant. Joe has written before Davis could carry the Rays a long way until/unless James “No Game” Shields has proven he has put his awful pitching woes behind him.

Joe cannot write just how great that is to see a No. 4 pitcher come out against a team with the best record in baseball and shut them down for six innings. As strong as the Rays bullpen is, Rays pitchers only need to get through seven innings.

Nice job Wade! Keep it up!

* While Joe has been a bit difficult on Carlos Pena at times for his penchant for imitating Rob Deer with his strikeout-or-homer offense, Joe has never wavered that Pena is one of the best defensive first basemen in baseball and maybe the best.

Pena diving to his right and throwing Read the rest of this entry »

Jun 29

Are The Local Newspapers Influencing The Stadium Debate?

New Stadium, St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune Cork Gaines 12 Comments »

That’s what 10Connects.com asks in a recent piece.

“I’ve looked at both papers’ coverage,” said Dr. Randy Miller, a journalism professor at USF.  “Both sides have had coverage that clearly points out it either is – or isn’t – a good idea to move the stadium across the bay.”

It is an interesting question on several levels…

Do the St. Pete Times and the Tampa Tribune even recognize municipal boundaries anymore? When we were growing up, if you lived in Tampa, you read the Tribune. If you lived in St. Pete, you read the Times. But those boundaries are much greyer nowadays.

And where would the Times’ loyalties lie if it were going to be biased in its coverage? On the one hand, most of their constituents are in Pinellas County. But they are also business partners with the Rays. Is it better for the Times if the Rays stay in St. Pete where they are based? Or is it better for the Times if the Rays are in Tampa where they can maximize revenues and increase the Times’ influence on the east side of the Bay?

And what move would benefit the Tribune? Certainly having the Rays in Tampa would be ideal for the Tribune. But it also risks increasing the Times’ footprint in Tampa.

We don’t know the answers to these questions, but it does raise questions about whether the local newspapers are presenting unbiased coverage of the Rays stadium situation.

Apr 22

St. Pete Times Attempts New Medium…Or Not

St. Pete Times Cork Gaines 4 Comments »

Recently the St. Pete Times introduced a new feature in their various sports blogs, a video report called the “Midday sports report.“  We were excited. We wondered what might this new feature bring? Might it be Marc Topkin’s musings on various Rays topics? Might Joe Smith reveal his true identity? The introduction of a vlog seemed like a logical step for a newspaper as it tries to keep pace with new age media. The possibilities seemed endless.

Then we watched one. And we watched another. And what did we see? A 90-second promotional video telling us what St. Pete Times reporters will be writing…sometime in the future.

We would rather spend 90 seconds staring at Gabe Kapler wearing a spee…Um. Nevermind.

Midday sports report [St. Pete Times]

May 06

[THE HANGOVER] Headline Writers At Times And Tribune Up To Their Old Tricks

Brian Stokes, Evan Longoria, St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune Cork Gaines 4 Comments »


THE GOOD: Getting a last place team after having been swept by the Sox.

THE BAD: Getting the last place Toronto Blue Jays who are clearly better than their record and have actually won 5 in a row.

THE TELLING: Three games with the Jays, none of which will be started by a pitcher named James Shields or Scott Kazmir.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • We use a lot of nicknames here on Rays Index and we receive the occasional email asking what a nickname means or where it came from. In response, we have now added a nickname database in the sidebar under the Cork-Board. Are there any we are missing? [Tampa Bay Rays Nicknames]
  • Marc Lancaster has a big scoop with his latest piece: “For Pitchers, Arm Injuries An Occupational Hazard”…He is already working on his next piece, “The Earth Is Round”. [Tampa Tribune]
  • And not to be outdone, Marc Topkin has the headline “Rays’ best may be yet to come”…Gee. Ya think? We would certainly like to think that a team that has never won more than 70 games or finished higher than 4th, has better days ahead than just a .500 record. If not, We might as well pack up shop and move to Oshkosh and root for the Cheese Herders. [St. Pete Times]
  • Some Jays fans are starting to believe their own hype. Of course, we like the Rays chances with Eric Hinske on our side. Considering the love fest they have for Hinske (they have nicknamed him S#!tske)…we have a feeling the prodigal son is going yard twice in this series. [Drunk Jays Fans]
  • The Rays dropped to 14th in The Sporting News power rankings. [The Sporting News]
  • Were you wondering what Evan Longoria did on his off-day? No? Too bad, we’ll tell you anyway. Dirtbag live-blogged an NBA playoff game that may or may not have featured his brother-in-law. [Bugs & Cranks]
  • Brian Stokes is back in the minors for the Mets as a starter and to say he is struggling is an understatement (Thanks Jordi). [MetsBlog]
Jan 31

[NEWSPAPER BLOGS] Strange Things Are Afoot At The Heater

St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

The Heater, a Rays blog hosted by the St. Pete Times has a post today referring to an ESPN.com chat hosted by Sean McAdam. The focus of the chat is which team will be better in 2010, The Tampa Bay Rays or the Florida Marlins.

The focus of the chat is not what caught our attention. Rather it was Marc Topkin’s use of an external link directing the reader to ESPN.com. [Ed. note: we feel as though this is not the first time, but we were unable to find other examples. At the very least this is a very rare practice]

Last week we attempted to lay out the differences between our blog, the mainstream media and other more professional blogs such as DRays Bay. Several people took the time to write in and ask why we did not address newspaper blogs.

Newspaper blogs such as The Heater and The Rays Report offer the newspapers a way to report the news in real-time for a society where most news is old news by the time the paper comes out in the morning. However, they are still subjected to many of the same limitations as the journalists that write for the newspaper, such as style and language. In the cases of The Heater and The Rays Report they really are just snippets of what is going on in and around the team as it happens. There is never any analysis of the news item and the commentary is kept to a minimum. Rather it is as they say, “Just the facts”.

Another factor that differentiates traditional blogs (sounds like an oxymoron) from newspaper blogs is the use of external links. Newspapers are a business and like any business they are afraid to send their customers to another location, even if that other location is not a direct competitor. We have long felt that this is the single biggest factor that is holding newspaper blogs back from being something more than just a source of news that comes directly from the team.

Without the freedom to use external links, a journalist is limited in the breadth of news they can report. It appears as though The St. Pete Times may be learning this lesson. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a regular habit for the writers at The Heater and whether or not the Tampa Tribune follows the St. Pete Times’ lead.

Rays or Marlins [TampaBay.com]
Please Do Not Accuse Of Trying To Be Journalists [Rays Index]

Jan 25

[BLOGGING IS NOT JOURNALISM] Please Do Not Accuse Us Of Trying To Be Journalists

DRaysBay, Poop jokes are my woobie, St. Pete Times, Tampa Tribune Cork Gaines 19 Comments »

Yesterday Big Daddy Drew at Deadspin addressed the subject of Blogging as Journalism. It is an excellent read and I highly recommend for anybody that spends time reading blogs, to take five minutes and read it. It is my feeling that this debate is at the core of much of the criticism that has been leveled at this site, both in the comments and in emails.

Some feel that at times I can be overly critical of newspaper columnists and websites that cover the Rays. What people need to realize is that Rays Index is just a chronicle of what is going on in the Raysiverse mixed with my occasional editorialization. Some of those thoughts have been molded by talking with others before I write, but make no mistake, the words on this page are mine and mine alone. One person’s opinion. If you disagree with me, I must ask why you hate freedom. Or maybe I am wrong. That is what the comments section is for, and I promise those comments are never censored.

I am not a journalist, nor am I trying to be a journalist or pretending to be a journalist. It should be obvious that there is a clear distinction between the writings at this site and the work that is done at The Tampa Tribune or The St. Pete Times. And while it may not be as obvious, many of the same distinctions are what separates this site from another Rays “blog”, DRays Bay.

Many of the criticisms directed at this site are for the way I have treated writers at DRays Bay. Sports blogs come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. Unlike most blogs, including this one, Drays Bay is trying to be a journalistic entity and some of the writers at Drays Bay aspire to be professional sports writers. One has even written a book on the Rays. They try to give you breaking news. They do interviews. They present everything to you in real time, whether it be important or not. They have 284 different writers and 10,000 different things you can click on their front page. They are the Yahoo! of Rays websites.

At RI, I don’t often write until I have had a chance to discuss the topic, think the topic through, feel out multiple sides to the topic. It gives me a chance to offer a well-thought out evaluation of what has happened, what has been said, and what has been written…and maybe insert a poop joke or two. And quite frankly a lot of the topics don’t need much discussion, so they go in the “Devil Rays Webtopia” the next morning. But if something is written that is idiotic, silly or just plain wrong, I will voice my opinion and make sure that Rays fans are made aware as to why I feel the other piece is crap. It does not matter whether the original piece was presented by the Tribune, the Times, DRays Bay or Martha’s Beanie Baby Blog.

From Big Daddy Drew’s post on Deadspin…

The problem is that many journalists, and in turn many readers, have a deeply held belief that the printed word (on paper or electronically) holds more weight than the spoken word. That it is somehow sacrosanct. But that’s not true on blogs, or on message boards, or on text messages. In these new forms of media, the written word is just as disposable and frivolous as a conversation between me and you (and talking with me is like taking a dip in an empty kiddie pool). And it’s foolish to assume otherwise. Most sports blogs are run by fans, and serve mainly as an online extension of the friendly banter we all engage in about sports on a daily basis. It’s not journalism. It’s a blog. It’s its own thing, and the two needn’t be confused.

I have no aspirations to be a journalist, so I am not worried about offending anybody. I don’t care if the team gets upset with something I write, because I am not seeking interviews. I don’t care if I insult Marc Lancaster or Marc Topkin, because I am not trying to get a job with the Tribune or the Times. That allows me to truly speak to you as one fan would speak to another. You may not agree with my evaluation, but it is mine…uncensored.

I would like to think that this gives RI a level of objectivity that you will not find elsewhere. Unlike journalists, or those that aspire to be journalists, we are not beholden to the hands that feed us. We feed ourselves.

As for Rays of Light? They are a blog like us…minus the asshole and the 8th grade humor…Wait…Never mind.

The Super Bowl Bye Week Jamboroo, In Which Drew Pauses To Make A Serious Point About Blogging As Journalism, Then Makes Chili [Deadspin]

Sep 19

The Hangover: Marc Topkin Apparently Fell Asleep During Warm-Ups

Brendan Harris, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, Gerry Hunsicker, James Shields, Jason Pridie, Joe Maddon, JP Howell, Marc Topkin, Scott Boras, St. Pete Times Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

Angels 2, Devil Rays 1.
This is what drives us absolutely nuts about the local coverage of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. We stayed up late last night and caught every pitch of the Rays 89th loss of the season. We went to bed frustrated with the offense, but content that Jason Hammel had pitch well and has shown improvement in his last four starts.

Then we wake up this morning to THIS headline in the St. Pete Times…

“Banged-up Rays waste Hammel’s latest gem”

Now..instead of feeling good about Hammel’s performance we now feel compelled to explain to Marc Topkin and the editors of the Times why Hammel’s performance was far from being a “gem”. Instead of feeling good about his start, we now have to point out the faults.

  • It took Jason Hammel 98 pitches to get through 6 innings. Therefore, for the 12th time in 12 starts, Hammel was unable to pitch into the 7th inning.
  • 6 innings and 2 runs is not a “gem”. That is an ERA of 3.00. Good. Not great. 9 innings and 2 runs might be a gem, but even then we would need to see 8-10 strikeouts and only 1-2 walks.
  • Hammel allowed 7 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings. That is a WHIP of 1.50! That is NOT a gem.
  • He struck out 3 batters. a strikeout to walk ratio of 3:2 is NOT a gem. A ratio of 8:1 might be a gem…if he also pitched 8 innings and gave up only 1 run.
  • In 3 of his 6 innings, Hammel allowed the leadoff batter to reach base. Two of those runners scored. That is definitely NOT a gem.
  • Chone Figgins scored the first run on a wild pitch. That is right. A wild pitch with a runner on third base. Apparently that is “gem”-worthy.
  • Hammel had exactly ONE 1-2-3 inning. Hammel allowed base runners in 5 of the 6 innings. That is NOT a gem.
  • Did we mention…SIX INNINGS IS NOT A FRIGGIN’ GEM.
  • Eight innings. M-INIMUM are needed before we even think about calling a game a gem, and really we would prefer 9. And is it too much to ask that a few of those innings be 1-2-3?
  • If a starting pitcher for the Yankees or the Red Sox gave up 2 runs in 6 innings and LOST, would ANYBODY call it a gem? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL. They would wonder why he labored and couldn’t get the ball directly to the set-up man in the 8th inning.
  • His “Latest gem”? IS ANYBODY AT THE TIMES AWAKE OVER THERE?!? Hammel is yet to pitch into the 7th inning. In his last start, he allowed 5 hits and only 1 run in 6 innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out 6, against an overrated Seattle Mariners club. That was a very good start. But even that was NOT a gem.

Is this what we have been reduced to as fans of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays? Has the pitching been so bad that when somebody other than Scott Kazmir or James Shields allows 2 runs over 6 innings, we are supposed to be giddy?

We hope that Jason Hammel does not read the St. Pete Times. If he does, he might actually be content with his performance last night, and not see that there is still plenty of room for improvement. We understand that a lot of times, wins and losses are out of the control of the starting pitcher, but when it comes down to it, there is one stat that counts from last night’s start…L. As in Hammel lost. The Devil Rays lost.

If a team is going to only score 1 run, then the pitcher needs to find a way to keep the other team off the board. If he can’t? Let’s just say we are not about to start calling him Tom Seaver. Now there is a guy that threw some gems.

Banged-up Rays waste Hammel’s latest gem [tampabay.com]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

  • MLB Trade Rumors did an excellent job of breaking down exactly how ridiculous Scott Boras’ comments on Carlos Pena were. They challenge both the assertion that Pena is the best player to ever wear a Rays’ uniform and the boast that Pena is one of the top 5 players of 2007. They then go on to show that any claim that Pena is a $15 million player in his 4th full season is ludicrous. They even speculate that because Pena is not a free agent until after the 2009 season, the Rays best move may be to go to arbitration for the next two seasons and then trade Pena during the 2009 season. [MLB Trade Rumors]

Boras says the DRays basically got a $15MM season for the cost of $1.2MM and also takes some digs at the franchise. But it’s disingenuous to imply that a fourth-year player should be earning free agent prices. That ain’t the way it works. Albert Pujols earned $7MM in his fourth year, which seems like some kind of record. Jason Bay is earning $3.25MM in his fourth year. Matt Holliday is at $4.4MM. I could make a laundry list of young players who are huge bargains because of baseball’s pay scale. Hanley Ramirez is making $402,000 this year…Pena reaches free agency after the 2009 season, and Marc Topkin says the Rays have already begun discussions on a three or four-year deal. If the Rays are to buy out a year or two of free agency, those might cost $12-15MM each. More likely, the team just goes to arbitration with him twice and trades him in a summer of ’09 blockbuster (assuming he remains a 40 HR threat).

  • The Devil Rays are 63-89 with 10 games remaining and are 2 games behind (1 in the win column) the Orioles in the AL East and for the worst record in baseball.
  • The Devil Rays have decided to shut down James Shields for the remainder of the season. The move is simply an effort to limit the number of pitches thrown by the emerging ace. JP Howell will fill Shields’ spot in the rotation. [tampabay.com]
  • Brendan Harris was injured during batting practice and was scratched from the lineup. [tampabay.com]
  • Jim Alexander has a conversation with Joe Maddon about his return to Anaheim to face the franchise he was a part of for 31 years. [Many Opinions, No Waiting...]
  • Joe Madden believes that Carl Crawford will be ready to go on Friday, but the team is still likely to call up an extra outfielder from Durham, with Jason Pridie being the most likely candidate. Pridie will need to be added to the 40-man roster this winter anyway or risk being lost in the Rule 5 Draft. [Devil Rays]
  • Gerry Hunsicker will appear on the Baseball Digest Daily radio show this Sunday. [Baseball Digest Radio]
  • Carlos Pena has 18 home runs in the past month, the most in the majors over that span. [USA Today]
Jun 07

Devil Rays Select David Price And Years Of Cheesy Headlines

David Price, Marc Topkin, St. Pete Times Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

Marc Tompkin, of the St. Pete Times is reporting that the Rays have decided to select Vanderbilt pitcher David Price with the first pick of the draft.

Funny. I wonder how it came to be that the St. Pete Times was the first to report this story? Great journalism? Good hustle on the part of Mr. Tomkin? Luck? Hmmm? What could it be. Oh yeah! We remember. The Times is the personally hand-puppet for the Devil Rays.

Please notice the very original headline (see below) that Mr. Tompkin came up with for his article. See what he did there? A little play on David Price’s name. Mix in a news story that is quite topical right now (Bob Barker retiring is topical right?). Probably went through 67 revisions and lost sleep over the past week trying to get the headline just right. Or maybe he just took the title from 6,000 news stories that ran in the past 2 weeks.

Man, somebody must have pissed in our Wheaties this morning.

[Update: The Devil Rays made it official. David Price was the first overall pick and Don Zimmer should never leave a baseball field]

Price is right for Rays [St. Pete Times]

May 29

St. Pete Times Reports The News, But They Don’t Want You To Read It

St. Pete Times Cork Gaines 1 Comment »

We know this is a little stale, but it irritates us to no end…

Last Wednesday night, issues of the St. Pete Times, which are normally found in and around Tropicana Field, were noticeably absent. What was so special about this particular issue? It was the issue that featured a cover story reporting that Devil Rays center fielder Elijah Dukes had threatened to kill his wife and kids and sent her a picture message of a handgun.

One fan contacted the Times to inquire as to why the issues were missing from the Trop. The response was not a surprising one.

Aaron – thanks for the heads up. We made the choice not to distribute at Tropicana Field yesterday. Naturally there is a fine line we have to walk at times and that seemed like the best choice. Things are back to normal today.

Well at least they were honest about it. But wait! The Times immediately retracted this statement and changed their story to indicate that withholding the papers was not intentional. Supposedly they only meant to make fewer papers to be available at the Trop. Even if this later excuse is to be believed (though it smells like a diaper filled with Indian food) neither decision should have been implemented. The Times has a duty to their readers to report the news in an unbiased fashion nor can they make decisions to report some of the news or to report the news only in some places.

We wish we could say that this move surprises us, but it doesn’t. In fact we warned you about scenarios much like this earlier in the season when we discussed our distaste for the sponsorship deal between the St. Pete Times and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. We understand that running a newspaper is a business and like other businesses the point is to make money, but a newspaper is not a business like any other business. There is a fine line between making decisions that are good for the business and making decisions that are ethical for a newspaper. In this case the Times ended up on the wrong side of the line.

Would the Times have withheld the papers if a member of the New York Yankees had pulled the same stunt? Better yet, would New York Newsday, a major sponsor of the Yankees, have withheld their papers if a similar story occurred with the Bronx Bombers? The answer in both instances is ‘no’. The papers were withheld because the story was a black eye for the Times business partner, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

We applaud the Times for having run the story in the first place. Certainly the paper held internal discussions about the pros and cons of damaging their bed mates. In the end they must have thought the national exposure that was due to follow the exclusive piece outweighed the small economic impact on their business relationship with the Rays.

We don’t know who made the decision to go silent at the Trop on Wednesday night. Whether the decision was made by the Times, was requested by the Devil Rays or a mutual decision by both parties doesn’t matter. The decision was made and it was wrong. The decision was made and this is why many people are losing faith in traditional media forms to provide unbiased coverage of the news.

[From the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics] Journalists should avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived, remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility, disclose unavoidable conflicts… deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.

It might be time for the editors of the St. Pete Times to go back to journalism school.

times employees get important updates? [Sticks of Fire]
Elijah Dukes covers missing Wednesday at the Trop [Creative Loafing]
Times reports news, but doesn’t deliver it [TampaBay.com]
The St. Pete Times And The Tampa Tribune Would Like Rays Fans To Drink Their Kool-Aid [Rays Index]

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