Tag: devil rays

Ten!

People in the Tampa Bay area are so shocked by the Devil Rays’ winning streak, they’re hitting the wrong pedal even more often than usual!

Oh, yeah, Levi wanted me to write about the Cardinals, didn’t he? Well, they’re only 8-2 in their last 10 games. And they may have only four losses in the month of June, but the Rays only have three losses this month. I repeat, they’re making people want to pick up their baggage at the Tampa airport really fast so they can get home to watch the games on PAX 66!

Nine!

Maybe the Devil Rays suddenly realized that the possibility exists for them to win the World Series in the same year that their hockey counterparts, the Lightning, won the Stanley Cup.

Or maybe the thought process is, “Well, we’re never going to see these NL West teams again, because we’ll probably be contracted out of existence before they come around again in the interleague rotation, so let’s make the most of it.”

Today’s dialogue from "Tank McNamara"

Man #1: So that’s your new TiVo?
Man #2: By jumping past pitching changes and the commercial blocks between innings, you can watch a whole game and save almost an hour.
Man #1: What would I do with another hour? Look, I have these unwanted periods of consciousness. I use TV sports to get rid of them.

In other news, the Devil Rays have won a franchise record seven straight games, so clearly, Levi needs to go on vacation more often. Alternately, perhaps the Rays could be switched from the AL to the NL.

Original comments…

thatbob: What is a Tank McNamara? Is it related to the Simon and Garfunkel song?

Jim: There’s a Simon and Garfunkel song called “Tank McNamara”?

“Tank McNamara” is a sports-themed comic strip. The title character is a football player turned sportscaster, although many of the strips don’t include him at all, such as today’s. Many newspapers run it in the sports section instead of on the comics page, including the Tampa Tribune during the 1980s, which is where I first became aware of its existence.

thatbob: “Many newspapers run it in the sports section instead of on the comics page,”

In the sacred space customarily accorded to Gil Thorpe?!? For shame!

Epacris: That particular day’s strip is one of my top favourites.

(My all-time favourite is Calvin & Hobbes, 2nd June, 1983 aka ‘The Big Picture’)

I have TMcN on “My Yahoo” front page. Since I’m from Australia & (somewhat unusually) quite uninterested in sport, a lot of the strip doesn’t make much sense, but it can be quite fun about universal sporting foibles.

Dodging the trolleys

Two recent pieces of news from the Los Angeles Dodgers: their organist Nancy Bea Hefley is playing a lot less than she used to, and they’re considering adding a mascot (no link available, but there was a story in today’s L.A. Times that, if today were April 1 and not June 1, I would have thought was fake).

I’m wondering if new Dodgers owner Frank McCourt doesn’t have some kind of “Producers”-style scam going on that depends on low attendance at Dodger Stadium. Raising ticket prices would have been too obvious, so he raised parking prices and concession stand prices, but that didn’t work too well, because people still keep showing up to the games. There were no spectacular free agent signings in the off-season, just a troublemaker acquired at the last minute. Yet the Dodgers are doing pretty well, so people still keep showing up to the games. Perhaps when the no-organ-plus-annoying-mascot plan doesn’t work, McCourt will make every night Free Beach Ball Night, in which every fan will get a free pre-inflated beach ball and will be encouraged to bat it around in the stands throughout the game. Oh, wait a second…

By the way, the Major League Baseball organist situation isn’t quite as dire as the Seattle Times column makes it out to be. Their list of organists is incomplete. For example, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a live organist, believe it or not, to name one team they didn’t mention. His booth is next to, but not inside, the press box, and I was just a few sections over from it at the game last month. I only realized afterwards that I should have gone over there to see if he took requests.

Original comments…

Levi: Hey, don’t knock Milton Bradley.

As he said last year when sent down by Cleveland, “There seems to be one set of rules for Milton Bradley, and another set for everybody else.”

thatbob: Oh, see, I have a deep and profound love for annoying mascots that I’m surprised you don’t share, Jim. But at least if they get a Trolley Dodger, they’ll have to get a trolley, no? Wouldn’t that make you happy! LA hasn’t had one of those since, what, the 1940s?

I hope it’s a big pink and green trolley made of balloons and glitter that runs back and forth across the backfield. Isn’t that the kind you like?

Jason: Bernie Brewer was never annoying.

Levi: If the Dodgers get a mascot, who’s next? A big, stinky Red Sock? A plastered Trixie named Cubbina?

We can only hope.

Jim: The Red Sox have a mascot: Wally the Green Monster.

Raised on Devil Ray-dio

First and most importantly, I have solved a mystery that has been puzzling Levi ever since last July, regarding the end of a certain White Sox-Devil Rays game, captured by Levi’s TiVo and replayed endlessly. The question was, what was the deal with the Devil Rays mascot, Pansy the Wuss-Wuss Fish Who Can’t Keep It Up (a.k.a. Raymond), when he was jumping around with the players?

The answer is that if the Rays are behind, he spends the bottom of the ninth standing around on top of the visitors’ dugout, dressed in a black shirt and mask, “disguised” as Rally Ray. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good picture of him as he was unsuccessfully attempting to work his mojo against the Rangers on Tuesday night:

And now, more pictures:


Tropicana Field, as seen from the Interstate. It’s hard to tell, but we were driving through a sudden, very brief cloudburst at this point, approximately 6:40 P.M., and that’s why the city of St. Petersburg built a dome in the late 1980s.


The view from my seat, on the club level. I have to admit that this would be a very nice stadium if not for the permanent roof.


Plenty of good seats available. The official attendance was 10,389, but there were probably fewer than 7,000 people actually at the game. This is what happens when a team has lost its last five games and 12 out of its last 14, and plays a Tuesday night game against a team other than the Yankees or Red Sox, and doesn’t give away some sort of promotional item. They did not play Guess the Attendance on the scoreboard.


Maura’s favorite player!


The final line.


Headline in the Tampa Tribune.


Headline in the Dallas Morning News (it was a coincidence that I was changing planes not too far away from The Ballpark at Arlington…excuse me, Ameriquest Field).


Unfortunately, although the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa has a “please touch” ray pond, since they’re all the rage these days, they haven’t labeled which ones are the devil rays. (Insert your own joke here, or better yet, in the comments.)

Original comments…

maura: haha, i was totally going to ask you where the picture of rocco was!! nice work, my friend, nice work. have you been to other roofed parks ever? i have never seen a baseball game indoors, and man people i know sure hate tropicana field.

maura: i am really sad about the rays this season, too, but i think i’ve mentioned that. sigh

Levi: I’ve been to a game at the Metrodome, with Stacey and Sarah Meisch and Dan Rivkin and Baggarly. We all kind of enjoyed it, although it was weird. The worst part was leaving a 65-degree sunny day to enter a 65-degree fluorescent-lit dome.

Steve: As much as I’m glad Jim was able to enjoy a trip home, (and catch an AL game in a dome) his attention to detail makes a strong case that baseball could use some contraction.

Jim: Nah, I’d have the same attention to detail even if the AL still had only eight teams. But it’ll all be worth it if I get on “Super Millionaire.”

Steve: I hear you on that super millionare. Will you be my phone a friend if I make it? I don’t like the new “jury” lifeline. Even though they should be super brainy, I don’t trust them. They are there at the producers behest no?

Also, Jim never had a mullet

Q. What has Levi done many, many times in his life that Jim had never done until last night, at least as far as he can remember?

A. Fall asleep listening to a West Coast baseball game on the radio. True, Devil Rays announcer Paul Olden is no Jack Buck, and “edgy” news/talk station WFLA is no “classy” news/talk station KMOX, but it was a neat experience. I may have to do it more often than once every 29-1/2 years.

I actually almost turned it off once the Angels scored five runs in the seventh inning, but decided to stay up for updates on the Rangers-Tigers game which ended up being won by Texas 16-15 in the 10th inning. I also wondered idly how many times in his Devil Rays broadcasting career Paul Olden has had to say something like, “Things have gone bad for the Rays,” as he did a couple of times during the last inning and a half last night.

Original comments…

Levi: I bet he has had to say that about as often as Bob Uecker, despite it being only April, has had to dig for topics of discussion during a blowout.

Tom Ellwanger: Well, at least they were competitive for 7 innings. Make that 6-1/2.

Levi: I have to admit that I’m impressed the D-Rays have a radio affiliate. Remember a few seasons ago when the Expos, at the worst point of their mismanagement, had no English-language radio broadcasts?

Actually, the Devil Rays are much better off than the Expos. First, they’re outhitting Barry Bonds, at least. And second, they’re averaging on the season more fans per game than the Expos drew in total for their three weeekend games against St. Louis.

Report from the Tampa Bay area

As you come down the escalator toward baggage claim at Tampa International Airport, there are these big LCD screens that list all the current incoming flights and their assigned baggage carousels. But there’s a panel in the middle that the airport uses to welcome whatever convention, group, or Mafia den is coming to town. Friday afternoon, it read “LIGHTNING VS. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS, SAT. & MON./Devil Rays vs. Texas Rangers, Tues., Wed. Thurs.” Nice to know not everyone has hockey fever; however, I have a feeling that very few of the people coming into the airport on Friday afternoon are going to be at any one of those Devil Rays games. But I will.

Raised on radio

Well, no wonder, considering the fact that the Cardinals have a gargantuan number of radio affiliates. I’m thinking you wouldn’t have had the same luck if you were driving through Florida trying to listen to the Devil Rays game, although I can’t imagine a situation where that would come up.

Next time your iPod freezes up, Levi, try resetting it, by flipping the hold switch back and forth, and then hold down the “play/pause” and “menu” buttons simultaneously for about 10 seconds, until the Apple logo displays on the screen.

(P.S.: I see there’s a show on WXRU that has a city in the title, but in reality has nothing whatsoever to do with that city. Where would they have ever gotten that idea? I’m not sure if I should be flattered, or join with WXLO-FM in their lawsuit. They ripped off those call letters from the former WOR-FM in New York anyway. Go to the link and scroll down for some info on that.)

Original comments…

Levi: I’ve been able to reset my iPod before by toggling the hold switch, then holding down the middle button, but I’ve not tried the menu/play button thing. Thanks.

Good grief, more baseball!

I saw “The Punisher” today, which was filmed in, and takes place in, Tampa. I don’t think I’m giving anything away here, since it was mentioned in several reviews I’ve read, but there’s a torture scene involving someone’s facial piercings and a pair of pliers. Perhaps it would have been more effective if the torture had instead involved attendance at a Devil Rays game.

I say that with love, of course, since the stars have aligned such that I will be in my hometown a mere three weekends from now, and I will be seeing the Devil Rays play the Rangers at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, May 11th. I guess technically, this counts as a new stadium for me, although I’ve seen both NHL hockey games and college basketball games there in its previous incarnations as the Florida Suncoast Dome and as the Thunderdome.