Taking a break from my attacks on Lightning management, I’ll redirect my efforts now toward the city of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Previously known as “God’s Waiting Room” (just had to dust that one off), St. Petersburg has turned into a happening place over the last decade. Nightlife thrives, there’s a happening residential community both downtown and elsewhere in the city… Things aren’t all rosie there, however with economic disparity and racial/social issues, but it’s a far cry from the void that it was for so long.

Oh, lest I forget, there’s a little baseball team down there that’s got a bit of a following now. Which brings me to the point of this post.

You see, the Tampa Bay Rays announced their desires to have a new baseball stadium (just as the economic climate was turning sour in December 2007) built on the site of Al Lang Field. While the design and funding concept was outside the box, there were too many issues (economics, logistics, NIMBY’s, etc) that put a halt to the plans for Tropicana Field’s replacement.

But the team is still exploring options and places around Pinellas County…

Which has St. Petersburg crying foul because the team’s lease at Tropicana Field and with the city of St. Petersburg does not expire until 2027, and they don’t want the Rays to go anyplace outside the city. Oh, and they’re not sure if they even want a new stadium for the Rays…

But they demand the Rays be their own personal Rays. Forget the region concept that is the name “Tampa Bay” — the thought debate on a new stadium has hinged (supposedly) in the past on the Rays ballclub being renamed the St. Petersburg Rays.

Read it all..

Over the course of the history of this weblog and my blogging in general on the Internet, I’ve had some problems with the Tampa Bay professional baseball franchise. I’ve had some problems with the mainstream coverage of the team when moves were made (blindly) to improve the team in 1999. The gaffes, the laughs, the horrors… Larry Rothschild, Hal McRae, Lou Pinella, Chuck “Chuckles the Clown” LaMar and some of the beyond-bizarre moves that he made as GM, and of course Vincent J. Naimoli who rounded out the ills and the thrills and the chills of the first few years of Tampa Bay baseball.

I’ve also lashed out blindly and ignorantly – trying to connect the dots that just weren’t there – to current Rays managing general partner Stuart Sternberg. I thought something sinister was afoot and recalled recent ill-conceived notions of contraction by Major League baseball.

I don’t have the links right now to all this “goodness”. And I don’t really want to spend time researching it. No.

Why? Because in their 11th season, almost 11 years to the day of the 1997 expansion draft, the Tampa Bay Rays ballclub will be participating in game one of the 2008 World Series.

That’s not a misprint.

That’s not a typo (and I should know, I make many).

I day I did not expect once again is here. Through all the squabbles I have been through both this season and in seasons past, I never really expected to see this day. I didn’t expect this team — the Wunderkids of St. Pete — to get thsi far though I could very well see them making a pennant chase.

And still ghosts haunt me. While I revel in Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, Scott Kazmir, Andy Sonnenstine, Akinori Iwamura, Carlos Pena and the rest of the Tampa Bay roster… The unease of days past still linger. Brian Kelly, Greg “Toe” Nash, Jose Canseco, Gregg Vaughn, Wilson Alverez, and so on and so forth. The names are malignancies that have not been wiped out just yet.

So while I revel int he impossible — the Rays getting this far — it seems surreal to me. It will undoubtedly remain unreal to me for a long time to come. This is the apex of Tampa Bay’s baseball history. A quest that spanned decades and routinely pulled up disappointment.

And the question that stands out in my mind isn’t “How will it end?” No, it’s how much higher to the top? Because that’s where a Ray shines from — the top. And all this team has done this season is shine.

Shine on, Rays.

Rays / Red Sox about to get underway on TBS (why the hell did MLB approve putting all playoff games in the first two rounds on basic cable?!) but I wanted to bring up MSNBC trying to milk everything out of Tim Wakefield’s start tonight in an online column.

I’ve got loads of respect for Wakefield and can remember him from his early days with the Pittsburgh Pirates (when he wasn’t just a knuckleballer but one that would throw it fast). Between longevity and tenure, he gets a nod from me…

But Joe Maddon brought up a great point in the milk-this-drama-to-the-max article:

“When (the knuckleball) is righteous and on, nobody hits it on any given day.”

Nine innings of baseball… Don’t get cocky, don’t get complacent and don’t get frustrated if the Knuckleball is on tonight, Rays fans. At least two more games — starting right about now.

Update: 8:57 PM EDT: I stand corrected. Tim Wakefield chased after 3 innings. We go to the top of the fourth — Rays lead 5-1.

As of right now… it’s that baseball team that plays home games in St. Pete.

Yes, your Tampa Bay Rays.

There have been so many instances so far this season where a title next to the Rays name (AL East leading, for example) is just too foreign to grasp… But it’s happening, it’s really happening…

Enjoy it.

What do you do when someone is trying to voice disapproval of the new Rays ballpark propsoed by the team?

Answer: Block signs of the anti-sentiment. Hat tip to St. Petersblog.

The Tampa Bay area seems to be in disbelief right now with the team that resides in St. Petersburg performing in a certainly non sub-mediocre level that the area is so accustomed to.

Yes, the mighty Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Mighty? MIGHTY? They aren’t world beaters (as the series in Boston last week could certainly point out) but they are a sight better than what they have been in the past.

St. Petersblog pointed out how the Rays are ranked #4 on the worst-franchises ever list and it’s certainly fitting and deserved of the franchise that once attempted to charge a marching band to stay and watch the game after they performed the national anthem. On the field, they have won 70 games ONCE in ten seasons. Off the field… well, that national anthem flap is only the tip of the iceberg. I won’t go into that.

So with a whole lot of pathetic anecdotes and poor play dominating the team history, it’s not surprising that Friday’s game versus the Angels — a thrilling win with strong pitching and a Sayanora home run by Evan Longoria — drew a paltry 12,000. Even American Idol top-three performer Syesha Mercado couldn’t lure a larger crowd of people to spend a hot and muggy Friday night inside the climate controlled comfort of Tropicana Field and watch two of the top performing teams this season in the AL go at it.

It won’t take long for fever to truly grap Tampa Bay with this baseball team. But there have been a few seasons where there has been one degree or another of promise that only spiraled out of control into a pit of desolation and humiliation.

Terrence Mann’s soliloquy from Field of Dreams doesn’t apply yet. People won’t necessarily come, Ray. Winning may cure all ills but the element of belief hasn’t hit the general sport-fan populous in the area. Once it does… Look out. Until then, however, empty nights at the Dome will be what greets the team.

I’ve gotten used to the New York Islanders pulling stuff like this and I’ve also gotten used to the Tampa Bay lack-of-Devil Rays pulling this on a cost effective platform in the past…

But a nine year investment in a rookie? This takes things to new risk levels:

“This is obviously fairly unique,” Friedman said. “But it was something both sides had interest in really exploring and talking about. And both sides had to make some concessions along the way to get to this point.

“… We have to stay open minded. The economics of the game and us being a low-revenue team, we have to think differently and take chances such as this to keep our nucleus in place as long as we can.”

The salaries for the first six years of the agreement are guaranteed, with the team holding a one-year option for 2014 season and a subsequent two-year option for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The contract guarantees $17.5 million. If the Rays exercise both options, Longoria would earn more than $44 million over the life of the nine-year agreement.

“Fairly Unique” does not begin to explain it. But Longoria was signed on the cheap considering what has has already accomplished and what he could command on an open market… IF he pans out (and even if not — scrub players are getting obscene money in MLB in recent years).

Do the Rays really need a new stadium?

At the same time, do they really need a new stadium on a cramped location on the water that offers no parking? Continues life on the tip of the Pinellas Peninsula at an increased distance from points east?

There’s a lot to be discussed — And it’s getting discussed at Skyscrapercity.com with minor rumblings also going on at SkyscraperPage and FanHome of course. That being said, the most discussion (rambling about development, economics of baseball, the real estate bubble bursting and what not) are on the SkyscraperCity link.

There will be a press conference in little less than an hour with renderings of the Rays proposed ballpark. The St. Petersburg Times already did a mock rendering from passed-on takes of the stadium rendering. It raises more questions than answers though.