Check out this Tampa Tribune article regarding impending (eak gad, dare I say tentatively scheduled) talks between Balking Bill Foster and Stu Sternberg. In a nutshell, the dynamic duo have causally spoken to one another, and have tentatively planned to discuss all things, stadium and attendance, at an unspecified date after the World Series.
Where and exactly when the meeting will take place is undetermined at this point. Good old Bill got on his high horse an suggested that he would like to wait until Sternberg visits the Tampa Bay area. He presumably asserted this in his best Droopy the Dog voice. He inevitably relented and mentioned that he would be willing to fly to New York if necessary, after some well placed verbal nudging by councilwoman Leslie Curran.
Is this a good news? Hell yes, no doubt about it! However, I’m not willing to wave the white flag on the 55% project until some noticeable efforts have been made by both sides. To that end, we are all tasked with the responsibility of shaping the destiny of the Rays in the bay area…so let’s do this.
Partial Screen-shot of Today's Article in the St. Petersburg Times
Two St. Petersburg Times staff writers, David Decamp and Michael Von Sickler, reported today that St. Petersburg mayor, Bill Foster, made very Stu Sternberg like comments (read: those of a petulant teenager) regarding the Rays marketing, or shall I say lack there of (according to Foster), in the area.
According to the article, Foster was implicated by Pinellas County commissioner, Susan Latvala, as having said, “I believe that they are deliberately trying to hurt the team financially by not promoting it adequately” in a phone conference Friday. Foster categorically denies that those statements were uttered and responded by saying “That’s stupid, that’s ludicrous.” According to Latvala, Foster also went on to say that the Rays organization spent only $500 thousand on marketing in the 2011 season; an accusation that was denied by the Rays spokesman, Rick Vaughn, who said the Rays spends “far in excess” of $500,000 on marketing, and “Our budget for giveaway items alone exceeds that amount.”
The article can be read in its entirety here. I highly recommend opening the link, and taking the opportunity to read it.
As I’ve mentioned on many occasions, Stu Sternberg brings up legitimate points, but does so in a mind numbing “Silver Spoons” Rick Schroderkind of way. In this case, I can’t help but feel that mayor Foster is acting in a similar manner. Does he have a valid concern? Of course. However, his manner of working that concern through, in a very public fashion at that, is not doing anything to bolster the desire of the organization to work with good old “Open Door” Bill Foster. On the contrary, it wreaks of back tracking an damage control.
Allow me to get on my righteous high-horse for a moment and reiterate the importance of us Rays fans having our say in this ongoing, urm…narrative. It doesn’t matter how you do it, people. All that matters is that you do it.
Screen shot of a tweet by Tom Morello. Every time I look at Nolan Ryan, he looks as though he ages 10 years. But yeah, I can see the resemblance...
In not so humorous news, former director of baseball operations for the Rays, Dan Feinstein, has left the Rays organization to join the Oakland Athletics, where he will be director of professional scouting and baseball development. Feinstein would have been the next in line for the general manager role if Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman were to go elsewhere. Feinstein has been Friedman’s right hand man for the last six seasons, and because of this move, a lot of speculation has been made as to whether Friedman will take the role of team president for the Los Angeles Angels. The Los Angeles Times reported today that the odds of Friedman being lured away are “slim”. Be still my pitter-pattering heart…
Former Rays special assistant, Dave Eiland, has taken the position of pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals. After spending one season as Rays special assistant, Eiland made his intentions known, that he’d again like to be a pitching coach toward the end of the 2011 season. The St. Petersburg Times reported Eiland as saying, “I’m very happy; it’s what I do, I wouldn’t have left Tampa Bay for any pitching coach job. It had to be the right fit, and Kansas City felt like a very good fit.”
The Rays are not an issue that keeps me up at night.
The mayor’s attempt at stalling progress Thursday should come as no surprise to any of you. It did, however, validate the idea in the minds of a great many of us, that the mayor couldn’t care less about the thoughts, feelings, and wishes the city council members and constituents that want to see some progress being made in the stadium issue. It really doesn’t matter if you chalk up mayor Foster’s aloof attitude on the stadium issue to megalomania or attribute it narcissism, the fact stands: Foster is working on his timeline, everyone else be damned.
Dare I say that his glib, arrogant attitude toward the Rays reeks of carelessness toward what could possibly be the inevitable? Is that just pointing out the obvious? Lest we remind Bill “declining property values, meeting a budget and public safety issues like EMS and protecting police officers” Foster, that if the Rays are lost to Tampa or another market all together, that the city stands to lose 5,000 plus jobs, and $300 million in combined revenue a year. How will that pan out for the issues that “keep you up at night” then, Bill?
There is a saying that is thrown around a lot when talking about the Rays play on the field: respect the process. Unfortunately, that saying doesn’t carry over in the case of the mayor’s handling of this process. In fact, there is nothing to respect about mayor Foster’s process. Foster stands as a major speed bump in the way of “the process” and progress in general. I think a new saying would be apropos: fear the process.
As if the timing of his chiming in on the matter was aligned with the stars, MLB commissioner Bud Selig had this to say on a Sirius XM interview Thursday:
I like Stu Sternberg a lot, as you probably know…I, too, am concerned about their attendance. I track attendance every day. He knows it. I’ve talked to him a lot. They are a wonderful organization, produced a terrific team this year and finished last in the American League in attendance. I’ll let you draw your own conclusion. That’s bad…[Selig then asked if stadium situation is a “lost cause”]…I can’t answer that yet but I’m usually an optimist and I don’t have any reason to be too optimistic.
Ouch. Should we Rays fans be fearful? Yes. Should we Rays fans be angry? Absolutely. I can certainly tell you that the anger and ire over this entire situation is oozing out of every one of my pores. So, what can we do?
Not to get all hippy-dippy or anything, but we all (including mayor Foster, the city council, and the Pinellas County Commission) need to remember one thing: our votes put these people into office. They are, ideally, representing our beliefs in what we want, and it’s obvious that those stalling things are not doing a very good job of representing us. If they are not going to advocate for us fans and constituents, then we need to make our voices heard in the matter. What is the “We Are the 55% Project”?
55% is a number based on the average number of fans that came to any given game this season, divided by the total number of fans that the Trop can house. I know, you’re obviously still a fan of the Rays even if you couldn’t make it out to any games for one reason or another, I just wanted to come up with something catchy. Now back to my train of thought…
Over the course of the forthcoming days and weeks, we will be compiling a list of things the Rays mean to you, dear reader. We’ll also be taking note of why you think the Rays should stay on this side of the bay. Why? We’ll be using your ideas to write a generic letter that we all can cut an paste, and send to the folks that are affecting this issue in some way, shape, or form. In short, all you’ve got to do once the letter is composed, is cut and paste it, and send it (a great many times) to those people. It’s literally the least that we can do to make our voices heard. I’ll, again, post all of the important email and snail mail addresses as this project comes to a head.
Time is of the essence though, and we’re hoping to have your thoughts compiled in a timely manner. In other words, send your thoughts in ASAP! By all means, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also email us, or post something on our Facebook page. It’s time that we’re heard in this matter!
I’m going to let Schmitty do most of the talking here, as he is the undisputed expert. But in the meantime, let me just put this out there…..
Fuck this shit! Couple of do-nothing arrogant AAAAAAAASSHOLES (looking at you Foster and Kennedy). Could SOMEONE please have an adult conversation about this?! Please?!
