Devil Rays Universe

Yankees are BS, I heart the Rays!!!

2008-05-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

10 Year Anniversary Series

2007-06-18T12:52:00.001-07:00

That's right! I'm not dead yet! In 1998 Expansionites Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks joined the leagues and forced the Milwaukee Brewers to make for some stupid trivia.

1998 was also known as the year baseball gasped it's last breath (or will be after this whole steroids stuff blows "clear" - pun intended)

Manny Stiles will be covering the series in Phoenix Arizona starting tonight with Edwin Jackson trying to keep his season's record perfect (he's 0-8) against Livan Hernandez (consummate professional pitcher looking to buzz through a young lineup)...

It will also be my first opportunity to see the Rays on the Road... they just got in town from a win in Denver.

"I wasn't sure if they were saying 'boo' or 'Dukes"'

2007-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Look, I could go into all of the reasons why I haven't written an article on my Rays blog in over a month. Instead I will issue a generic statement with a certain percentage of contriticity...

I would like to explain away my inactions and actions over the past few weeks.

I am seriously contemplating things in my life. AS you may or may not know, I am currently unemployed. I wanted to take some time with my family and reflect over my thoughts of pursuing a writing career (not like this part-time writing, I've been doing). Well, some things fell out of what should have been a great period of my writing career.

I had some family members disown me (as well as threaten my life) over the fact that my brother Dru's name was mentioned on TV and on the internet - they still won't accept him, even though he's dead. Funny how brother in Tampa wants to have all the perks until his bigoted mind gets reminded why I was a Devil Rays blogger to begin with. All in all, I felt very stifled as a writer as my littler "Big Bro" with the Leo attitude issues had to hover over me. I stayed with him and his girlfriend in a one bedroom apartment (my 6'6" ass slept on the couch) and he drove me around as I didn't rent a car (NEVER again). So after arriving superearly on Day one and getting the scenic tour, I was late to the field twice of my final 3 days since he didn't want to get there too early. He also had a penchant for leaving as the games were ending (when most journalists get post game interviews). So, a great time tainted.

I will not deny that I in fact did not untry to forcibly not unwrite what was never unwritten. I also got my Online personna AND true self fully engaged in an internet flamewar with (randomly enough) a group of people that hate Jay Mariotti and only seek to incite wars of words and slander. Of course I am an idiot for arguing with anonymous haters over the internet about anything non-sports related but I always wanted a "hate club" of my own. They fully tried to embarass me and I thought it was funny for a bit until they brought my wife Jessica into it (and other personal stuff that was "magically" located with the power of the internet). Jes didn't care, and I don't really either since it's all true but I wanted to make an example out of some haters. They go out of their way to bash Jay Mariotti (whom I have no opinion of), when I think it takes less energy to change the station, page, website... These guys don't just drink haterade, they own stock in Preperation H(ate). Don't argue with noseeums on the web... got it - lesson learned. I got better things to do (or SHOULD) and no one is going to make the internet a better place unless they lead by example...

So I fully accept responsibility for whatever you think it is and just simply change the subject.

I am going to grab this writing demon inside of me and pin him to the seat in front of the keyboard over the next few days and get back into a rhythm... thanks for having me back from my "sabatical"!

Ooooh! How 'bout I sum it up like this: I went on a bender, then checked in at a posh rehab in Palm Springs... no, let's make it Sedona, AZ since I was actually there in the past month (haven't been to Palm Springs since February). Now I'm back (and everyone knows you're a no one in the "real world" until you've been to rehab - some say it takes several visits to become someone...)

WHAT is this about?

The Devil Rays are right on pace where they should be... The team is still young, pieces are interchanging and it's laying the foundation for the future core. BJ Upton continues to blossom as a stud of the future and Delmon Young has been steadily trudging through his rookie year and seems to be gearing to go on some tears during the warmer months of baseball.

I do have to admit, May is usually the boringest month of baseball. The season gears up during June when teams start to make moves. April is the cleansing, May is illusion, June is when we know what flavors we're working with. That being typed, isn't it FANTASTIC to see the Yankees in last place? I don't care that the Rays are tied for last... I see it like this, YOU are last Yankees, HA HA! When you spend 8 times as much as the team you're tied with, you lose!

If you trade A-Rod's contract to the Rays for nothing (doubling the Rays payroll), THEN the Yankees only have 3 1/2 times the team salary of the Rays...

The funny thing is, the Devil Rays are poised to make a move to pull away with their schedule lightening up while the Yankees have a couple rough patches coming up. I guess it all comes down to who gets their pitching staff in order first...

The other thing is Elijah Dukes. The marital issues and family history and everything else aside. I still maintain that he is an incredible baseball player that has a quality shot (no pun intended) at being a true star. But I fear that he may only see that happen in Tampa. I think if he gets in more trouble, the team will have to part ways. I don't think he pans out in another city (a la Gary Sheffield). I think his BEST chance is in Tampa/St Pete. He has to rise above the things he can't control (his past). No better place to do that than in the belly of the beast. So it all comes down to... how great does he want to be?

And if you don't think Elijah Dukes is good for Delmon Young and vice versa, you're crazy. What's best is how good both of those guys being around will help BJ Upton. The core elements are there. Crawford, Kazmir, the draft is coming, so another top-flight player is coming, there's arms in the minors on their way and the budget isn't draining the franchise. The direction they have chosen is wise. I'm actually more worried about how they maintain the dream once the winning occurs. How do they keep on top once the talent gets there? You do know that the Braves were VERY bad once upon a time...

I still maintain that patience is needed. But these ain't your older brother's (pun intended) Devil Rays...

Psst...

2007-05-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

You thought I left, huh?

(Shakes head) Uh-uh... not... even... close

Manny Stiles is here to stay for the whole ride. Just had to take some time for family matters, then some personal matters and the Suns early interupted playoff run.

On top of that, things are getting a little re-arranged around here... watch out!

Join the LIVE running blog of tonight's game!

2007-04-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

We're making blog history tonight on the 'Chair! (www.ArmchairGM.com - All Sports, All You)

Manny Stiles is at the stadium, in the press box. You're watching it at home on ESPN. Anyone can comment early, often. Just make semi-insightful comments please! (no emephing profanities, ya seeyessers)

This isn't a Stiles-only event, JOIN IN! This is for everyone... yes, even Yankee fans. See? We all enjoy.

New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, tonight on ESPN and www.ArmchairGM.com

Damn I hate having to "act professional". As a credentialled media member, I can't root aloud from the press box. This is also the first time I'm seeing the Yankees in person and I'm NOT allowed to boo, either! Son of a... They've put up with my "yeahs", "oohs" and one raucous "You don't run on Delmon! You're toast" when Kelly Shoppach got gunned at the plate on Saturday.

But alas!!! I 'can' scream my head off on-line! And I will! Go Devil Rays! "Yankees Suck! Year 2000! Pinstripes are for *expletives*! All Yankees fans born after 1920 are bandwagon jumpers!" etc and so on!!! Woooo! (I feel better already)

click here to continue on ArmchairGM.com and please join in with the discussion!!!

Stiles in Tampa - Day THREE

2007-04-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

Geez, how do I put a positive spin on today? Well, I had fun... does THAT count?

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays wrapped up their 3 game series against the Cleveland Indians with a punch to the groin in the ninth inning. Ryan Garko hit a three-run homer in the top of the inning off of Brian Stokes to give the Indians the two run winning difference, 6-4 and a series victory.

Multiple Choice

Q. How can I possibly put a positive spin on today's game?

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A. I could pretend that baseball games are really only 8 innings long and how the ninth inning is "just for fun"

B. I could cover my ears and rock back and forth while chanting "nah-na-na-na-na-na-na..." or click my heels and repeat "there's no place like home" over and over until my world went back to black and white...

C. I could go on and on about how Joe Maddon is just an all around fun guy to be around. About how accomodating and polite he is. About how he is a positive and uplifting being. About how I asked him if his antacid supply was running low after 6 straight games decided by two runs or less (seven after today's game), then realizing how stupid a question it was, hearing it come out of my mouth before he answered it... he's just too chill and amazingly patient to suffer at the hands of heartburn.

D. I could focus on how I think this franchise is NOTHING like you heard it is. To quote the motto on the predominant T-shirt worn in the lockerroom - "No regurgitation! Tell me what you think, not what you heard."

E. I could focus on the amazing efforts taken by the franchise to make the fans feel welcomed, entertained and how unbelievably kid friendly they are. About how today's "Superheroes Day" promotion gave away 7,500 kids size Rays hats (7,498 after I got two for 'Bubbas' and 'Pookie' Stiles) and how many thousands of them got to run the bases after the game (very entertaining and heart-touching, too - see inset on the right)

photo by Manny Stiles - If you can watch kids rounding second, looking to make the turn at third and score and it DOESN'T make you feel something, you're basically dead on the inside aren't you? (click on the photo to enlarge and look closer - that's not a stroller)

F. I could talk about all the things I forgot to mention about Saturday night's game (a win), like how the sizable crowd maintained a decent "Wave" for a little over 11 rotations around the stadium... Wait, is this a good thing? I'm not a fan of the "wave" per se (It's still better than the Tomahawk Chop) but I wish there was more variety in it... at the very least I want to see a super-fast wave just once)

G. I could talk about much fight the team has, how they never give up, how tight they are together, how they are growing together, how they are sharing the enthusiasm and diminishing the blame, how good they can be, how they are going to take games on their ability one night and how getting the growing pains out of the way is part of the process... sometimes you need to swim behind a rock in order to make it upstream. It seems like it's a step backward, but that's the only way you can get to move forward. You can tell they are headed toward bountiful waters.

H. I could talk about how the bullpen blowing games is actually helpful to the long-term well being of the team. Hey, the more the bullpen sucks, the more the need to "fix it" will make itself apparent and the more positive changes can occur.

I. I could focus on the absolutely dominating display put on by Rays starter James Shields. About his franchise record tying 12 K's (matching Dan Wheeler's 12 K's against Oakland on Sept 12, 1999)...About his control, about his command of three oitches and hitting his spots, about his change up hitting 72 miles and hour after his fastball was popping at 93-95, or about his winning ticket holders free Papa John's pizzas for getting at least 10 K's (hey, free is free). Shields broke through tonight. He is a clubhouse leader and he took responsibility tonight. He should have gotten two wins for tonight's efforts but he's gonna come back and try to be even better next outing.

J. I could say that Brian Stokes will look back on his career years from now with more "Ha ha! Gotchya!"s than "Ha ha, We got you!" and how he's gonna keep his head up and take the rookie lesson, learn from it and get better to benefit positively from it...

K. I could talk about how Travis Hafner got shut down today. How he actually looked pretty overmatched in his first two at bat's against Shields, K-ing twice. By the way, dude is a massive chunk of WOW. He is huge and thick to where you think, "Yes. Donkey strong, I get it." Or how Pronk felt the wrath of 6-6-6... Six straight games with a home run - Six straight games with a homer against the Devil Rays (in Cleveland and Tampa Bay, dating back to last year) - Six straight games with a home run at Tropicana Field. All of it came to a dull thud when he got pitched around for a walk in the ninth and finished with an 0-3 on the day.

M. I could talk about all of the great conversations I had today with some of the more nicely tattooed players. Afterall, I have many tattoos (and Manny tattoos, too!) I am a burgeoning tatoo artist (hey, I said burgeoning, not bludgeoning!) And however you feel about skin altering, self-mutilation, skin as canvas and "ink work", that's fine. I'm not hear to change people's preferences. I understand the art of it, I understand the personal meaning in them and I am fascinated hearing about other's artwork and the stories.

Jonny Gomes is not only one of the cooler dudes you'll come across (his locker is next to Brian Stokes', so I entertained him while Stokes got the vulturous onslaught/coal raking of the media throng), or just one of the more loved people in Western Florida (I can't even explain the crowd's "Gomes Special" but I thoroughly enjoy it) but the man has as many beautiful tattoos as I have run-on sentences... ok, no one has that many tattoos. He's had some very high quality work done. It was a general concensus in the clubhouse, or of the five or so dudes hanging out at that moment that Gomes' has the nicest collection.

Edwin Jackson has a pretty sweet and sizable inscribed cross on his back that rivals Gomes' back work in detail but had it all done straight through in one 5 1/2 hour session!!! Elijah Dukes has pretty sweet coverage. Among Delmon Young's tats are flames on his right arm and if you seen his throws (like his gundown of Kelly Shoppach on Saturday) you start to wonder if it's a tattoo or real flame! I'm also a big fan of Carl Crawford's classical Leo sign on his neck. If I didn't already have a Libra sign on my back, I'd have it as a neck tattoo.

There's tattoos everywhere you look in society today and it's represented well by this thin cross section of males ages 21-whatever and called the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

But all the inked agree, there's more to come. Like anyone with one tattoo can tell you... wait; There is no one with just one tattoo, they're addictive like potato chips, you can't have just one!

N. I could tell you that C.C. is a fun guy to watch SportsCenter with. While the media throng was twiddling thumbs and talking about college football waiting for Coach Maddon's pregame interview session there wasn't much to do except watch one of the pretty TV's in the middle of the locker room. It was a Sunday day game after a night game, so the team takes swings in the cage but no on-field BP (otherwise they'd just be better off sleeping in the stadium to be there in time to get BP in). So normally we'd all be standing around on the field twiddling our thumbs and watching guys take their hacks (well, I do)...

Crawford's insightful color commentary on the highlights were damn near hernia-inducing - but his diatribe on guys getting airtime for homers in the bandbox NL stadiums like Cincy was classic. "Let us play in Cincinnati" he deadpanned. And I thought he was dead on. The Trop is a cavernous gape compared to Cincy and look at the Rays' offensive statistics sometime. His thoughts on tennis were almost worthy of paying an admission price.

Tomorrow: Manny throws "Tupac or Biggie" out there for conversation to see what happens!!! Although 10 bucks says (and I'm not a gambler...) Crawford turns it into a why H-town (that's his hometown Houston, y'all) is the better anyway... He says the Houston Rockets will win the NBA Finals and when I pointed to the logo on my T-Shirt (Phoenix Suns) he said "they're gonna get slowed down in the playoffs" - I got the can of worms out, opened it up about 1/4 and we all agreed no one from the East can possibly win.

Seriously though, C.C.'s got a good grasp on his stardom, he's a natural team leader (sarcasm alert - Hmmm... a Leo in a leadership role?) but is just plain as real as real is PLUS he's a pretty funny guy before games and after wins... (do the math)

O. I could explain how Ben Zobrist opened my mind to something I never even bothered to contemplate. I was talking with him about how some accounts of the game last night had Akinori Iwamura going into leftfield on the The_Pronk_Shift when it was really Zo. I swore it was him, so I wanted to confirm that I'm not COMPLETELY nuts. We got into talking about general things other than baseball (media vs. bloggers, how I quit my job to be a Stay at Home Dad to my kids, advatages and disadvantages of life in the minors and majors) and he brought up how he doesn't even have a TV and doesn't follow other sports because he's basically doing something baseball related for the majority of his time or travelling because of baseball. He just doesn't have time to live a liesurely life right now like a schlub like I can.

It struck me squarely in the key of "Duh!". A lot of these young bucks are trying to secure their rung on the ladder and climb it at the same time. They are working hard. They see what the big boys get and they want it too. They have crazy drive and consuming passion.

Great example: Other than when he's been dressing or eating, I don't think I've seen Delmon without a bat in his hand for more than 30 combined minutes in the past three days. B.J. Upton is a batting cage fixture. They are all pushing each other, trying to outwork each other and each other and it benefits everyone.

P. I could amazingly and courageously stupendify and terrifically enormalize the astonishing fun of a wonderful Superheroes Day. Ushers were dressed as comic book and science fiction superheros. Even Raymond, the whatever-the-hell-it-is-supposed-to-be mascot dressed up as Spider-Ray and saved the day for the Pepsi bottle when it was about to be beaten by the Aquafina bottle in the bottle races... (like the sausage race, but with giant Pepsi brand beverages) Raymond jumped out of nowhere to legwhip Aquafina and secure victory for Pepsi at the last minute. Sierra Mist never had a chance.

Q. I could rave about how Coach Joe Maddon was very quotable before the game today. He was rehashing Pronk's achievements from the two previous games and let us into his thought process. He said to his pitching staff before the series started "'Even if we walk him 12-14 times in the series, I don't care'" he paused, then reiterated to the throng "I don't care... he's that good."

He went on about Pronk. "Barry Bonds in the World Series in 2002 was the last guy I saw like 'that'..."

Maddon also clarified what he's looking for from his bullpen. He has certain roles he's trying to define and he wants guys to get work in particular situations. He also stated in his pre-game comments that "el assassanino" Al Reyes would be unavailable for the game because he'd pitched each of the 2 previous games.

After the game, the mood was somber, the quotes were shorter, the questions were fewer (it was a morgue in the locker room; afterall, it was a team that just got rochambeau'd) "It's something we've talked about ad nauseum... finishing games" shrugged Coach Maddon. "...we did the little things well, we just didn't finish"

He was extremely pleased with Shield's command and keeping his location down. And he complemented the toughness of his team once again and stressed the togetherness of the team "lose tough games, you lose them together. Win tough games, you win them together."

When asked if he considered using Reyes in the ninth he squashed the notion simply; "We had a plan. If you second guess yourself, you'll never know what to do."

Have I said how much I like this coach?

R. Does a Rick Sutcliffe sighting count as a positive spin? Hmmm... well how about Carlos Pena's Home Run in the sixth inning. The longball he hit won a lucky fan $1000.00 in a promotional contest.

S. The Bottom of the Eighth Inning. It was a fun inning. After Akinori Iwamura walked, he was taking a short lead when the pitcher snapped a pickoff throw. Aki wasn't far off the bag, so instead of stepping back or diving to the bag, he basically kept his right leg where it was and stepped on the bag with his left leg almost doing a pure split!

Aki is special. The crowd who was booing every pickoff throw chuckled when he did it. He just calmly cooly did a split to beat a pickoff. You don't see that every day.

T. Speaking of Aki. His footwork is amazing. Not just the split, but when he bats he moves around the box to where you want to frustratedly scream at him "you can't hit with your feet moving like that!". Obviously, he can. But it's HOW he does it. He gets himself into hitting position and gets the bat through the zone quite well. It's almost like he's Ichiro-lite. It's not something you can teach a person. He's a very physically gifted player.

You can see it in his fielding too. He's pretty fast, has swift yet... what's the word? hmm... graceful(?) feet, amazing balance and gets himself in great position to make sweet plays at the hot corner. I thought he had 3-4 plays tonight that could have been "Web Gems" easy. Plus he has a very accurate arm to boot. He's smooth. I even pulled up behind the grip of Asian reporters who follow him around like a Linus' dust cloud (from the comic strip Peanuts - don't know why I need to explain that, but I did) and even though I had no idea what was going on, it was easy to tell what they thought of him: 100% Aki Fever!

Another weird thing (to me, at least) After I wrote the "Aki Fever" article, an actual virus started spreading around the clubhouse (and around the media members, the clubhouse attendants and also touring the league) and guys were getting the Intestinal Revolution, etc. Aki got the virus himself earlier this week and had to be scratched for a start because of it. Sorry, dude!

U. More Bottom of the Eighth tales... Game was tied at 2 runs apiece. After Aki's pickoff split, Dioner Navarro came up to bat and tried to sacrifice bunt Iwamura to second. Except he didn't sac bunt him over. He laid a PERFECT bunt right down the 1st base foul line, not too far down the line and it was rolling towards foul territory and catcher Victor Martinez and 1st baseman Ryan Garko let it go as it appeared it was spinning foul. Then it spun to a stop right on the line. I mean RIGHT on the chalk. A thing of beauty.

Gomes pinch hit and the crowd gave him the 'Gomes Special' ("wuuuuuuh-wooooh" I have to find out more about that tomorrow), but he struck out. (He absolutely tries to CRUSH the ball with bat when he swings. Serious bat speed gets generated.)

B.J. got up and nearly decapitated the pitcher with a liner back through the middle getting a base knock and a ribbie. B.J. is a unique athletic talent and is going to be a monster as he fills out more with age, because he is sleek. Tools, tools, tools!

Then a strikeout/Wild Pitch, another Wild Pitch and some heady baserunning and Navarro scored to give the Rays a 4-2 lead into the ninth. They battled hard and I enjoyed it.

V. I could reiterate the Tampa Bay Lightning lost, getting knocked out of the playoffs and it didn't even make me fake a shrug. (Afterall, the Suns won.) It's just more attention in the Bay area that can now be directed at the Rays. A win-win situation! (sorry, Lightning fans... deal with it)

W. It could be considered a miracle. It only took me two games and 8.1 innings, but for the first time a dramatic play happened and I didn't make a peep. I sat there stoically and maintained a professional demeanor when I normally would have at least dropped a few dozen F-bomb infused malproprieties. (Guess when this happened)

X. What could and what will be. Here's a positive spin. The Rays get to take out their frustrations on the New York Yankees tomorrow! Don't forget to join in the running blog of the game (also on ESPN Monday Night baseball) that I'll be hosting (assuming all goes as planned) LIVE from the Dome Sweet Dome.

Y. Yes, I know there was no L in my list. Because I could be focusing on the positive stuff, remember.

Zzzzz... I could stop right here and say it's "All of the Above and MORE"

.....as in it's MORE THAN just a game!

Stiles in Tampa - Day TWO

2007-04-22T00:44:00.000-07:00

Smell that? Yeah, that's the smell of victory...

The Game Recap
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays snatched victory away from the clutches of the dastardly Cleveland Indians, 6-5 on "Superheroes Night" despite Pronk's attempt to smash the roof off Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, FL on Saturday evening. Travis Hafner absolutely crushed a first pitch offering in the 5th inning, driving in three runs and tying the game at 5 runs apiece. There is no doubt that it would still be in flight if hit in an open air stadium.

When Rays Manager was told after the game that the ball travelled an estimated 442 feet, his response was simply "that's only because something stopped it". The bomb rattled off the overhanging catwalk or else it may have unprettied the spanking new scorebard a bit. Only fred McGriff and Jason Giambi had hit that catwalk previously. OR maybe the people who estimate the distance of home runs forgot to carry the 1 and it was really 542 feet. It certainly seemed like it. Hafner has now hit a homer in each of his last six games, just two from the record of eight straight games held by three players (Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Tino Martinez).

See the catwalk up there on the left? That's what Pronk hit! Picture of the new scoreboard taken by Manny Stiles just minutes before the Monster HR

But on "Superheroes Night" it was the Rays who brought their super powers to the park to be the heroes this day.

After the Indians jumped to a 2-0 lead, "Fabulous" Ty Wigginton opened the Rays scoring in the second inning by going yard and went 3-4 on the day.

In the sixth inning and the score tied 5-5, Delmon Young picked himself up after an over-aggressive throwing error that allowed Kelly Shoppach to advance to third base when the next batter, Josh Barfield lined out to right and Shoppach tagged up. Young fired an absolute laser-guided missile to the plate to easily gun Shoppach out at the plate. Delmon also helped the cause with two hits, one an RBI double and two runs scored.

Carl Crawford came swooping in, full extension to save the day in the seventh inning on a terrific diving catch from (guess who?) Travis Hafner's thundering line drive for a huge out with the tying run already on base. It was also Carl crawford replica stolen base tonight as the first 12,000 fans recieved the miniature base commemorating his three AL Stolen Base crowns.

B.J. Upton flexed his super abilities in the sixth inning, ripping a single then stealing second and advancing to third on Shoppach's throwing error on the steal. He scored the winning run on a ground out to short by Ben Zobrist and it proved to be the difference.

The bullpen avoided the kryptonite and shut the door despite a tense moment in the eighth when reliever Juan Salas hit two consecutive batters with pitches. Courageous Shawn Camp got out of bases loaded situation and closed the door on the inning. That allowed "el assassanino", a.k.a. Al Reyes to earn his 6th Save on the season putting the evil doers down 1-2-3 in the ninth. (meaningless trivia - the other relievers in Rays history to record at least 5 saves in April went on to be All-Stars in that same season (Roberto Hernandez '99 and Lance Carter '03. See? Meaningless, just like I said)

Credit Manager Joe Maddon on some creative defensive adjustments in dealing with the torrid Hafner (Is this a Hafner or Devil Rays article?). Both games this series the Rays played Pronk seriously to pull, having Third Baseman Akinori Iwamura basically playing shortstop and all the other fielders to the right side of the infield. Maddon's superpower tonight came in the ninth inning in the form of running Shortstop Ben Zobrist to left field, Iwamura to behind second and Upton in short rightfield whilst shifting the outfield deep and to the right (see picture at right) to combat Hafner.

The Pronk shift; photo by Manny Stiles

It worked perfectly when he crushed a liner right to Crawford in deep left center. Apparently, the Joe Maddon suggested "higher league Hafner should be in" has four outfielders, not three!
At first when I looked up to see them shift I thought Aki forgot to run out onto the field! There was no one near third base. I couldn't help but think... "Jeez, push a bunt to third and you'd get at least a double, Pronk!"

After last night's tough loss, tonight's victory was a bit sweeter. Coach Maddon says his team is "like those little red rubber balls. These guys just keep bouncing back."

Guys were lounging, smiling and enjoying the post game spread and beverages; Hip-hop was pumping in the locker room (I was probably the only media thronger who enjoyed that, too). The guys seem tightknit. They seem to actually like each other and they came out and had fun tonight. I'm having a lot of fun too!

Go Devil Rays!

Manny's Wiles
-Paul Byrd stepped out of the time machine to start for the Indians. With his old timey windup (which warms the cochals of mine heart) and classic uniform stylings I could almost forgive him for bringing Lillith to his new show after he left Cheers for Seattle.
-Announced attendance was 22,805 (almost 10,000 more than Friday's game), so some people went home without their replica C.C. stolen base. Carl had himself a healthy supply to take home (to autograph for charitable causes I suppose). Even star MLBers get homework too!
-I said it before, I'll say it again - the stadium is really not a bad baseball stadium and the field surface is awesome. After seeing the new FieldTurf II on the field for himself, HOFer Eddie Murray seeked out a friend from their Orioles days, P.R. wunderkind Rick Vaughn and asked who he needed to contact to have it put on his yard. (I said the same thing when I first stepped on it, but then realized I'm not rich being currently unemployed and I'd end up with crabgrass either way...)
-Longest-ever tenured Umpire Bruce Froemming was behind the plate tonight. I think he plans on umping until he dies on the field. Five bucks says he gets a home plate instead of a headstone on his grave when it happens. And he'll still be better than a decent percentage of umpires.
-During Cleveland's BP, I was mulling about in front of the Rays dugout when a ball ricocheted off a protective screen and came to a rest at my feet. I picked it up and like a trained dog (or a guy with too many fundamental baseball drills wired into his DNA) threw it back toward the BP pitcher's ball bag. As I picked it up and tossed it, a guy hounding for autographs from the players was asking me for the ball like a nine year old. He was saddened by my habitual instinct and proclaimed "Come oooon, it's Cleve-land maaaan." It was pretty chuckleworthy.
-Media dining included Black Angus bacon mushroom burgers and "Sausage Hoagies" ('sausage and peppers sandwich' or 'Italian Sausage sandwich' to those who know the true definition of the term "hoagie") with steak fries and blueberry pie for dessert. And stadium hot dogs and popcorn in the press box. All washed down with non-diet soda. Did I mention my theory on why professional media members seem to average about 6-12 more inches of waistline than regular bloggers? If I don't go on a diet soon, I'll start getting paid to do this!
-To be fair, there IS a salad bar in the media dining area, but it did seem a little lonely over there.
-While eating in the media dining area, I sat near the TV and watched a tad of the Red Sox - Yankees game along with a total of ONE other person out of the 40 or so in the room. I get the feeling sometimes that many journalists aren't sports fans after all (or have just been completely deprogrammed from experiencing any level of enjoyment in life)
-Tonight's game was the Rays' 6th game in a row decide by two runs or less (I guess 'or less' means 'one').
-Jae Seo picked up the W which ended a personal 13-game losing streak.
-Kids, kids, kids... The youngest team in MLB is as kid friendly as any organization can possibly be. (Maybe it's just me missing my Bubbas and Pookie.) The players accomodate the youngsters with signatures and baseballs galore. The Starters ran out on the field for the National Anthem and each had a kid run out with them. Kids sang Take me out to the ballgame and I think every kid in the stadium was on the jumbotron at least twice. After afternoon games, they let kids run the bases. They got the right idea because the future of baseball is at risk unless kids learn and love the game.
-More needless trivia/curious tidbits courtesy of the pregame media notes:
--Only 11 players in MLB history have had more hits in their first 46 games than Delmon Young (59). Rocco Baldelli (65) is one of them.
--Delmon Young and Carl Crawford made their MLB debuts at the exact same age.
--Seven years ago today, Troy Glaus, Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon homered in the 4th inning AND did it again in the 9th inning. It was the first time three hitters homered in the same inning twice in one game.. oh yeah, against the Rays.
--Coming into tonight's game, #9 hitters were batting .373 against the Rays, highest of any spot in the order.
--The Rays are on pace (273) to tally the most steal attempts since the '96 Royals (280)
-Manny Stiles is making a TV appearance about how all of this charity blogging business came together along with Matt Silverman for a local station on Monday before the game. They failed to heed my "I have a face made for radio" advice.

A little side project I took upon myself
I "interviewed" about a dozen and a half people who are 'on the clock' during the games - R.A.Y.S. (Ready At Your Service) employees, Elevator jockeys, door attendants, security folk, credential checkers, etc. I asked them where they were from (since like Arizona, everyone in Florida is from somewhere else), how long they've been with the organization, who their favorite Ray player is and when they think a World Series would come to Tampa Bay.

Where they are from originally
A few are from New York, 3 people from SouthEast PA (like myself), Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan and one from Minnesota. (Apparently east coasters go to Florida to live, while midwest and west coasters go to Arizona)

Tenures
Years of service ranged from 2 months to one gentleman who voted FOR the stadium and worked at the dome since it's opening (years before the Rays were concieved) and he even was one of 25 finalists in the "Name the Dome" contest - he suggested "Sun Dome"

Favorite Rays
-Ty Wigginton was the high vote getter with one voter swayed because he delivered his second child, Cannon when his wife went into sudden labor (He IS a superhero!)
-Other favorites - the usual suspects, Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford and Scott Kazmir but some of the long-timers listed others such as Wade Boggs and Travis Lee (apparently he is really nice?).
-My favorite media credential checker, Dan likes all of the Rays, but chose Rocco as his favorite and stated Willie Mays as his favorite All-Time player because he grew up a Giants fan in the Bronx who would spend the nickel to take the subway to the Polo Grounds. He even played stickball in the street with the 'Sey Hey Kid' when he was a kid himself. But he summed it up when he said Ted Williams was the greatest player he ever saw play.
-One employee, Chris who started in '98 said it was unfair to pick just one but then said Toby Hall was the nicest person she ever met. I asked her if Hall was nicer than Fred McGriff and she admitted "No one else on earth is as nice as Fred".
-I concurred...

Crime Dog
This user demands Fred McGriff be voted into the Hall of Fame.

When will the World Series come to Tampa Bay?
-Most answered '08 or '09, one said '07 (is he reading my articles too intently?), most agreed this is the year to get the growing pains out of the way. One answered "maybe 2012" and believe it or not, only one person answered "you're kidding, right?", but he's really a Tigers fan.
-All in all, the longtimers are thrilled and optimistic about the direction of the franchise. They've seen a lot of positive changes in the past year and a half since Stu Sternberg took over as owner.

It really IS more than just a game.

Coming Up
The Cleveland series wraps up tomorrow with a early afternoon contest pitting Jamie Shields against Jake Westbrook.

Don't forget! Monday vs. the New York Yankees, a live running game blog on www.ArmchairGM.com hosted by Manny Stiles from the game!!! You can watch from home on ESPN. Join in and comment away!

Stiles in Tampa - Day ONE

2007-04-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been quite a freeking long day. In fact, it's been two long days. I took a red eye flight out of Phoenix and lost three hours, got basically zero sleep (even though I tried to beer and margarita myself into a slumber for the flight - to NO avail) and got into Tampa at 8:30 this morning... jet lagged and hungover. It's almost midnight now and I didn't even have any caffeine today! needless to say I am buzzing off my first day at the Trop.

Arriving at the stadium
I arrived at Tropicana Field around 3:30pm (10 minutes before the media gates opened) for the first game of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Cleveland Indians series (gametime 7:10). Me and my Unnamed Local Source (brother that lives in Tampa) met up with the Rays' Public Relations wizard Rick Vaughn. If you didn't know, the Rays don't charge for parking. It's FREE!

"R.V." (as he's affectionately known - although I'm sure he's received a nauseating amount of "Wild Thing" references over the years) took me and U.L.S. (Unnamed Local Source) on the stadium tour; in and out, up and down, and basically every new feature, amenity and upgrade. We started out in the locker room. It was still early so only a handful of players were mulling around (hey, there's Aki! Look, it's Kaz! There's my boy Delmon Young!) And... so on! More so, it was "there's Marc Lancaster" or "hey, it's Marc Topkin" (the local Rays beat writers that did interviews with me last month)

I wasn't nervous or star struck by the players. After all, the players look SO young (maybe I'm just getting old) and many of the guys are not as big as I thought they'd be (maybe I'm just getting fat). I was a little giddy when I saw Don Zimmer! Mostly, I avoided the urge to pester every/anyone within shouting distance and just enjoyed the initial experience and took it in.

Inside Tropicana Field
Let me tell you some wise advice. Don't listen to anyone who says the Trop is a crappy stadium. It's not the Taj Mahal and it just looks a little weird with the tilted roof, but the stadium (even though it's a neccessarily evil dome) was better than several I have been to... and that was just my initial reaction.

R.V. showed myself and U.L.S. all of the new additions like the kids play zones and the (FREE) kids video game lounge (they even had RBI Baseball on huge plasma screens - very sweet). There is a baseball trivia game show set that you can go up against other competitors in a battle of useless knowledge (with real buzzers and scorekeeping podiums). You can go to a game, get a custom bat made, have baseball cards of yourself printed up and then go pet the dozen and a half or so rays swimming in the Ray Tank in centerfield (WAY cooler than the pool at Chase Field that no one uses). Yes, real, live actual, water-breathing fish, related to sharks and known as "rays" (No Mantas, a.k.a. "devil ray" though, just 'little' ones) You can even pet them!

Did I mention the Ted Williams' Hitters Hall of Fame? Yeah, it's been there for a couple of years, but it was expanded to over 10,000 square feet this past offseason (from under 3,000 sq ft). I didn't get to go in today, but I'll see it for sure (Is Pete Rose anywhere in there?). Oh yeah, it's free too.

The Tampa area has a long history in baseball. Long a Spring training site for MLB teams, there has also been several "professional" teams here through the decades as well; there is certainly a rich heritage of baseball in Western Florida. A wing of the concourse is covered in murals depicting the historical greats of the area (a 30ft painting of Joe D and Marilyn, for instance).

The Rays have embraced the history of the area (even if it IS Yankee-drenched), they have appealed to the younger fans and it seems like their promotions department has a staff of hundreds of people. The Rays have connections with seemingly everything in the area.

Every section of the stadium has it's own unique theme and feel. They even have a street stickball area made to look like your playing on the streets of new York (graffiti and all!) Another area is painted to resemble the flavor of a local historical Spanish neighborhood. There are tons of shops and a great array of food and beverages.

About the only complaint I have: The bathrooms are clean and servicable.. they aren't knock your socks off, but they work. There is an area on the concourse where three bathrooms are all within sight of each other but they're all women's bathrooms, and the Men's bathrooms are sparsely scattered enough, so that was a tad confusing (of course, with my media creds, I didn't use the public bathroom anyway)

All in all, the stadium is better than everyone says (which is exactly what I expected)

Batting Practice
So after the grand tour and intros, we ventured down to the field. They installed a new surface called FieldTurf II and it is very nice. I wish I had my whole yard covered in it.

The Rays players were taking BP and fielding fungoes and we just stood there at the dugout and watched along with the media and other onlookers.

Hey, there's Don Zimmer, there's Fred McGriff, who is that guy? Is that? It is! Carl Everett was there too, hanging with the Rays players and looking well over his old playing weight. No Jose Canseco sightings though... (darn sarcasm)

Then as BP was wrapping up, Coach Joe Maddon held his pre-game "press session" (I don't know the 'official name' of the event) and answered questions from the media members. They were grilling him about how he uses his pitchers, why he chose the lineup he did, blah blah blah, all the while crowding around him like too many piglets fighting to suck on the sow's last open teet, jamming recorders and microphones in his face (to see it happen was a tad disturbing).

I played along and followed the flock, pretending I knew what I was doing. The writers slowly got their sound bites and quotes and filtered away to the media chow hall (more on that later). Then it was just me left and Coach Maddon. So I introduced myself, you knw... that "charity blogger guy" etc... THEN, I pulled the ole' "those guys asked all the questions I wanted to ask" joke and then slammed him with the heavy hitter...

"so... um... What did you do on your day off yesterday?"

Yup, I went right for it. Damn that Manny Stiles! Asking those gritty, gutcheck questions like a heartless sniper. Coach said he "took his girlfriend's parents to the airport in the morning, rode his bike some, read a book then was in and out of naptime while West Side Story was on TV." He likes to keep his mind and body in shape - for his "young girlfriend"...

Yep, Manny goes the extra mile for this kind of insight so you can enjoy it too.

Then we chatted about nothing particular, batting pactice wrapped up and we headed up to the press box.

The Press Box
Pretty damned good seats, those press boxes. Straight behind home, up just enough to see it all. There's a counter full of stat sheets galore, media notes and more mass reproduced statistical information than you could ever possibly imagine - Did you know, that Cesar Cedeno is the only player in MLB history to have more combined HRs and SBs before age 25 than Carl Crawford's 203 combined Hrs and SBs? And so on...

Then there's the food. Get proper credentials and $6, go to the pregame spread and you can eat all you want! I had the beer-battered cod and chicken marsala (one of my favorites!) along with heaping portions of vegetable based side dishes. Honestly, it wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed it thoroughly! Of course, I am also a guy that enjoys TV dinners, institutional food and freeze dried survival foods from the bomb shelter era (basically any food that isn't completely rotten and/or feces covered)

I saw my old buddy Crime Dog in the food trough and told him "I don't want to make you feel old, but I met you at a baseball card show in 1988" etc. and so forth. We yapped and let me tell you; if there's a nicer, more down to earth person than Fred McGriff... no, it's just not possible. McGriff is always smiling and is still just as chill as he was almost 20 years ago (I AM getting old). There's a whole article on McGriff coming sometime this season. Enough segue, back to the previous train of thought:

You know the old line about sports writers all being pot-bellied, balding or messily coifed and having mustard stains on all of their shirts?

Not completely true.

They are also miserable and hate their lives as well... or at least it seemed that way to me.

So in the press box, there are writers and correspondants, about a half dozen Japanese reporters, a guy sitting next to me on the left with possibly the worst breath ever and my douche bag U.L.S on my right wearing a Rays hat (with a Joe Maddon signature he acquired in Spring training). Double D'oh! Showing team preference is a no-no (I doubt some writers even like the team they cover anyway).

In the press box, not only does no one cheer, root or express any emotion; they barely even talk with each other. It's like a library for the noiseless overlooking of a sporting arena. It's just so unnatural to watch a baseball game and not become involved with it (for me at least) Of course, I broke the "unwritten rules" several times with a uncontrolled yelp of a "yeah!" or a pleasingly muttered "nice..." and I even went into my bag of magik phrases and peppered a few "come on!"s in there too. They might have to detach my vocal chords and supress my willingness to enjoy myself before tomorrow night's game!

But I do have to say, the Rays take care of their press contingency pretty well. Not that I have much to compare it to; I was comfortable, I was given assistance at every ponderment (one of the management's mottos - R.A.Y.S. - Ready At Your Service) and I had access to enough statistical information that I can understand where the creativity goes in the journalism game. They practically do the 'work' for you, you just gotta mad-lib and paint by number it all together and WHAMMO, a column before tomorrow's deadline, it seems...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not ripping the guys (and the three or so female journalists), it's just VERY easy to stereotypicalize baseball writers. Clearly there are some who stand out above the others and it's not hard to tell who is good and who is run of the mill... yes, there are some good reporters. They ask questions that require answers deeper than "Duh!"

Then again, maybe 'the grass is greener', who am I kidding? Some of them are just worn down by the glorious past nine years that they can't enjoy the here and now turning into a bright future.

The Actual Game
Myself and U.L.S. (who oddly enough was a self-proclaimed die-hard Yankee fan until last month) sat in the press box and watched the game.

It was a good game. C.C. Sabathia was masterful. B.J. Upton mashed a solo shot off him to deep center in the third inning, but he was otherwise handling things well. He was changing speeds and painting the black but the Rays chipped away and chipped away and finally got to him in the 7th when Delmon Young stole third and Victor Martinez threw the ball into leftfield allowing Young to tie the score at 3-3. Even though there was a paying crowd just under 13,400 and half of them left by the 7th inning stretch, it was actually LOUD when the Rays were threatening. Early in the game I was unimpressed by the Friday night crowd, but when th game got exciting, they showed up big time.

Then after the end of the 8th, Mrs. Stiles called to tell me the score was tied (I had a sneaking suspicion it was, being AT the game and all) and asked "how are my boys doing?"... OK, I'll say it... it's all her fault! (They're not pinning this loss on the supposed "Manny Stiles Curse")

Here's the box score.
The Indians won on a smash hit from Pronk in the top of the 9th inning. Yeah, he had a nice 3-3, HR, 3 rbi with 2 walks kind of game. If you didn't know already... Hafner is what they call very good. Coach Madden said in his postgame remarks that he hopes "Hafner gets called up to the higher league that he belongs in" before tomorrow's game. I agreed.

So the game was over, us media folk sauntered down to the lockerroom and enjoyed the Coach Maddon post-game questioning (lasted all of maybe 4 questions) then again, the other media guys vanished and it was me and Coach again. This time I asked him some other innocuous questions as well as some good ones. We got into talking about how he is a Cardinals fan... yeah Arizona Cardinals fan! He's been a Cardinals fan since the early 60's (he played a little QB in college at Lafayette) and still is even though they moved to the desert and sucked mightily for 19 of th last 20 seasons... I'm begining to like Joe more and more...

Well, I figured I already wasted enough of the man's precious time and we waited in the clubhouse. A few reporters were asking spot questions to whoever had their junk covered and I complimented Elijah Dukes on his prolific tattoo work. He says he wants to get more (I'm familiar with that sentiment). I got the feeling he didn't enjoy not playing tonight, so I stopped wasting his precious time as well. Yes, he is a thick dude.

Delmon Young was hard at work in the batting cage just about as soon as the game ended. Coach Maddon said Delmon "has his head in the game at every moment" and from what I saw of him, he is a pretty upbeat, positive guy. I stand by my original assessment.

It was pretty sad hanging in the clubhouse after a tough loss. So I told R.V. we'd see him tomorrow and we left.

I never did meet up with my services procurer, Team President Matt Silverman. I guess he just has more important things to do... go figure!

All in all, tonight was fun... even with the tough loss. Tomorrow, I'm working! Expect a better, meatier post tomorrow night! I'm going to bed (and I'm still living on MST, not EDT)...

And don't forget! Monday, Monday, Monday! ONLY on http://www.ArmchairGM.com !!!

Manny Stiles' running blog of the Rays-Yankees game (on ESPN) during 10th Anniversary Cowbell giveaway night - first 10,000 in get a cowbell - I can't wait to hear it!

MORE cowbell than ever!!!

Who is YOUR favorite Devil Ray?

2007-04-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Vote once per day for EACH of your favorite Devil Rays!
The old, fallable poll is history, we start over with a more appropriate (Read:Miceli-free) poll.

But first here's the results through Spring Training!

Clearly, Carl Crawford is a fan favorite!

Rocco Baldelli was second favorite.

Then in third was surprise, surprise...
Jamie Shields!

Tied for fourth most voted for Scott Kazmir, Jonny Gomes and Elijah Dukes.

Greg Norton and Josh Paul finished in a tie for last.

So here's the new poll, vote ONCE per day, but vote for EACH player you like!!!

A Shameless Plug for ArmchairGM.com

2007-04-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Sometime later this year, I will complete a short film/mockumentary called ''Spelloids: A webbing pile of blog''

But already completed is the unneccessary hype:

Here is the 30 second promo:

Here is the FULL LENGTH (lightly controversial) promo:

Enjoy Spelloids:A webbing pile of blog (coming later 2007)

(weak disclaimer: views expressed in this film have nothing to do with anything credible, nor the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Baseball Club or MLB)

Beware of Aki Fever! You might get it too!

2007-04-10T01:06:00.000-07:00

What can I say? A lot of things, I guess. A lot of things that get me in trouble it seems and even more things that fall upon no ears more often than deaf ears, but let it be known - Manny Stiles has a case of Aki Fever.

Aki Fever is catching all over. It started in Japan and came to the United States via import into the Tampa, Florida area this winter. Some cases of Aki Fever may be worse than mine, but not many. It starts out slowly; almost like a subtle intrigue, then it grows with careful nurture through a petri dish of passive attention and lessened expectations. Then before you know it.... WHAM! You've got Aki Fever and you're down for the count just like me!

What is it about Akinori Iwamura? Is it his similar, but a bit smoother to watch Ichiro-like plate approach? Is it his vacuum-like fielding and laser-scoped rifle throwing arm? Is it the cooler-than-an-Eskimo's-toilet-seat-way he wears his extraneous gear? Is it the Alligator skin webbing in his glove? (how cool is THAT in Florida?). Maybe it's his on-line diary (it is sooo much cooler when you don't call it a blog, eh?) or how he came to the U.S. with virtually no fanfare (especially considering the slobbering upon the media gave the other AL EAST imports from the Far East, Dice-K and Kei Igawa. Did I state that Yankees and Red Sox players all suck and are jerks? There's another reason...)

Who cares why? I've got Aki Fever, Doctor! I think I've fallen and I don't want to get up!

Maybe it's that he just turned 28 in February (an Aquarius!) and should be smack dab in the front end of the prime of his career. Maybe it's because he was the first Devil Ray to accumulate 10 hits on the season. Or that he leads the team in runs scored. Or that he has been not just flawless in the field, but spectacular!

Maybe it's his .500 batting average through the first 6 games of his MLB career and subsequent 6 game hitting streak? (the hottest start of ANY Japanese rookie ever in the Majors) Or that he's the first Japanese corner infielder to break in MLB? Or his 1.300 OPS? Or team lead in stolen bases (OK, tied with 2 other guys with 2 SBs). To see the guy play is like a breath of fresh air. He seems so smooth, so fluid, so sure. I almost WANT to see balls hit at him so I can watch it get replayed on Web Gems later.

And it's not just his game play that's refreshing. He truly seems to be a genuinely likable dude. He comes off as a pretty down to earth dude for a 5-time Japanese League All Star. He has a cool confidence that everyone could use a little of...

Then again, I do have a tender, warm and tingly spot deep in the icky cochals of my heart for guys who wear #1 on their jerseys...

The scouting reports before the season were pretty reserved, but a few reports did state to the effect that "the Devil Rays got a steal" and "his game could translate better to the American game than most players from Japan". Here was a +.300 hitter with 20+ HR power and a 6 time Gold Glove fielder in Japan, we knew that much, but in Spring Training.... BOY did he get off to an icy start in Spring Training.

But you know what? WHY wouldn't he? He's a guy who traveled (literally) half-way around the world, disrupted his family, his home, basically his entire world to play baseball in the Major Leagues. But he didn't disrupt his essence. He had to find a new place to live, learn his way around, work with a new language, new customs and new social structures. He had all new teammates, all new pitchers to face and a pretty tough Spring Training field in which to hit. And it took a while for him to get rolling, but... uhh... he's rolling!

Now, do I think he's gonna be a 5 -time All Star here in the States? Probably not, third base in the AL isn't what it used to be (remember, Scott Brosius was an All-Star third baseman once), not with A-Rod, Eric Chavez, Melvin Mora, Adrian Beltre and Troy Glaus patrolling the hot corner with youngsters Alex Gordon and Andy Marte blossoming soon as well… it’s a tough spot to shine over the rest. But so far, so good! And maybe he can start collecting the [[Gold GloveShiny Leathers] over here in the States, too.

Coming into the season, I figured the Rays signed Iwamura simply to keep third warm for the eventual call-up of stellar prospect Evan Longoria. The posting fee was peanuts ($4.5 million) compared to Dice K and Igawa's and his contract was really reasonable (3 years, $7.7mil with a team option for a fourth year at $4.25mil). Now we got a logjam at third as well as the outfield! It's not a bad problem to have too much talent to go around. I tell you as a Devil Rays fan, it's getting brighter every day! I know the Devil Ray lifers are excited and enjoying this season more than most. (I guess I can take all the credit?)

Here's an excerpt from Aki's online diary this week, talking about scoring the winning run in the home opener vs. the Toronto Blue Jays...

"...I scored the winning run. We were celebrating so excitedly that my teammates fell on top of me. I was the smallest and I was on the bottom of the pile. It was awesome. Then, when I was talking with the American press in the clubhouse after the game, one of my teammates, James Shields, shoved a shaving cream pie in my face. It is ritual that the Devil Rays players like to do after a win."

(Yeah, welcome to the show, rookie!)

"What a great way to end the evening and my first game at Tropicana Field."

How can I not have Aki Fever when he is just thrilled to have a great way to end an evening? He has already exceded my expectations (granted, my expectations were skewed by hype of the likes of Shinjo and Kaz Matsui - maybe I should pay more attention) just by being such a cool cat and now I feel unbelievable safe in his cat-like reflexes at third, his basepath prowess and sweet, sweet bat control skills.

Turns out that maybe Manny Stiles wasn't the best Free Agent pickup by the Devil Rays this offseason after all!!!

Excuse me now, I'm headed out for some sushi! Aki Fever!!! Wooo!

Go Devil Rays!

Personal Anecdote time ("X" out if you hate stories about people's kids):

Almost a month ago, I was paging through online reports and I was reading about Iwamura and my 3 year old daughter saw a picture and asked "Who is that?" like she always does. I said "Akinori Iwamura" about as fast as I could, because she always tries to repeat their names and I like to tease her at every opportunity. She tried but flubbed it bad, so I said it again and again. It came out jibberish. So finally I reduced it to "Aki" and she went around dancing and chanting "Aki, Aki, Aki". Of course, as Daddy it was very cute to me... (though it could be something from the TV show Dora the Explorer she was doing for all I know)

Last night as I followed the game against the Texas Rangers online, my daughter was in the next room playing. In the second inning, Aki singled in two runs and I let out a "Yeah, Iwamura! That's it!" and my little girl came running into the room dancing and chanting "Aki, Aki, Aki" like she did a couple weeks ago (and I didn't even say his first name)! Sure she's a little OCD with some things (aren't all 3 year olds? Or is it hereditary form the father's side?), but now she's got Aki Fever too! Not bad for a little Suns fan, eh?

Devil Rays Home Opener Tonight! (April 6, 2007)

2007-04-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

The new Tropicana Field upgrades and refurbishments will be enjoyed by a packed house of paying attendees tonight as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays open against the Toronto Blue Jays. James Shields takes the mound for the Rays as they battle Gustavo Chacin at 7:10 ET. The sellout is only the 5th in team history (first game in 1998, 2004 and 2006 home openers and a July 2004 game vs. the Yanks). A crowd of 38,600 is expected for the Rays' 10th Home Opening game.

Starter James Shields, who was Tampa Bay BBWAA's choice as top Devil Rays rookie last year also set team Spring Training records for Innings Pitched (29.1) and Strikeouts (30). His 30 strikeouts was 2007-high among all Spring Training pitchers. Today will mark his second career start vs. the Blue Jays (Aug 16, 2006, Won 8-3)

Both teams come into the contest with a record of 1-1. This is the third time the Blue Jays were the opponent's in a Tampa Bay home opener (record split at 1-1). Sunday's afternoon matchup pits Roy Halladay against Scott Kazmir in a series-capping battle of Aces. The Devil Rays are of course Baseball's youngest team, the Blue Jays are the 21st youngest team.

Tonight's Home Opening ceremonial first pitch will be thrown by newly elected Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist and caught by St Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker. The National Anthem will be sung by former New York City police officer, Daniel Rodriguez.

The home opener is a chance to jump on the lofty goal set forth by management to win at least 50 games at home this year and help establish a dominant mindset at home.

The Devil Rays players are surely happy to be home after their bundled up, snow infused victory over the New York Yankees last night, 7-6 in the wintry Bronx. I have to say though, some of the players looked at little felinish wearing all the stay-warm gear. Hey fellas, it gets cold in October too (start getting used to it!) So much for the "football player" comparisons that announcers were thrusting upon the team..

Elijah Dukes could make history tonight. Thirteen players before him (since 1900) hit HRs in each of their first two games. Elijah was the first to pull the feat off against the Yankees. He could become the ONLY player in MLB history to hit a HR in each of his first three games!

The Devil Rays are also leading the Major Leagues in stolen bases with 6 (tied with the Twins) despite playing only two games so far.

Today is also the one year anniversary of Joe Maddon's first managerial win.

Go Devil Rays!!!

Which Devil Ray Player(s) COULD end up in Cooperstown one day?

2007-04-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

Stilings from Game 1

2007-04-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Yankees 9, Devil Rays 5
box score

I had a better re-cap written before my computer crashed just as I was about to hit 'post' - Oh well...

What an exciting game! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Everything the doomsayers told me was true. The bullpen is the Achilles heel, obviously. OR MAYBE the Yankees are that good, good enough to beat up a bullpen...

All in all, I am THRILLED with the amazing amount of talent and skill on the roster.

The youngest opening day lineup since tyhe 1983 Twins? Hmmm... what did they do four and eight years later?

All in all, I am thrilled to be a Devil Rays fan!

Elijah Dukes goes yard in his first official AB, and CRUSHED it...

Kazmir started out slow, which hurt him a bit and he was lucky to get out of the first inning only giving up two runs. He settled down and looked m uch like the league's best lefty not named Johann...

Carl Crawford was his usual electric stuff and Delmon young IS a total stud! Aki looks really good and the bats were productive.

Nice effort, they played hard, they ran balls out, they just didn't have enough gas in the arms in the 'pen. But we all knew this coming in...

OR MAYBE the pen isn't that bad, they're just horrible in comparison to the rest of the team. Either way, I'll listen to the suggestions to have the intestinal relieving potions readily available.

Well, they say you can't win 'em all if you don't win the first... so much for my 18-0, against the Yankees prediction!

Go Devil Rays!

Play Ball 2007!!!

2007-04-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Opening Day! Devil Rays at Yankee Stadium, Kazmir on the hill, I'm setting the thermostat to game time temperature - 47 F (it's supposed to be 90 here today), the kids are geared up and chanting, I called off work and the adult-themed libations will begin flowing! Has it been WAY too long or what?

"It's MORE than just a game!!!"

2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays Season Preview

2007-04-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to one post per position, NO. Through the fine art of chicanery and a swathe of magic, ManRay has made it possible to slap the entire Tampa Bay Devil Rays preview into one, single post! Astounding, eh?

Manny Stiles presents... Your 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Yup, they're a REAL Major League Baseball team!

Let's take a look at what you're dealing with this season!

Manny Stiles – let’s get this business out of the way
As you most likely know, I am the guy who offered my services to ANY MLB team for the entire season for charity on ebay. The Devil Ray’s Team President Matt Silverman won the bid and made me a die-tough Devil Rays fan. Maybe even the ‘Most Unrealistically Hopeful Devil Rays fan’. Now, bear in mind… I’m currently (but maybe not much longer…) employed full-time as a stockbroker, I am the loving father of two beautiful children and a dedicated, faithful husband. Not to mention my “other stiles” – music and video production (at my in-home recording studio), exploring the spiritual realm (I’m also ordained and perform ceremonies) rooting for the Phoenix Suns in basketball, making the “World’s Best Fire Roasted Salsa”, amateur botany and other ‘life arts’; so it’s not like I have time to burn at the computer, I just do what I can (which is less than I am capable of due to my exceedingly ample laziness – Yes, I’m the busiest lazy ass in the biz).

Yeah, I’m a HUGE Devil Rays fan all of a sudden, but that doesn’t change who I am. You’re going to get random observations, in-depth fictional analysis and the tomfoolery and shenanigans you’re used to, but there will be times during the season when you’ll get legitimate journalism, quality player interviews and game reviews all with a twist of tomfoolery and shenanigans!

I will be meeting up with the team in several locations throughout the season, starting with a visit to St Petersburg THIS MONTH! I will be experiencing and reporting on the team from all aspects during a 3-game home stand versus the Cleveland Indians. Fun, fun!

Also, prepare yourselves adequately for the World’s Largest Running Game Blog (from the Trop!) on April 23, 2007, a nationally televised game on ESPN against the New York Yankees..

There will also be the matchup in June in my hometown of Phoenix that I will be attending, another ttrip to Florida in September and the possibility of me picking up a game or two at Anaheim (a mere 5 hour drive, so we’ll see).

Needless to say, it WILL be an exciting season and an incredible journey through 162 games.

Overview

This year's motto "It's MORE than just a game" is a bit perplexing but a motto nonetheless. I would have gone with "The Yankees Will Always Suck", "F U and the Red Sox too..." or "Let the AL East kiss our collective asses", but that's among the reasons why I'm not out there running a baseball team already. (Nor enjoying a career as a politician.)

It seems this will be the last season of the “Devil” Rays. The new ownership (more on them in a bit) wanted to exorcise the ‘Devil” and will be calling the team (most likely, nothing official) just the “Tampa Bay Rays” next season. Judging from the info you can find out there, they already got rid of the ‘Devil’. I don't think they care about the impact this will have on wiki-sites!

My guess is they will ignore my pleas and miniscule attempts to keep the ‘Devil’, go to something cooler or go out and ‘Win one for the Devil’ (see #60), but you can still VOTE for your moniker of favoritocity among other meanderful offerings.

New Ownership

You know, a lot of people live in the past too much. Get with the times, people! There’s NEW ownership in Western Florida and there’s a NEW, fresh way of approaching the game. 8+ years of aged veterans, flacid ticket sales and dreadful mis-management are a thing of the far, distant past and I’ll have NO MORE of that kind of talk. The Future is here AND still coming. The on-field and the off-field outlook is bright. Things are changing on the Gulf Coast and I’ll gladly whip the horses pulling this bandwagon. Hey, I guess it REALLY IS “More than just a game”!

Principle owner Stu Sternberg, one of the youngest owners in MLB is a former options trader, who was a partner of another trading firm then moved on to Goldman Sachs before retiring. He went from minority owner to majority owner of the “Worst Pro Sports Franchise in North America” in Fall 2005. Maybe it’s a news update to some, Vince Naimoli and his cheapskateness is long gone from the decision making process (rumors have surfaced that he may be brought back as an advisor. Calm down people, regardless of what happened AFTER, he’s the one who brought baseball to Tampa). Sternberg has the undeniable drive and love of baseball needed to succeed. He doesn’t seem afraid of making the business work and the product entertaining. He promises progressive thinking, bold changes and projects the team to win 50 games at home this year. He wants to move the past far, far behind what’s going on now.

He brought in Team President Matt Silverman, his former underling/protégé in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department at Goldman Sachs. Silverman is a Harvard grad. So to say that Stu and Matt have an idea of what works and what doesn’t in the business aspect would be a major understatement. These guys aren’t afraid to go “outside the box” or approach issues with forward thinking and fresh perspective. I would also say Silverman is a risk-taker (He brought me on board, for instance)

10th Anniversary

And a beautiful patch at that!

At least they didn't go all stupid with the word “anniversary” and smartly chose “10 Seasons”. WAAAAY back in 1998 the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Devil Rays joined the leagues and June 18th, 19th and 20th in Phoenix, Arizona they get to go head to head. Yes, I’ll be there taunting the locals (who are all from someplace else anyway)!

Infield

First Base
First looks like Ty Wigginton’s job by default. He’s got some decent pop and will be doing a lot of batting cleanup and he might see some time at second base or third base (fantasy alert, he’s eligible at all bases). Ty brings energy, hustle, grit and the closest thing to veteran leadership this team has. Wiggy will lead by example and will make sure the clubhouse is focused and that players get muddy and bloody in giving every ounce of effort.
Others who could don the big mitt: Greg Norton (currently on the 15 day DL) and who the hell knows who else? I guess ANY one!

Second Base
Well, Jorge Cantu is out and BJ Upton might have found a position, after all. In a somewhat surprising move, Cantu was sent to the minors and (of course) has demanded a trade. He was sent down in favor of Jonny Gomes. Everyone knew there was a logjam of bats in the outfield and a trade was imminent, but moving Cantu may have been the best option. He’s a middle infielder, has some value in a trade after topping 120 rbis just two years ago.

Upton is an interesting case. He was penciled in as a Chone Figgans-like role player this season. Drafted as the “Next Alex Rodriguez”, Upton finally has an opportunity to excel and dominate at a position that may make his many imminent All-Star appearances even easier to achieve (How many great second basemen are around?). He’s still young, still uber-talented and may even have a chance to “just play baseball” instead of dealing the convoluted and jarbled mess of his fielding prowess.

Upton can also play other positions and could even end up at third or outfield eventually. I think second is a nice fit for B.J. and for the team at this point. He’ll be backed up by Brendan Harris and Ty Wigginton on occasion. Maybe even Jorge Cantu will stick around, patiently work his way back/get an opportunity due to injury to the bigs.

Shortstop
Ben Zobrist won the job at short. He came to the Rays in the Aubrey Huff trade last season and has a slick glove. He’s no Kevin Stocker! B J Upton may see some time at short as well along with utility infielder Brendan Harris.

Third Base
Japanese Import Akinori Iwamura will get the call at third. With all the hype surrounding Dice-K and Kei Igawa in the AL East, Iwamura could be a pleasant surprise. He doesn’t come with the same pedigree as other Japanese imports, but once he settles to life in the Bigs, that could easily change. Ultimately, he may just be keeping 3rd warm for super-prospect Evan Longoria. Backing him up will be Upton, Wigginton and Harris.

Catcher
Another long-touted prospect, Dioner Navarro will get the majority of the workload behind the dish. He’s currently dealing with nagging injuries but looks a sure bet to start Opening Day with Josh Paul backing him up. Shawn Riggans and Raul Casanova are down in Durham ready to go if need be.

Outfield
If you read an article that talks about 'best outfields' that DOESN'T mention the Devil Rays, throw it away (if it's online, chuck your computer)

Leftfield
Baseball’s Most Exciting Player, Carl Crawford returns to patrol leftfield. At 25 years old, he needs 65 hits to become the franchise’s all-time hit leader. Crawford is always a threat to join the ultra-exclusive 20-20-20-20 club (20 each - 2Bs, 3Bs, HRs and SBs) Of course, there’s a lot of speculation that he is headed towards free agency. I think he’ll get locked up with a long-term deal sooner than later. He is the face of the franchise. Jonny Gomes might see some time in left as well, along with Rocco Baldelli and others.

Centerfield
New starting centerfielder Elijah Dukes will get to make his debut as a starter in Yankee Stadium. A legendary sign of things to come? Many people question his character, and for ‘’almost valid’’ reasons, but there’s no reason to question his ability. Dukes looked like a Monster and played like a Monster in Spring Training. Maybe there’s more to this kid than suspensions and Baby’s Mamas. Upton (there he is again) could see some time in CF as well as Rocco Baldelli.

Right Field
Tools, tools, tools. Delmon Young, the impending 2007 AL Rookie of the Year (you heard me, DiceDub) and future Hall of Famer will start in right, may see some DH time. Young is known for his patience at the plate like Manny Stiles is known for his avoidance of sarcasm. Young set one of the highest percentages of pitches swung at in baseball history last year. He swung at over 61% of pitches offered. I think he may surpass last year’s ONE walk (which probably came on a full count when he was distracted by a heckler, an umpire or a heckling umpire). He WILL learn plate patience as the season progresses and teams start to take note of his “dangerous” bat. Young also has the distinction of getting HBP in his first at-bat and hitting a HR for his first base hit. He will be backed up in the field on occasion by Jonny Gomes and/or Elijah Dukes

Designated Hitter
Looks like Rocco Baldelli will be the primary DH to start the season. He’s still nursing a tweaked right hammy.. I’m not sure if he’s being dangled as trade bait, if they’re trying to keep him from getting hurt in the field, or (most likely) Dukes really is THAT good. Whatever. Baldelli can hit and is nice insurance if someone in the outfield goes down to injury.

Jonny Gomes will also take his cuts from the DH role and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the other outfielders to DH as well as Wiggy and Upton on occasion.
Too many bats ‘’can’’ be a good thing!

Pitchers
Let’s be honest. Every team has a weakness. Since baseball is comprised of 90% pitching and defense and the other half is luck… The Devil Rays have a slight conundrum. The starters have promise and the bullpen has questions. So as one can comfortably surmise, the Rays will go as far as their pitching staff will take them. (Hush those “Uh-oh’s” right now!)

Starters
Scott Kazmir could be the next Steve Carlton. Not just because he’s a lefty, but because people think he’s the only starter on the staff capable of putting up wins and could take a run at Carton’s ’72 season where he won HALF of the teams games. Sorry, but Kazmir would have to win 40 or so games with THIS team to make that occur! Kazmir is dominant when healthy and should be a mainstay for years to come (and to rub in Mets fans’ faces). He needs 14 wins to become the franchise’s all time wins leader.

South Korean native Jae Seo who finished the season 1-8 with the Rays (during the atrocious 2006 second half debacle) isn’t going to be dominant, he’s been prone to the long ball and racking up losses, but he’ll eat innings. For a team that had exactly ZERO pitchers over 150innings last season, innings eaters are needed. He came over in the Julio Lugo trade from the Dodgers last year along with Dioner Navarro.

Jamie Shields is a big righty that showed a ton of promise as a rookie last year, showing good control 104-38 K/BB before succumbing to nagging injuries, and projects as a solid #2 pitcher for years to come.

Casey Fossum is yet another Devil Ray that spent a chunk of his career on the “Top Prospects” list. Unfortunately, he’ll never live up to the lofty expectations, but he’s a crafty veteran and a lefty to boot. The career WHIP loitering around 1.5 and career 2-1 K/BB isn’t going to frighten many, but one of these years he’ll put it all together, right?

Did I say this team is loaded with former “can’t miss” prospects? Remember when Edwin Jackson was considered untrade-able? Well, he’s the Rays’ fifth starter now. Yeah, you think he’s SO washed up right? Well, he’s a whopping 23 years old, so I think the projections aren’t out of reach quite yet… That being said, he ‘’was’’ out of options so maybe the insertion at starter was just a way of not outright releasing him? I hold hope. Sometimes guys like Jackson just need the opportunity to get on the hill and work. Here’s his chance!

Relievers
For the most part, I don’t have much to say about this group as I haven’t seen much of them.
Shawn Camp is solid enough to get 70-80 appearances, Ruddy Lugo is Julio’s lil’ bro, Juan Salas is not to be confused with Walter Johnson. Brian Stokes may close some games. Gary Glover and Al Reyes both made it into the ‘pen as a non-roster invitees.

Jae Kuk Ryu may be best known (if known at all?) for his ability to kill endangered birds with his accuracy, but also adds more depth and dimension to the relieving corps.

What's not clear (to me at least) is who the closer will be but it looks like we're gonna see the "bullpen by committee".

Former closer/flamethrower Seth McClung was also shocked (like Cantu) to be sent to the Minors.

In the Minors
There’s a stockpile of talent on the horizon! Tampa Bay has always been a team of highly touted prospects (Josh Hamilton, Toe Nash, Dewon Brazleton, etc) but the next wave has begun to pay dividends. ELEVEN players on the opening day roster were never on an opening day roster before!

The Devil Rays have SEVEN of Baseball America’s top 100 prospects for 2007, including Opening Day starters Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes. But along with the aforementioned Evan Longoria, there is also stud shortstop Reid Brignac, and pitchers Jeff Niemann, Wade Davis and Jacob McGee on the slate as well.

Durham Bulls fans will also enjoy watching off and on Big Leaguers J.P. Howell, Seth McClung, Joel Guzman, Wes Bankston, Hee-Seop Choi, Dustan Mohr, Jason Grabowski and Carlos Pena. It remains to be seen what will happen with Jorge Cantu.

Coaching Staff
Manager
Joe Maddon came in to clean up the damage done by “Semi-Sweet” Lou Piniella. Piniella was a hard-assed hot head that spent too much time looking for Steve Lyons' wallet where Maddon is a positive energy, teamwork oriented kind of guy. His overuse of the pronoun-oriented catch phrase “we-us” may be corny to some, but it’s refreshing. Isn’t there enough negativity in pro sports already? I think he’s a good fit for a young team with a bright, hopeful future.

Coaches
Bill Evers – Bench Coach
George Hendrick – First Base Coach
Tom Foley – Third Base Coach
Jim Hickey – Pitching Coach
Steve Henderson – Hitting Coach
Bobby Ramos –Bullpen Coach
Don Zimmer – Senior Baseball Advisor
Dave Martinez – Special Assistant

Summary
Overall, the team is pretty right-handed (bats and arms). Maybe that’s not a bad thing in the AL East, but typically, balance goes a long way and provides options. The team is very young and clearly focusing on building their foundation and getting things headed in the right direction with anticipation for a prosperous future. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibilities to envision the Rays as top contenders for years to come. But conventional wisdom says that won’t happen THIS year. Manny’s unrealistic hopefulness says “It’s not impossible”. Plenty of teams… OK, a few HAVE gone from worst to first. But those teams didn’t play in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox.

I still (assuredly) believe without a doubt that this IS a better than .500 team. Whether they surpass .500, we will see. But I’m betting/banking/counting on/guaranteeing this IS the squad that achieves the first +70 win season in franchise history.

Prognostications
Delmon Young – Rookie of the Year, also gets 100+ RBI
Scott Kazmir and Carl Crawford – AL ALL-Stars
Carl Crawford – 20-20-20-20 AND a +.300 AVG
Scott Kazmir 18+ wins, sub 3.60 ERA, 200+Ks (and Cy Young contention)
Wigginton, Crawford, Dukes, Young and Upton all to reach 20 homer plateau.
Rays win more than 50 games at home, just as Sternberg projects.

Final Record 86-76, 3rd place AL East (9 GB)

Go Devil Rays! And don’t forget to check out Devil Rays Universe often to follow the improbable tale of the Tampa Bay Rays and Manny Stiles’ new fanatical obsession that started for charity!
Less than a day until we start beating the crap out of the Yankees again!

Opening Day lineup:
LF Carl Crawford

SS Ben Zobrist

DH Rocco Baldelli

1B Ty Wigginton

RF Delmon Young

3B Akinori Iwamura

C Dioner Navarro

CF Elijah Dukes

2B BJ Upton

SP Scott Kazmir

The Voluminous Links-Story Of Stiles, Devil Rays Fan (catch up version)

2007-03-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

So I've been writing alot of articles on this website called ArmchairGM.com "All Sports, All You"
Anyone can contribute, easy to do, so I go for it, right?

And I'm writing on there for a while (here's my ArmchairGM archives)

and I get this idea to sell my fanship and blogger abilities (I promised to write at least 50 articles) - on ebay for charity

The media picks up on it

Then the President of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays wins the bid. Yes, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are an actual real Major League Baseball team!

So I started : this site (The Yankees have their Empire, the Red Sox have their Nation, the Devil Rays have the Universe!!!) and also continue to contribute on ArmchairGM as well. I am going to Tampa in April to interview executive staff, players, anyone who will respond to my questions and hang out with the media so I can write about them as well!

Also check out my commercials!!! Unlike anything else you've seen.

basketball

more basketball

football

"Out of Shape"

after the first few, they made fun of my orange striped shorts

Spring Training

One of my radio interviews set to a slide show

And of course, there's MORE to come! Hit me up e-mail syles mannystiles@aol.com

Don't forget to vote for your Favorite Devil Ray! HERE!

Stiles takes on ALL comers - Topic: Delmon Young

2007-03-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

When I finally get the opportunity to interview Delmon Young I'll ask him two simple questions:

1. "How many times have you been asked about it?"

2. "Can I get an invite to your Hall of Fame induction?"

I chose Delmon Young as my favorite Devil Ray for a very simple yet personal reason. I've been there... (in a sense).

Sure, I could've gone the easy route and chose The Most Exciting Player in Baseball or Steve Carlton II as my favorite Devil Ray player, but I chose to be a fan of Delmon as much as he inadvertently chose me to be his fan.

Let's back up a bit: You know sports, you know baseball and you know how to make your mind up about things, right? Well, I'm not so sure you do...

It's often been said that there's two types of people in sports - those who play sports and those who write about sports. In a truly Stiles fashion, I dance on, tightrope and straddle that fence often.

Well, I happen to think the WORLD is wrong about Delmon Young. The writers, the fantasy gurus, the sports guy on the local news channel, YOU included. And I'll tell you why.

Exhibit A
Everything you know is the same as nothing

Name everything you know about Delmon Young without mentioning the words "bat" or "umpire". Here, I'll help you:

He's Dmitri Young's little brother

He's a former #1 overall pick (2003 draft)

MAYBE you know he's an outfielder, or a right handed batter... maybe.

OK, given those things, HOW HOW HOW can you make an assessment of his character??
Now I'll let you use the words "bat" and "umpire" and suddenly he's a candidate to make the Cincinnati Bengals roster?

Exhibit B
the video

I've seen it more times than I've seen the Zapruder film. (it's close, anyway)

There's no footage of Delmon even LOOKING at the umpire when he threw the bat. The umpire did not make a move in ANY direction when the bat was flung. The catcher did not react in any manner, the pitcher did NOTHING. It was almost as if everyone was SO BARELY shocked/surprised that he threw the bat, they were rendered NOT afraid and went about their business as usual.

Young did not so much as scream, yell, rant or rave at the play.

He simply was called out on a pitch that clearly was NOT a strike. He disagreed with the call, probably called the ump a seeyesser and got run appropriately. Then he flung, threw, chucked, whatever-you-want-to-call-what-he-did-with-the-bat at the umpire, striking him.
Acceptable behavior? Absolutely not.

You never throw equipment. ack 100 years ago when I played organized baseball, I would always tell my teammates that "it wasn't the equipment's fault" or "don't blame the bat. It didn't strike out, you did".

So we agree this is unacceptable behavior from a professional athlete, but HOW HOW HOW does this one singular incident make Delmon Young a player with "character issues"?

He was suspended for 50 games. He paid the punishment... supposedly. He had LOTS of time to rehash a simple moment. He's thought about it more than I have, I know THAT much. He is going to be asked about and remembered for the incident for the rest of his career, most likely.
He did not get arrested, convicted or even charged with any crime except in the court of public opinion. I'm sorry, but there's SO MANY variables beyong the 28 seconds of video that aren't accounted for.

Now....

Can we all agree that this wasn't even CLOSE to the same vein as the Izzy Alcantara "incident"???

Exhibit C
He made a mistake in the heat of competition

Delmon IS guilty of being a multiple sport star athlete, having amazing physical tools and merely being "young". He lost his cool to the point where he tossed the bat, but WHAT else did he do? A mistake? Once again yes... BUT who doesn't make a mistake, an err in judgement, a decision with ill consequences in life?

I understand that the microscope of sports journalism is focused on pinpointing how horrible professional athletes are (even though there's a greater percentage of convicted criminals in our Congress), since controversy gets people talking and feel-good stories don't sell copy. But here's where "the two types of people in sports" (players and writers) show their discrepancies.

Exhibit D
Manny Stiles has "been there"

Once upon a time I was a pitcher for an adult summer-league baseball team. For one particular road game our team had just "signed" a pitcher of relative star quality who was going to start in place of me and I was bumped to the bullpen.

Well, the game started out and "new star pitcher" essentially got his tits ripped off and gave up 8 runs before getting yanked in the second inning. I came in the game in relief and got us out of a jam.

Then I went on to shut the other team down over the course of innings 2-8. Our team whittled the 8-0 lead away until the game was tied going into the bottom of the ninth. I poured my heart out. I pitched my ass off, I gave all I could. I reached deep within myself. All the cliches were in effect.

Now the game was on a Saturday and there was quite a turnout for such a meaningless baseball game. tehre was about 500-700 spectators and some were even trying to heckle me (I DO seem to get people talking). Emotions ran high, close plays were hotly contested.

The bottom of the ninth came around, I was still humming, in the groove, etc. I got the first out easily, got the second guy out on a K then went to work on the potential third out. He got on from an error by my second baseman and ended up on second.

The next guy up was pretty good, so I drilled him in the ribs to secure the force play at any base (I hated intentional walks but loved drilling dudes). So with two outs and men on first and second, my adrenaline RAGING from the moment, I took it to the next batter.

Being the 20 year old I was at the time, I just tried to blow it by him but he made contact! he dribbled a ball right back at me and with my poor follow through I was a bit out of position to field the ball cleanly and literally stuck a leg out to stop it. The ball hit my ankle and rolled foul, but obviously was still a fair ball, bases loaded.

We came all the way back from down 8 runs and here we were in the bottom of the ninth! The batter stepped in and all I wanted was an out. knew the guy at bat wasn't going to beat me. I went right at him, but I was wearing down. The batter took the count all the way to 3-2. Pitches were on the black and not getting called. The ump was squeezing me!

So on a full count, the batter took my offering (which was pretty much a strike) the Ump called it ball four, the raucous crowd erupted (as much as a crowd of 500 could) and he walked with the bases loaded to win the game 9-8.

Then one of the least proud moments of my life happened. I was dejected, spent and angry. I frustratedly kicked my glove like I was Ray Guy, over the backstop. A child of maybe 8-10 years old said "nice kick!" and I launched the loudest FU Bomb of my career, tossed the "Mike Vick one-fingered peace sign" at the stands and began to punch the fiberglassed benches in utter disgust and rage. If you've ever punched fiberglass, you know how it shatters and splinters into a mess.

People were becoming frightened and scared and lucky for me I had a very good friend that grabbed me and my stuff and took us back to my car where I proceeded to redecorate my car with knuckle dents to the hood. My buddy told me to calm down, I did what I could (my best) and it was "just a game".

I was starting to have my senses come back to me when he asked:

"Are you OK to drive, or do you want me to walk home?"

It's at moments like that you can clearly define the difference between a good friend and everyone else. Anyone else would have gotten a serious ass whoopin', whereas my good friend knew THAT was exactly what I needed.

To this day, it's still a funny line.

What's the point of this mess? In the heat of strenuous effort/battle/love and war, sometimes your best/better/good judgement flies out the window. I would NEVER EVER act like that again (and am still appalled that I DID act like that once). You never fully realize your worst capabilities until it's too late. If somebody, anybody would have made a move at me, I would have probably attacked them! I was a raging fool (and I am NOT proud of this)

I probably could have been arrested (for the destruction of public property, maybe even for assault for threatening the kid).

Delmon was 20 when his incident occurred, I was 20 too...

There has to be a place where we can allow people to "mess up" without labeling them "Messed Up". I feel Delmon Young deserves the chance to be considered human (vulnerable, fallable, unperfect) even though he was given beyond-human physical abilities. I give people the benefit of the doubt at least once.

If Delmon Young did what I did and he did what I did, would anyone ever care to know the difference?

Exhibit E
Racism

Look, I'm not one to call out the slightest controversy and slap the proverbial race card on it, but open your eyes a bit wider than uniform colors here. It's clear to me that there's some racism involved with public perception of Delmon Young. It sickens me that it's so apparent in "the world we live", "this day and age", whatever...

More than "Black man beats Whitey with a stick for once" jokes...

Delmon Young is percieved as being a doo-rag and gold chain wearing, gangsta wannabe hip-hop culture thug by far too many people whom have never even SEEN him! How many people NEVER watched the clip still called him "hip-hop thug" or more simply "dumb nigger"? How many people that "would never use the N-word" still think about him the same way whether they want to admit or not?

How many people hear the name "Delmon" and don't think "that's a black guy's name"? Or see a picture of him and envision meeting him in a dark alley. It truly doesn't matter to me personally what skin color a person has (name someone who got to choose), but I know there are people that feel this way. I have had people tell me "players like Delmon Young don't respect the game", "he's a ghetto punk" and other similar statements of blatent, overt ignorance.

Keep in mind that the people I have heard bad mouth Young 1) don't know him, 2) have never met him and 3) couldn't pick him out of a lineup if their life depended on it, but would just as easily bet their life that he is as likely to "be in a police lineup as a batting lineup"... huh?
We are SO trained in this society to have the headline tell the story and have the video "evidence" slam the gavel on the 'sentence'.

There is a fear in people that grows in the petri dish of ignorance. Racism is one thing, but so is ignoring racism. As much as I wish it couldn't be true, Don't double down on the ignorance.

I haven't met Delmon Young personally (yet), but I have a pretty good idea that he'll be different than I expect, different than you expect and different than the media expects me to expect. He might just be a "regular guy" in some respects!

...or maybe he'll be happy and jovial like O.J. Simpson...

Exhibit F
The Devil Rays Corallory

WHAT do you know about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays? Seriously? How can SO MANY people know next to nothing about the Devil Rays yet know what's beating inside of #26's jersey? From the time he was spending in the minors?

PUH-Leaze!

The day that all the smacked asses stop running their mouths about how they know everything about what they saw on SportsCenter one time will be the finest day of them all.
Playing professional baseball is a privilege not a right. Me thinks Delmon "gets" that concept. No worries here.from Manny..

Exhibit G
What lies ahead (emphasis on "lies")

For all the reasons stated above, I empathize with Delmon Damarcus Young. I can't help but feel sorry for how he has to handle a ration of B.S. (not blown saves) over an incident of such meaningless insignificance that has been blown out of proportion by idiots who can't conjure up a real story, fear, racism and ignorance

Delmon Young will need to have an MVP-like season or four before the journalists of the world will let the bat incident rest. Again, in the grand scheme of things (at least to me) it's the deadest story in Florida (hanging chads anyone?).

And GOD help us if even the slightest event conjures up the "incident". Delmon could be a saint for the rest of his career, if another player throws a bat, or hits an umpire GUESS whose name will be dragged through it....

In less than a month, the story will pop up again as the one year anniversary comes around (April 26th). Of course, no one will ask him about THIS season, or what he's doing NOW, they'll just want to pin Delmon down under that 28 second clip like that grainy book jacket flap can tell the whole story inside.

Maybe Delmon can learn some "bat control" and stop swinging at EVERYthing thrown his way, maybe mix in a walk every so often and the "witty" journalists can come up with some actually FUNNY headlines (now who's the funny one?)

Maybe he'll continue to be the free swinging slugger that got him to the bigs, I don't care. As long as he goes out there and plays baseball, he WILL have a great, incident-free career. And I'll be rooting the WHOLE time!

Of course, I'll be busy making my plans to visit Cooperstown in 20 or so years...

Go Devil Rays!

Raise or Raze the Rays - Episode One

2007-03-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

by Bball3345, Davis21Wylie, and Manny Stiles

"Raise or Raze the Rays" - Episode One starring Armchair contributors Bball and Dice21Dub is yet another deluded concept from the 'Chair's resident whackjob.

In honor of my favorite homonym/antonym, Raise/Raze along with my favorite baseball team, this series will analyze data from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays through the sabermetrically tinted glasses of two of our favorite Chart Wizards/Stat Geeks a.k.a. "Neil" and "Tim", while ManRay a.k.a. "Erik" gets to interject his typical antisense. The series will run about once a month throughout the regular season, and maybe even a special "Post Season Edition" when the Devil Rays win the AL East.

Build 'em up? Or knock 'em down?

Enough tapyap... To the DATA, Statman!!!

Raise or Raze the Rays

Neil: Okay, Tim, let's get this show started...

Welcome to the inaugural edition of "Raise or Raze the Rays," a periodic column in which my colleague Tim and I, Neil, will aim our ever-growing arsenal of sabermetric weapons at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In this space, we'll dissect Tampa from practically every statistical angle, in the hope of learning something new that this guy can put to use. But will our boss, Mr. Kombol, like the results? Um... maybe. At the very least, stay tuned to see if this column is discontinued!

But, seriously, let's get the (B)ball rolling by taking a look at one of the D-Rays' primary strengths: their young talent base. As I noted here, we can all agree that the Rays have more than a few quality prospects on their roster, especially on offense -- Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, Delmon Young, B.J. Upton, Jonny Gomes, Jorge Cantu, etc... Tampa had a profoundly horrible offense last season, but most of these guys were either hurt, suspended, or in the minors. So is there any hope for this O when (if?) they get their young core in the lineup full-time?

Tim: No doubt, Tampa has an outstanding crop of young offensive talent at the major league level and, even more amazingly, there is still more talent on the way. The scary thing is how all of these high-profile prospects could realistically flop.

They have four potential 20/20 guys, but none of them come without question marks. Carl Crawford, improving but yet to reach the "next level." Rocco Baldelli, torn ACL and Tommy John surgery. Delmon Young, attitude problems. B.J. Upton, can't play defense to save his life.
Baldelli is the most interesting to me, partly for being a non-pitcher and having TJ surgery. Last season, in his 92 games of rare health, Baldelli had a RC/27 of 7.08. Had he had enough bats to qualify, that would have ranked him in the top 20 in the AL. His Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) wasn't even that inflated either, at .338 compared to his career .333. His Line Drive percentage was at 15.6% compared to his career 16.3%. The most promising trend has been in his power; Baldelli's HR per Fly Ball rose from 7.2% in 2003 to 16.0% last season. At 25-years-old, don't you see him proving his past injuries were a fluke and leading the Tampa Bay offense?

Neil: I can definitely envision a situation in which Baldelli is the cornerstone of this team -- as a Vernon Wells-style two-way OF -- especially given the way his power finally came through last season. I mean, we know this guy is crazy talented: in high school, people were regularly comparing him to Joe DiMaggio, and his top comp for the last fully-healthy season he played (2003) was Tris Speaker. But I'm concerned that his past injuries weren't flukes. The offseason ACL tear? Well, maybe, but the elbow and leg/hamstring issues are troubling for a player of his age. He's still got that great speed, but players with histories of leg problems generally tend to lose it sooner rather than later. If he proves himself to be durable, though, I think they've potentially got one of the best CF in the American League.

As for the rest of this lineup, there's a lot of upside here. They shouldn't be scoring 4.25 runs per game, right? And if you were to look at a best-guess for their guys' production, it'd probably be:

No. Player Pos RC/G

--------------------------------------
1. Rocco Baldelli CF 6.2
2. Carl Crawford LF 6.3
3. Delmon Young RF 5.8
4. Jonny Gomes DH 5.8
5. Jorge Cantu 2B 4.9
6. Ty Wigginton 1B 5.3
7. B.J. Upton 3B 4.9
8. Dioner Navarro C 4.5
9. Ben Zobrist SS 4.5
--------------------------------------

Pretty solid, huh? But we've been saying that for the last few years, and someone has always gotten hurt, or underperformed, etc. The margin is paper-thin for them at this point -- somebody goes down or stops hitting, and suddenly you're seeing a lot of Damon Hollins again.
I think one of the key guys for them is actually Akinori Iwamura, the Japanese import. This team was giving infield PT to guys like Tomas Perez last season, so if Iwamura performs like he did overseas, it'll definitely give them some breathing room in terms of depth. How do think Iwamura will handle the transition to MLB?

Tim: Well, Iwamura is 28-years-old, which puts him right in the prime of his career. He has hit over .300, with OBP's a tad under .400 and slugging in the mid-.500s over the past three seasons in Japan. Baseball Prospectus calculates his EQA (Equivalent Average) over the past three seasons at .285, .295, and .293. If he had posted an EQA like those on this side of the ocean, only Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teahen, and Troy Glaus would have bested him in the AL. Personally, I see his EQA coming down due to the shift and the innacuracy of predicting between leagues. An EQA in the .270's with 20 HRs and a mid-.300's OBP seems about right. Production like that would make Iwamura an above-average third baseman and, at under $3 million per year, one heckuva bargain.

As far as I know, Iwamura has stayed healthy and has a solid reputation with the glove. He is capable of playing 2B or 3B, so this improves Tampa Bay's flexibility. Not to mention, Iwamura's bat would be even more of an advantage at 2B. Assuming Iwamura pans out, I see prospect Evan Longoria taking over 3B by season's end and Iwamura shifting over to second base, bumping Cantu out of the starting lineup.

Speaking of fielding, Tampa had serious issues last year on defense. Their Defensive Efficiency Ratio (the number of times they turned balls in play into outs) was a league-low .673. The difference between their Fielding Independent Pitching (4.86) and ERA (4.96) comes out to about an extra 15 runs over the course of a season. In other words, their defense easily cost the Rays a victory or two by itself. According to the HardballTimes fielding stats, the problem appeared to be on the ground, not in the air. The Rays' infield made 82! less outs than expected, while the outfield made 9 more than average. Playing Iwamura, Longoria and Ben Zobrist around the horn would go a long way toward fixing that problem. It also means that deciding to add the dreadful defense of B.J. Upton could further damage the pitcher's confidence in allowing groundballs. What do you think the Devil Rays should do with Upton? Should they try and get him at-bats in the infield, trade him, move him to center, or something entirely different?

Neil: I've always liked Upton, but having him in the infield is clearly unacceptable as long as he's going to do his "Chuck Knoblauch circa 1999" impression. The outfield would be a more appealing destination defensively, because he has loads of speed, but I wonder if his bat is strong enough to support the move (especially after last year's nightmarish .246/.302/.291 line). It's one thing for Alfonso Soriano to go from a defensive-liability IF to an MVP-caliber OF, because Soriano's hitting ability was never really in question -- we may have taken exception with his, um, lack of selectivity, but he always had good power and would at least hit for average.

Upton, on the other hand, has never really proven himself at all as a hitter at the major-league level; yes, his minor league translations have been good, but his career MLB line is .251/.312/.347 in 334 at-bats. At 22, it's not really time yet to give up on him as a player, but now is the time to make him an outfielder, because that defense at third (or short, or the infield in general) isn't getting any better.

But, you know, as bad as Tampa's defense was this past year, you still have to lay a lot of the blame for their 5.28 RA/G at the feet of their pitchers. If it weren't for Kansas City and Baltimore, this would have been the worst staff in the AL, a showing made worse by the fact that they had one of the game's brightest young pitching prospects headlining the rotation (for the first half of the season, at least). To be exact, their non-Kazmir ERA was 5.15. This is what makes the Devil Rays so frustrating: the good players on the team get hurt a lot, and that's not really something the organization can control, but there are contingency plans that don't have to include guys like Seth McClung, Casey Fossum and Doug Waechter -- pitchers who have "removed all doubt" about their suckitude by now.

The good news is that they have what many are calling the best farm system in MLB. With guys like James Shields, Jason Hammel, Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, Jacob McGee, and Jeremy Hellickson coming down the pipeline to join Kazmir, the staff looks like it should improve a lot in the next few years. Meanwhile, Young, Longoria, Elijah Dukes, and Reid Brignac will bolster an already-impressive core of young talent in the field. So, yeah, I like Tampa's future a lot, provided they don't screw things up on the development side. Of course, all of these guys are at least a year away from making an impact at the MLB level, so they're of little use to Joe Maddon & Co. right now. Given that, how do you see the 2007 Devil Rays performing? What are your best-case and worst-case scenarios for this upcoming season?

Tim: First, lets take a look at some of the overall team numbers from 2006 to see if there are any signs of hope.

----------------------------
Actual Record: 61-101
Pythagorean Record: 65-97
----------------------------

Last season, the DRays underperformed their Pythagorean Record by 4 games. So, lets make the assumption that they will over perform their Pythagorean record this season by the same amount.

-----------------------------------------
Batting Average: .255
BA w/ Runners in Scoring Position: .240
------------------------------------------

Also last season, the DRays performed 15 points of batting average worse with runners in scoring position then they performed on average. If this number corrects itself as well, they could be in for some more runs from better luck with men on base.

BaseballProspectus's PECOTA predicts the DRays to finish in 4th at 78-84. Lets assume that PECOTA's prediction is the Pythagorean Record for the Rays, since it is built on Runs Scored and Runs Allowed. If they best their Pythagorean Record by 4 this season, that puts them at 82-80. With the question marks all around the rotation, this is probably the best anyone can expect from them in the toughest division in baseball. However, young players, especially with the talent of the Devil Rays' youngsters, have a strong chance of outperforming any of their projections. Delmon Young, Ben Zobrist, and Akinori Iwamura could all outdo their projections by a win each, plus some other smaller additions from others. Finally, as a best-case scenario projection, I give the Devil Rays an 86-76 record, assuming a tad better luck and some big years from the talented prospects.

The worst case scenario is as dreadful as the best-case scenario is delightful. For starters, Rocco Baldelli could go down with yet another injury, leaving the spot open to probably B.J. Upton or Elijah Dukes, both with issues of their own. Iwamura could fail to make the transition from Japan to America, acting as a sinkhole in the lineup until Longoria replaces him. Jonny Gomes and Greg Norton could provide Replacement Level or worse offense at DH. Delmon Young could flop or explode and be suspended for a substantial part of the season. Jorge Cantu could join Norton and Gomes around Replacement Level again on offense. Ty Wigginton could prove last season's improved power was merely a fluke (although, the numbers point toward it being real). Dioner Navarro could postpone his breakout yet another year, being just one of multiple Replacement Level hitters in the Tampa Bay starting lineup. Scott Kazmir could get hurt again, leaving the rotation a complete mess. None of these possibilities are outlandish and most of them have happened before. If all or most of these come true, the Devil Rays will endure enormous struggles trying to get out of the 100-loss zone.

In my AL East Preview, I predict the DRays at 75-87. No one can doubt the Devil Rays have a talented, young offense that is ready to start scoring runs in bunches as soon as this year. There are even a handful of useful arms in the bullpen. Tampa Bay has a legitimate, yet fragile, ace in Kazmir and a capable #2 in Shields. If they were in the AL West or NL Central, this team could legitimately contend with a few lucky breaks. Unfortunately, the AL East is still a two-team show. It seems likely the Devil Rays will fall somewhere in between the best and worst cases, but my money has them ending up closer to 86 wins than 62.

Neil: Wow, that best-case is way more optimistic than mine would be -- in my AL preview, I projected that they would score 4.83 runs per game, allow 5.55 runs per game, and finish at 70-92, last in the AL East. That projection may be overly pessimistic for the pitching staff, though; after all, they allowed only 5.28 runs per game last year, and that was with Kazmir injured. So let's say they allow 5.10 RPG and score 4.90 RPG... that works out to 78-84, which I would consider to be their absolute best-case scenario, seeing as how they've never notched more than 70 wins in their entire 9-year existence. (By the way, Tim, I think assuming that they'll overperform their pythagorean expectation by 4 just because they underperformed by that much last year is a bit of a misapplication of the Plexiglas Principle -- with a little of the gambler's fallacy thrown in to boot -- but I digress...)

Tampa's worst-case scenario would have to be a repeat of last year's 61-101 record. And the odds are against the offense collapsing that badly again, so I would expect them to finish with 80 wins before I'd expect another less than 65 wins campaign. Overall, I'd call for a mean projection of 70-75 wins -- which would happen to be their best record ever. It would also represent real progress for the franchise, especially given their prospects on the way from the farm. I should note, however, that asking for anything more than beating out Baltimore for 4th place in the East is merely a pipe dream.

Tim: Before I wrap-up our first edition of "Raise or Raze the Rays," I want to plead guilty to both slightly misusing the Plexiglas Principle and the gambler's fallacy. I realize that the Devil Rays aren't guaranteed by any measure to outperform their Pythagorean Record by 4 just because they underperfomed by 4 in 2006. I used the number 4 merely as a hypothetical, slightly flawed, best-case scenario. That aside, Neil and I look forward to scrutinizing and praising Manny Stiles' new favorite team all year long. Now, if only Spring Training would end, so the 2007 Devil Rays can show everyone what they are made of, good or bad.

Manny's Post Script

Sounds like this episode rates as a RAISE the Rays!

Great job, fellas! Yes, it is a team full of hope, prospect and talent. Does ANY team in baseball have a wider discrepency between their theoretical "upside" and their expected "downside"? Does ANY team in baseball have more former highly rated prospects on it's roster?

So for personal reasons (because I said so), I will trust ONLY the upper limit on most of the data provided, and I feel that many of the projections could easily be exceeded (in my opinion, Delmon Young will have a monster year, B.J. Upton will focus on playing baseball not head games and Carl Crawford will be... well, Carl Crawford!)

The lineup seems as if they could explode at times and do some damage, for sure. You guys took into account many things but I'm glad you stuck more to the batting side of the team.

All Devil Rays fans know this season will hinge on the pitching and defense. After all, 90% of baseball is pitching and defense and the other half is offense, right? And the pitching staff, regardless of the data you could find/conjure/skew is without a doubt the BIG question (especially the bullpen). Here's a trick for you... I'll give you Scott Kazmir and Jamie Shields, now name 3 other Devil Rays pitchers....

Waiting...

Waiting...

Beuler?....

Regardless, I am VERY excited for the season to start (so I can go bash D21Dub's BoSox) and I truly feel that this is the year (the magical 10th season of Devil Rays baseball) that they actually crack the .500 plateau.

That being said as I am dead serious about my prediction. I'll gladly submit myself to drug testing to prove it to the jackasses out there (admittedly, I might not do as "well" on a thorough mental evaluation)!

Until next time, Go Devil Rays!

Surveys Galore - Let me see what the fanbase thinks!

2007-03-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

Are you ready to answer a few simple questions? EVERYONE likes surveys, be like one of the cool kids and pick your favorite answers to the Devil Rays specific questions!

Tampa Bay Devil Rays... one of the more 'interesting' names in baseball for sure, but not for long, I understand.

A trade seems inevitable. There's a TON of young talent and not alot of veteran leadership. To make the leap, a trade may be neccessary.

Check off ALL of the pieces you'd give up to make a "difference" trade possible...

So obviously, what is a poll without having you predict some sort of "future"???

And now, time for one more precise prediction!

Thank you for your precious time and for giving me some of your mouseclicks (hey, you only get so many mouseclicks in life, make 'em count!)

Sports Anagrams: Pasta Bay Army

2007-03-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

Another steamy pile of non-sense from Name Isn't Sly.....If you don't remember how to play...

This time it's ALL Devil Rays, all the time! And by the way, the title is the only decent Sports Anagram you can make after removing the word "Devil" from 'Tampa Bay Devil Rays'. I promised anagrams, you're getting anagrams!

I was thinking of using the 50 best Sports Anagrams as titles (I just noticed what happens if you leave 2 s's on the word "titles") for articles throughout the season.

Here is some possible article titles you could be looking forward to (all are anagrams for "Tampa Bay Devil Rays") somewhere amidst the season.

Viably Dreamy Pasta

Viably Made Pastry

Simply Beady Avatar

Vary Pay, Blast Media

Private Abysmal Day

Pay As A Balmy Divert

Avid, Stay, Pray, Blame

A Abysmal Depravity

A Variable Stymy Pad

A Bastard Pay My Evil

Adapter By My Saliva

Variably Damp Yeast

Salivate Map By Yard

Smart Viable Payday

My Pit, A Savable Yard

Data May Vary Per Libs

Lapidary May Be Vast

Adapts Very Amiably

Pita Salad Bevy Army

Bedlam AT Spt Aviary

Lava Bypast Midyear

Team Pray Advisably

A Betrayal Damps Ivy

Ably Avid Paymaster

A Palm Abates Dry Ivy

A Very Baptismal Day

Vapidly Astray Beam

A Rapidly Vast Maybe

Pry My Vast Labia-Ade

BiYearly Data Vamps

Maybe Lips Vary Data

A Parade By My Vitals

Admirably Stave Pay

Lay By Vamp Radiates

My Availed Abs Party

Bats Payed Ivy Alarm

Vet Ails By Pay Drama

Aviary Blamed Patsy

Lava Based Pity Army

Mail Bravest Payday

I Spat Verbal Mayday

Avidly By Aspartame

Database Vary Imply

V.A.T. by Dare I Say, Lamp?

As By Vim, Already Apt

Vast Radial Pay By Me

Pay Vet AS By Admiral

Validates Pay By Arm

May Bats Prevail Day!

Bay's Private Malady

So you can see some potential here, eh? They practically write themselves

Now for Players -

Carl Crawford- Crawl For Card, Ford Car Crawl... not the greatest anagrams so
far

Scott Kazmir - Rack Most Zit, Smack Zit Rot, Mock Zit Star, Art Mocks Zit

B.J. Upton- Punt Job (the one and only one anagram for his name)

Delmon Young- Ogled My Noun, Lo My Dungeon, Glued On My No, My Loon Nudge, No Gun Melody, My Noodle Gun, No Ugly Demon, My Undone Log, On My Long Due, Ungodly Omen, Yo Dung Melon, Dog Menu Only, Nu Gone Moldy, Loud Neon Gym, Nylon Ego Mud, Do Ogle My Nun

Rocco Baldelli- Calico Bedroll, Bed Color Lilac, Local Cold Brie, Laced Brocolli, Cod Boil Recall, Cobra Lice Doll

Jonny Gomes- Nosy Men Jog,Jog My Neons, Joy Men Song

Dioner Navarro- On A Radon River, Rain Donor Rave, A Vain Error Nod, A Van Odor In Err, Or Iron Veranda, Iron Radar Oven, Redo or Nirvana, Avian Error Nod, Roar on Invader

Seth McClung- has no anagrams for his name

James Shields- Jam Hides Less, Lies Jam Sheds

Jorge Cantu- Centaur Jog, Not Care Jug, Not Gun Race, Jag Counter, Cute Jargon, Conjure Tag

Carlos Pena- A Porn Scale, As Clean Pro, Carnal Pose, Coarse Plan, Loans Recap, Acorn Lapse

Akinori Iwamura- Main Kiwi Aurora

Greg Norton- Rent Gorgon, Gong or Rent, Not Err Gong

Brendan Harris- reran His Brand, Drab Inner Rash, Rid Rah Banners, Brash Rain Nerd, Darns Her Brain, Harder Bras Inn

Ben Zobrist- Ribbon Zest, Bronze Bits, Biz Orbs Net

Ty Wigginton- Witty Noggin, Twinging Toy, Tying No Twig, Tying Got Win, Gin Tying Two

Heep Seop Choi- Hi Cheese Poop, Hi Pope Echoes, Ooh, Pie Speech, Hose Hop Piece, Oh Hope Pieces, Echo Shoe Pipe, He Choose Pipe, He Copies Hope

Elijah Dukes- Hue Jades Ilk, Duh Seek Jail

Casey Fossum- Mess of Saucy, Soy Cuss Fame, Coy Seam Fuss, Essay of Scum, Focus my Seas, Foamy Cusses, Use Comfy Ass

Dan Micelli - A Minced Ill, Decimal Nil, Called Mini, In Calm Deli, Iced In Mall

Dustan Mohr- Hand Tumors, Hard Mounts, So Damn Hurt, Random Tush, Tundra Mosh, Humor Stand, Hansom Turd, Donuts Harm, Humans Trod, Do Nuts Harm, Rotund Mash, Rounds Math, Haunts Dorm, Trash Mound, Drum on Hats, Arm Thuds On, No Smart Duh, Smart Hound,

Edwin Jackson- A Jock Wins End, Jacked in Snow, Jocks and Wine, Ninja Cow Desk, Jaws Once Kind

Shawn Camp- Champ Swan, Pawn Chasm, Mach Spawn

Tim Corcoran- Raccoon Trim, Micron Actor, Moronic Cart, Comic Nor Art

and coaches, front office and executive staff....

Joe Maddon - Jaded Moon, One Odd Jam

Bill Evers- I Sell Verbs, Rib Levels

Steve Henderson- No Sheered Vents, Need Stern Shove, The Oven Redness, He'd Onset Nerves

Don Zimmer- I med normz

Andrew Friedman- New Drama Friend, End Warfare Mind, Fine Warm Dander, Warned Mired Fan

Matt Silverman- Metals Varmint, Arms Maven Tilt, Smart Mail Vent, Slam Tin Arm Vet, Let Man Star Vim

Stu Sternberg- Regrets Bunts

Tropicana Field- Fine Radical Top, Oil Print Facade, It Flop Radiance, Flip Into Arcade, Antacid Profile, Fanatic Idol Rep, Factional Pride, Fried Placation, Cranial Dope Fit, Afraid Clone Pit, Profaned Italic, Replication Fad, Fornicated Pail, Partial Confide.

Manny Stiles Announces April Visit to the 813 and 727

2007-03-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Breaking News!!! Manny Stiles has begun to finalize plans for an April visit to Tampa/St Petersburg, FL. Details will be released in a slow trickle in order to build the drama over time. Which is helpful since the details are pretty much developing at the same rate of speed.

Yes, I am going to some games!

Yes, I am getting some interviews!

Yes, I am planning on hosting the World's Largest LIVE Devil Rays Running Gameblog while I am at the game! (TBA)

Also -
Despite some recent computer issues I've been barely "dealing with", I am available to answer your questions... they don't even need to be Devil Rays related!

MannyStiles@aol.com

Also if you are a Devil Rays blogger or know someone else who is, I want to hear from you! (I have an idea - see above)

Woooooooo!!!

2007-03-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Fellas!!! Way to get a W today!!!

Oh yeah! The sleeping giant awakens, the bats are aoused and the scoreboard is a little more lit up today (there goes the electric bill)

8-3 over the Pirates!!!

There is NO curse of Manny Stiles!!!

Today's Box Score

Looks like a nice, productive outing (despite giving up 8 hits) by James Shields, 5 IP, 2 Runs on 8 hits, NO walks (I like that).

Manny Stiles' Bon Mots

2007-03-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows I like myself. If you were me, you would too...

French for "Good Words" or Stilese for "Links I've compiled to articles that say good things about me"

The official media recognizes Manny (as a jester perhaps?)

I'm a hero, dammit! Where's MY parade?

When it's for charity, it's not called an "investment", but O.K.

I was misquoted, but I stand by ALL my misquotes

And the online world took notice, too! (Ok, barely a glance)

The Deadspin Article that got most people's attention

Rays Index breaks the news - by The Professor

My elevator "might" be broken, but I WAS serious!!!

The guys at DRaysBay took a nice angle - They played it like... "Yeah so..." (they were the first to contact me, so it was old news to them)

A Devil Rays preview by one of ArmchairGM most respected contributors, Kelsdad

Ha ha... the didn't buy me, but they did win me over!

Can't say much for 28 other teams, but at least Nats fans aren't totally asleep

Yes, I AM a Delmon Young fan!!!

I get headlines over Curt Schilling!!!

Under March 7 - the obligatory "there goes $ for a fifth starter joke!

Under MLB - Dan, where does freaking blog begin and freeky blogger end?

'til later.... Be good, or failing that, be safe!

The Great Joltin' Joe and Teddy Ballgame debate.. Part I

2007-03-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

It started out as a simple heated argument and escalated into a tussle.

Propose the "right" idea to a close minded drunk with a short temper and you could end up on the bleeding edge of all that's happening in broken glass technology. Exchange the words "close minded drunk with a short temper" to "passionate Yankee fan" and it shares the same consequences. You could see my quandry.

I don't think Joe DiMaggio was as great as everyone remembers him being. I thought that he was a very good player (way better than Derek Jeter, mind you) but not quite as great as his contemporaries (like Derek Jeter). Not only that but DiMaggio had THE cat (Marilyn Monroe) in the bag and he let her go (to a writer!) or shall I say couldn't ''satisfy'' the agreement (sound familiar to Mr. Jeter?)

The patrons of what shall always be remembered as "The Bar I Will Gladly Avoid From Now On." were not pleased with my rhetoric, my verification and corrections of their referenced data nor my whimisical attitude towards the Legend of Joe D.

Furthermore if you state that "Ted Williams was better and I can prove it over and over with fact, statistic and all other valid forms of authenticated quantities", they start to think of you as less of an a-hole and more of "worse than than an a-hole". Well in the "right" neighborhood you're just asking for a wicked awesome fight, BoSox Boy!

But that's not what I was saying to the clench-fisted, ultra-spittle endowed master of Bill Cowher impersonations. I was saying that if DiMaggio didn't play in the right hander's cavern of Yankee Stadium and if Ted wouldn't have had the Monster, or if both of them never missed any time due to service time. And on and on and on, we'll never know! There were so many variables!

I started sensing the aura of more of "them" enclosing around less of "us", with the "us" being me... It wasn't just a random conversation bashing the Yankees at a bar with a guy that looked like his blood type is 10W-40 anymore. It was a tripped trigger for a guy that wasn't satisfied with an overall lack of violence in this particular rendition of Tuesday Happy Hour. He had a glint in his eyes you usually only see in tower climbing snipers, long-term residents of padded rooms and the typical unibomber wannabes. And this emepher wanted to fight me!

He's pushing 50 lookin' like he's pushing 70, had a rough life and a rougher day. Maybe his wised up and girl left him, maybe his dog died, maybe his second favorite shotgun busted today while he was using it to fix a flat on his pickup, maybe all of the above stereotypes and more are true. Maybe he was just a psychotic Yankees fan who's existence relied on the simple notion that Joe DiMaggio was an annointed Saint.

And normally, why would I be afraid of this guy? I'm not a violent person. I'm waaay bigger than this dude, I'd crush him if need be! But his 17 or so friends don't appreciate a few things about me:

a) it WOULD be fun kicking my ass, eh?
b) they don't like my so-called resemblance to that "Jolly Green Giant feller"
c) I keep saying the wrong things about the Yankees (nothing good)
d) I keep saying these things to the one guy who REALLY doesn't need to hear it. (drunk angry folk)

But logic fails to cool the boiling heat of rage. Often, it enrages the fumous, impatient and non-rational anger MORE!

"I said you were WRONG! How dare you prove that you're right??!?!?"

For once, I felt the fear that I wasn't going to talk my way out of this one, this time... it was reckoning time; the inevitable day of Manny's comeuppance! I knew only had one possible course of action that would possibly save my "oily hide" from some unwanted facial reconstruction.

I told them I was a Devil Rays fan.

Joe D and Splendid Splinter as Devil Rays... How it came to be.

2007-03-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

So I ponder the argument. Who WAS better? DiMaggio or Williams?

AS #2 Devil Rays fan I propose the theory that they both indeed SUCKED! They were a Yankee and Red Sock afterall! OK, they never had a chance to be Devil Rays, but ''what if they did''.... What... if they....diiiiiid???

???

?????

I always used the argument that Joe D's hitting streak is the most garbagely overrated record in all of sports. 56 game hitting streak... woo woo.... it just means you ogood or lucky 56 games in a row. It doesn't even neccessarily mean you had an awesome run of 56 games! You can go 1-5 for 57 straight games and be a hero!

I'm not saying it isn't a feat. Of course it is. But let us put it into perspective. During DiMaggio's streak he batted .408. So what did he bat during the rest of the season? Go look it up. Here's the punchline: Ted Williams batted .406 for the ENTIRE season that same year. Is 56 straight games better than whole season?

The other thing, lost time: they both paid the price here.

So I decided that if the two players played for the same team, the variables such as Yankee stadium and Fenway could be equalized. All I needed was a control such as another franchise...

Ahhh... modern technology! It's a bitch and a ho that we're hooked on, as we keep coming back for more, now, faster! A little application called "Baseball Mogul" has wasted many a sit-on-my-asstasic days. It's a baseball simulator where I could transport data from the Tampa Bay Devil Ray franchise today transport it to the past and let history be rewitten (but not without an imaginative story attached).

But HOW do I get the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to sign Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams and slap a Rays Jersey on them? Haa haa ha ha haaa! Pure evil, that's how!

So I present to you what happened the time time tim,e ti,me t,imetimeitmreijre that everything was rearranged and the present as you know it was altered.

------------------------------------------

The year is 1937. Things are a little testy in the world. A bright minded executive of a minor league baseball team named Frank Jingleheimerschmidt has a hunch and tries to intervene in the icy relations between his native Germany and his beloved adopted land of America.

Frank (whose real name was Franz Jingleheimerschmidtkopf) came to New York and learned to play stickball in the Brooklyn alleys. He fell in love with the game of baseball. After his deli brands took off in popularity, through the depression, he made himself a nominal fortune. So he bought a floundering basbeball team in Hoboken and turned it into a viable franchise with gimmicks, schtick and hoaxes to draw in the masses and enjoy an afternoon of sideshow and baseball It was quite an event.

One day, Jingleheimerschmidt dropped a few names (his cousin was a bigwig in government) and had arranged for Adolph Hitler to come catch a Hoboken Yamikas game. Old Franz is gonna sell out of weiners that day!

Well, time passes as it often does, and Hitler shows up for the game. A big hubbub is made, but the game starts relatively on time. Young pitcher Dave McGillicutty chucks a slider in on the hands of Yamikas' clean up hitter "Muscles" Smashinski who pulls a screamer right over the dugout and directly into the temple of the former poster painter.

Hitler is knocked square into a 3 month coma before emerging several points lower in IQ and returns to painting posters on the streets of Germany. Of course, World War II never happens.

Now that makes you wonder. If there was no WWII, what about all of the technical advances like radar and sonar or the quirky cliches like "the whole nine yards"? Well, a wizard did some of it, but otherwise technology was advanced at the same approximate time because I said so. Nuclear weapons are never made because timehey skipped right over it for personal, portable cold fusion applicators. EVERYONE has 'em!

Meanwhile, baseball becomes EXTREMELY popular in America. More people play it than ever and it helps lead an economic revival all across the land. Expansion teams hit the Junior Circuit in 1939 in Toronto and Tampa Bay.

Amazingly the franchise in Tampa Bay builds the first dome in sports and it's literally decades ahead of it's time, called Tropicana Field (it looks ''eerily'' similar to the current stadium AND has the exact same dimensions as it is this very day) and has this technologically advanced "FieldTurf II" on it. AStroTurf never comes to be and no one can figure out if there was a FieldTurf I.

In the expansion draft, the newly formed Tampa Bay Devil Rays select Ted Williams and Robert Feller while craftily making trades for Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig.

*editor's note - so NOW, Williams and DiMaggio are both Devil Rays, plus we worked out Lou Gehrig, who moves to Tampa - St Petersburg and amazingly enough, he avoids getting ALS somehow, so he gets to play out his career normally (but he never gets to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth).

So who would have made the better Devil Ray? DiMaggio or Williams? I'm going to play out their careers and compare notes at the end...

On to the data!!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In the first season, 1939.

Tampa Bay, in their inaugural season loses game 7 in the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 as Lefty Gomez (yeah, we got him too) was trying to complete the shutout only to give up 5 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th. Coach Grady Little Sr. said "I stuck with my ace"

Rookie of the Year (oh, yeah, that award was invented by then) Ted Williams swatted .327/28/129 while Joe DiMaggio hit 54 HRs and batted .381 (second in both categories). Lou Gehrig missed a few games, ending his consecutive games played streak but still plowed 55 HRs while Jimmie Foxx paced the league at .384 with 53 HRs and a new record 207 RBIs while running away the MVP award for the Devil Rays (Oh, yeah, I picked up Foxx, too!) But the bitter disappointment of losing game 7 left me wanting more! Four players in ALL of baseball hit more than 37 homers; 3 of them are Devil Rays! Arky Vaughn provided good defense all year.

The Next season - 1940
Basically the same team with a few pickups in the bullpen.
We win 122 games, face the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series rematch and sweep them badly. 13-6, 13-5, 11-3 and 17-11

Lou Gehrig, the only batter with over 35 homers in either league in 1940 and second player to cross the 600 HR plateau, goes .360-43-213 on the season for the AL MVP!!! He also celebrates his 3,000 th hit during the season

Williams .353-33-129 .466 OBP
DiMaggio .349-32-125 .434 OBP

1941 - The dream season
DiMaggio doesn't get anywhere near his hit streak and although Ted Williams flirts with .400 most of the season he ends up well short.

Williams .350-30-169,
DiMaggio at .327-36-154.

The Devil Rays win 116 games. Jimmie Foxx keeps chugging along at an incredible pace, getting another MVP award But we face a new team in the World Series, the Chicago Cubs! And we sweep them too! Dynasty! Dynasty! Dynasty!

And there's no World War II to stop us!

1942 - An aging team...
Gehrig and Foxx are fading fast. Stats are down league wide, for some weird reason, even with no war. Arky Vaughn wins the batting title and we face the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Fall Classic and win in 5 games

Williams .305-22-125
DiMaggio .297-18-140

1943 - Another 116 win season in a new deadball era.
Jimmy Foxx and Lou Gehrig are showing signs of aging but are still steely veterans.
Up against the Chicago Cubs once again and sweep them easily. 3 sweeps in 4 years!

Williams .307-11-108 (64 Doubles!!)
DiMaggio .298-11-131

1944- Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx's last hurrah not enough!
Lou comes into the season with 646 homers, Jimmie Fozz at 587.
Now I have a problem! The young talent I have been harboring in my minor league system are pushing for playing time. DiMaggio might have to go to left to make room for a can't miss prospect.

But I gotta keep the project intact. DiMaggio and Williams MUST be teammates their whole careers!!! I stuff the prospect away in the minors and may one day trade him for pitching...Nope, in late August the rookie can't be suppressed any longer. We're 3 and 1/2 games behind the Senators! We need his offense, Joe, who is struggling, drops a few slots in the batting order and is batting just .269. Out of the lineup comes Jimmie Foxx who starts the farewell party around the league. Gehrig, at 40 years old. Joe D puts on a 1st baseman's glove to replace Foxx.

The Rookie gets hurt, back to CF for DiMaggio and a pennant race down the stretch! With 9 games left, Tampa Bay was behind the Senators by 7.5 games!!! Washington won the division on the last day of the season when the Senators end a 6 game losing streak to clinch. 103 wins just doesn't get you what it used to!

The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1 to win the World Series

Williams .316-14-119
DiMaggio .268-11-119

Gehrig wants to hang on one more year, apparently and Detroit offers me Wally Berger for him. I do Lou a favor and let him keep playing. Hell, he should have been dead already! I turn around and deal off Berger to the Yankees for Chuck Klein (who also found extended career in my little exercise)

What a weird season that 1944! 20 homers leads the league, even though 6 players do it. Lou Fette wins his 4th Stiles Award (best pitcher award, like Cy Young Award).

1945 -
At the all-star break, there's a three way tie for 1st in the AL East - Tampa Bay, New York and Washington. Joe DiMaggio trade rumors are rampant, but I won't deal him! I have young talent pushing Williams in the outfield (which is why he has been predominantly a right fielder). Jimmie Foxx is better now than three years ago.

On the last day of the season, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and New York Yankees are tied with 104-57 records (yeah, 162 games in 1945) The teams have met for the last 7 games of the season, spliting the last 6 evenly, but the last game was a blowout 15-2 in favor of the Devil Rays. It would all come down to a final game for the division title.

The Devil Rays took a 3-0 lead into the top of the ninth with Dizzy Dean on the hill when all hell broke loose. with two outs and the bases loaded an error by Dean scored 2. Then he walked the bases loaded again before getting out of the inning on a line drive right back at him!

The Rays win a dramtic 7 game ALCS 8-7 over the Blue Jays on a ninth inning Joe DiMaggio walkoff solo HR.

Then the World Series against the (guess who?) 111-51 Chicago Cubs! Who then BEAT us 4-2!!! I guess the billy goat was allowed in!!

Williams .296-9-115 (Is it me or is he turning into Mark Grace in this exercise?)
DiMaggio .267-10-127 (50 doubles and one ALCS winning HR)

1946-
Pitching talent has come up through the farm system and has really flooded the organization with assets. I'm sticking to DiMaggio and Williams even if it costs me Titles! Although, I'm sliding them down the order a bit...

106-56 record and runaway division title, a-gain!

Rematch with the "Defending Champion" Cubs in the World Series and the Cubs win in 6!!! Dammit!

Williams perks up a bit throughout the season and I'm having a hard time giving PT to DiMaggio. This is not what I thought would happen! It's hard to argue he's hurting us, I just have better players on the bench. Ted is solid and rightfield is all his!

Williams .344-14-129
DiMaggio .251-10-120 (OBP .339 eek!)

Jimmie Foxx still playing, has 618 HRs and batted .211 in his 23rd season in the bigs. Lou Gehrig, still playing in Detroit is finishing his 25th season! 4309 hits, 685 HRs and over 3000 RBI!! But it looks like Mel Ott won't reach 500 HRs.

1947-
I stick with what I have and let the pitchers develop.

Another runaway division crown at 112-50, Arky Vaughn wins his second MVP the Devil Rays are league dominant and we match up with old pal Lou Gehrig (now all-time hit leader and has 700 HRs) his Detroit Tigers for the AL crown. We beat the Tigers to face (guess who?) the Chicago Cubs for the third season in a row and 5th matchup overall.

The Cubs win the World Series in 7 games winning a boring game seven, 5-4.

Williams .280 - 15 - 107
DiMaggio .276 - 12 - 88

1948-
119-43 Devil Rays win their division by 31 games and faces the New York Giants in the World Series and win in 5 games.

Wooo! It feels good to be champs again!!

Williams .327 - 11 - 118
DiMaggio .304 - 34 - 143 HGH? Nope, he's DHing! (Oh, yeah... I like DHs)

1949 -
After a really slow start, we win the division by 33 and oh yeah, have a record of 125-37 (all about the pitching)
Surprise! Meet the Chicago Cubs in the World Series AGAIN! But this time we dispose of them in 5 games. BACK-to-BACK!!

Williams .315-16-115
DiMaggio .302-22-122

Joe D and Splendid Splinter as Devil Rays... the 50's

2007-03-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

1950 -
Lou Gehrig, the game's greatest player ever somehow effs up my simulator and plays forever! I think he's going for 5,000 hits then he'll stop... hasn't won a championship since he left the Rays.

We go 106-56, modest enough! Dramatically we pull out a game 7 win over Detroit in the ALCS, 9-8 on a Joe Gordon 8th inning Grand Slam. Then to the World Series against (WTF?) the Chicago Cubs!!! And we beat them in 6 games to make it three years running champs!

Williams .293-15-99
DiMaggio .269-19-88

Seven Rings and counting, 0 MVPs between them!!!

Lou Gehrig retires after the 1950 season with 4,990 hits, .325 AVG and 759 HRs with a ridiculous 3,631 RBI... think he makes the HoF still?

1951-
Promising season with hopes of completing our second four-year title run.
We come from 6 back in the last three weeks to win the division by 5 games.

Sweep our way to the World Series, where we meet yup, the Cubs. We win Game 7 by a score of 3-1 DiMaggio is hurt during the World Series.

Williams .312 -22 - 117
DiMaggio .267-11-47 (starting to get injured alot)

1952-
Hot start of 74-11 gets the Rays an early lead they never relinquish finishing 124-38
And we meet up with the Giants where it takes up 7 games to win our fifth straight World Series.

Williams - .318-27-107
DiMaggio .288-23-115

1953-
This might be the best pitching staff yet! And we only go 117-45.
vs. the New York Giants in the World Series, win in 5!

Williams .303- 16-104
DiMaggio .267 - 21 -113

That's TEN and counting!

1954-
111-51, but we lose the ALCS to the White Sox who go on to lose to the Cubs in the World Series in 6.

Williams .263 - 25 -111
DiMaggio .285-34-131

1955-
114-48, meet the Giants in the World Series and take back our crown in 5 games. 11 World Series titles in 16 years!

Williams .304-16-132
DiMaggio .319-25-122

1956-
112-50, and beat the Giants in 5 AGAIN! 12 and counting! You win with pitching!

Williams .287-19- 132
DiMaggio .299-33-167 (as a 41 year old!)

1957-
112-50, swept the New York Giants

Williams - .272-27-106
DiMaggio - .304-16-107

1958 -
112-50, again... beat the Reds 4-1

Williams - .291-25-124
DiMaggio - .309-27-117

1959-
113-49, lost the ALCS to the White Sox! They beat the Reds in the W.S. in 6 games.

Williams - .281 - 24 - 109
DiMaggio - .283- 2- 102

Joe D and Splendid Splinter as Devil Rays...the end

2007-03-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

1960-
91-71, finish second to the Yankees who sweep the Pirates in the World Series.

DiMaggio got hurt (ruptured cervical disk) to end his season early, it's the end of a long freaking career. 3794 games!!! (1500+ Ks) and 14 championships with the Devil Rays UNQUESTIONABLE Hall of Famer.

Williams - .271-15-92
DiMaggio -.243-9-41

1961-
the run is over. Devil Rays go a measely 92-70. finish THIRD in the division behind the Yankees and Senators. Yankees beat Dodgers in the World Series 4-2

Williams - .299-15-84

1962-
wheels are falling off the dynasty...team got old and money runs out.
finish 3rd at 77-85, 31 GB the Senators. White Sox beat the Giants in the Series 4-1

Williams - .280-17-82

1963-
75-87 21 GB New York. Yankees beat Dodgers to win the Series 4-1.

Willliams career winds on as Devil Rays dynasty passes and lean years are inevitable. That's good for baseball, people are tired of the Devil Rays winning every year.

Williams .271-24-91

1964-
sad. 60-102, last place in the AL East.
Cubs beat White Sox in 7 game W.S.

Williams .243-19-60

JUST SKIP to HERE

Final Totals

Red Bar is Career totals, blue bars are playoffs for each particular season.

Williams -

DiMaggio-

So as you can see, while Joe D had surprisingly better numbers, Ted Williams played MUCH better in the bigger games. Neither one won an MVP, but they both netted 14 championships!

Also, another thing wrong about the calculations... check Williams' career triples total and hits total (Welcome to the 5,000 hit club, Ted). I think maybe the simulator tries to use triples to correct SLG? Still fun to see that Williams really was a better hitter no matter how you slice it. And clearly the programmers tried to make Joe D way better than he really was anyway.

What does this all mean? That's for you to decide, but one thing is blatently clear. The World would see the Devil Rays in a different manner. And I did this to prove a point. If they actually had THIS history and not the past 10 years they did have, HOW would any of it mean a damn thing THIS YEAR?

Attitudes are going to change!

How will you respond when you the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are good?

St Peterburg Times, going for the Pulitzer!

2007-03-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

St Petersburg Times outs Manny Stiles

No, Manny Stiles is not announcing that he is gay (despite the obvious, overt clues to some, including his wife). St Pete Times beat writer/journalism wunderkind Marc Topkin tells the world that Manny Stiles' real name is "Erik Kombol". He forgot to mention "and hardest working lazy ass in the charity baseball blogger/shameless self-promotion business", but "oh well".

An aside to Topkin's article- a segue I call "Also..."

Also...

I met John Vukovich a few times when I lived in PA and he still holds the record for telling me the 1st, 2nd and fourth funniest jokes I've ever heard. A great guy, a baseball lifer and every time I think of him, I'll be smiling through sadness. Another example of there being waaay too many serious moments in life.

It seems I'm going to be a big Joe Maddon fan. I like his attitude and hardheaded unwillingness to accept negativity. That's a start in the "What do we have in common" category. Why waste energy on negativity when it's so much easier to do nothing and be positive?

Articles to come on "the guy with a disdain for meaningless history"/manager.

Devil Rays Week in Replay

Congrats on surviving a wild first week of Manny Stiles "#2 Devil Rays Fan"

- The Devil Rays have lost every game since I officially came on board. I think it's a good sign of things to come. Get the losses out of the way early. During the regular season, I will add links for box scores, etc. Let me get moved in and decorated first!

- There really hasn't been much bad press about this whole arrangement. I don't care personally what people say about me, but I do like to use it as material for writing. I was anticipating a backlash, jealousy, a-holes calling me out unneccessarily. I was prepared for battle and instead everyone kinda went "meh..."

I can't wait to see the imitators for college football (will blog for tuition) and NFL (will blog for beer) season.

-Other than Dan Shanoff calling Matt Silverman his favorite executive, slobbering over Matt's insightfulness and praising Matt for such genius, then wagging his finger at me and warning me that I owe Matt "the best freaking blog ever"; it's been a feel good deal.

Hey, Mr. Shanoff, the auction winner was already going to get a "Freeking Awesome Blog" anyway - my flavor of 'freek' has 2 times the awesome power of 'e' and none of the inconsequential, apathesthesia and space constraining 'a' of ordinary freaks.

In other words... "duh"

- With Matt Silverman winning the bid. (let's focus here - Matt won, he paid the charity, it's his donation, in his name, not the Club's technically) it really just makes it easier on himself. Basically I was going to blog on behalf of the winning fan's fanship. Dive into their allegiance, study their emotional connection, etc. I think it's fairly easy to dissect Matt's fanship. His perspective is (sorry, regular fans) 694% more interesting than a regular fans. How he does his job depends on it.

Also, If any other Devil Rays fan would have won and made me cover the Devil Rays, I would have HAD to pester him at some point. This way, I can get in touch with him real easily. (even though I'm still going to be pestering him, it's what I do - pester people)

See? The man IS a genius! He even outsmarted me!

The whole story of how it happened will be posted soon enough.

- Don't fret. I'm here ALL season! Even if the times gets tough, despite my superstitions... even if they NEVER win a game, I will be here (actually, if they lose ALL of them, that would be a fantastic feat for "The curse of Manny Stiles" to brag about.)

-Don't assume you know how this season will go. Forget about what was and what never was and what "should have been". Focus on now until what's next gets here. The only thing you can do about the past is change your attitude towards it.

- It's so hard to pick a favorite Devil Ray (every fan has a favorite player, right?). I am a fan of all of them! Carl Crawford is THE most exciting single player in baseball. Scott Kazmir is the Ace. There are TONS of guys on this team to idolize for all kinds of reasons. But this year, Delmon Young is my boy. Tell me one bad thing about him without using the word "bat" and convince me otherwise. Manny's got Delmon's back.

All the other Devil Rays that people got beef with, (BJ Upton, Elijah Dukes, the bullpen) Manny is your fan too! I won't put up with people talking bad about my team. Especially when they don't know what they're talking about... (there's 3 sides to every coin - heads, tails, edge)

-Expect the unexpected and be disappointed otherwise. If you can't be good, at least be safe!

If you're not having fun, what are you having? There's already too many serious moments in life.

101 Reasons the Devil Rays could Win the World Series ("This Year" Edition)

2007-03-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

by user Manny Stiles

The market data shows that people who read blogs are the same people who enjoy reading lists. So, ever one to be market data compatible Manny Stiles presents

101 Reasons the Tampa Bay Devil Rays could Win the World Series ("This Year" edition)...

Let's just say I'm an unrealistical unrelentingly hopeful Rays fan!

ManRay is always cooking something up...Tonight it was a batch of WTF

1. The Yankees (thank God I didn't have to write about them) and Red Sox (I got REALLY lucky I don't have to write about them) are both due to fall apart in the same season.

2. Are you really afraid of the Orioles? (thank God an Orioles fan didn't win the bid, although I'm surprised one of them didn't drive the price up unneccessarily)

3. Have you seen the ridiculous amount of young talent here?

4. A championship trophy would look sweet next to the St Pete's Times' Pulitzer Prize they'll get.

5. The Red Sox suck where the Yankees suck at sucking too suckily.

6. Easy to remember words: Blog Intimidation.

7. Two words: Chuck Norris!

8. On occasion, talent outperforms it's "projected potential"

9. Ten years of bad attitude concretization down the drain.

10. Everything comes together at just the right time for all the right reasons (to prove me right)

11. A group of Devil Rays fans win the biggest lottery ever (at 3.2 billion, it just kept going and going...so go with it) and they build a better bridge between St Pete and Tampa and ALSO paid a guy to fall on Jeter's knee at the ESPYs

12. Ever heard of a "conspiracy"?

13. The baseball gods love lore. Like Game 7 catwalk incidents. Except it only works in theory. Everyone knows Devil Rays would never let a Series go seven games.

14. Fans finally realize that the stadium isn't that bad. It's quirky, yes. But is it bad? No. Everyone suddenly realizes that it IS 90 feet to first base and anywhere that happens, the Rays win. (until the basepaths are shrunk for marketing reasons, then the Rays win more)

15. New rule: Devil Rays get one - two - three - four strikes you're out. (And four outs an inning too)

16. As sad as a trade would make me, a good trade would go a loooong way in the right situation.

17. I'll learn to dabble a little in mass mind control. The American League is a great sample size for hypnotism. This post and it's feeble attempt at humor is making you sleepy...

18. Someone finally wikies up Matt Silverman's wikipedia bio

19. A wizard did it

20. Team Presidents that win bloggers in charity auctions have never NOT won a World Series in that same season!

21. Hulk Hogan learns how stay back on a breaking ball. (and pass a steroid test)

22. Think - every Disney movie about baseball rolled into one!

23. Tom Brady falls onto Derek Jeter's knee at the ESPYs while Calvin Murphy and Alex Rodriguez both get double hernias from laughing. All miss the rest of their season (Murphy, too)

24. Two words and three letters: Carl Crawford M.V.P.

25. This is the first year since 1999 that more than one Devil Ray graces the All-Star game with their presence.

26. Crates of radioactive vegetables wash ashore. (Ever seen Gilligan's Island?)

27. Tampa Bay Devil Rays: First in charity bloggers, first in the AL East.

28. As owner Stu Sternberg rightfully predicted, the Rays WILL win 50 games at home this season (except they screw it up and do it before August ends).

29. Because raising awareness to Fred McGriff's legend is a good thing.

30. A hole is torn into the time-space continuum when pseudo-celebrity blogger Manny Stiles interviews a reporter trying to interview him about his blogging..

31.Because you didn't think of it first.

32. There's a whole staff of pitchers waiting to surprise your so-called intellect.

33. Two words: Scott Kazmir, AL CY Young winner.

34. OK, I can't count words well, I count wins: Scott Kazmir, 20+ wins! (obviously more wins in the playoffs as well)

35. I didn't keep all of this eye of newt and dried leprechaun brains for nothing

36. Because I'm watching Rocky IV on TV right now!

37. Because the baseball gods already had their fun with the St Louis Browns.

38. Switch opponent's greenies for sleeping pills (also leave the lid of the salt shaker very, very loose)

39. A good baseball team in September makes you forget how crappy the Buccaneers are, eh?

40. You didn't think they could, but they sure do find a cure for death. They take Ted Williams' frozen parts, bring him back to life and reattach his head. Then we dig up Babe Ruth and revive him too. Come to find out they both wanted to don a Devil Rays uni all along. Ted DHs at a .409 clip and drives in 145, while Babe throws 3 no-hitters, beats Kobiyashi on July 4th at Nathan's on Coney Island, while winning 25 games on the mound and comes second in Cy Young voting to Scott Kazmir (with THIS outfield, we don't need dead Ruth to hit!)

41. Same scenario as above, but we didn't find a cure to death, Williams and Ruth are just zombies who feast on and gain power from the immense brains of smartypants front office personnel.

42. Because baseball games are played on FieldTurf II, not excel spreadsheets.

43. Because October in Florida, winning and baseball all jammed together isn't such a bad idea.

44. Because the last nine years were just a set up. Ha-ha! Got you right where we want you, suckers!!!

45. You can't win 5 World Series' in the next five years if you don't win the first one this year.

46. Because things that make the masses shrug their shoulders and say "go figure" need to happen more anyway.

47. Because after my Phoenix Suns win the Larry O'Brien, I'm gonna need the rush of sweet victory for my beloved franchises to keep rollin'...

48. Roger Clemens signs with the Red Sox but never plays a game because he gets injured walking into the clubhouse at the same time as Curt Schilling tries to leave. Their immense heads get stuck in the doorway and Fenway Park has to be disassembled. ('bout time! Yeah I said it). Schilling's blog gets offended and applies for free agency..

49.What? Say what, say what? Anything can happen.

50. Money in a big sack with a "$" on it shows up for the umpiring crew before every series

51. Fifty Devil Rays posts is a "starting point", Post Season game coverage is free.

52 Because the champagne hangover always hurts worse but feels better than the hangover caused by drinking my bullpen woes away, which lasts forever!

53. We go undefeated in domes in 2007, 'Nuff said.

54. Bottle in a brown sack with a "XXX" on it shows up for the umpiring crew before every inning

55. Weirder things have happened.

56. Bugs Bunny signed as a free agent to play all 9 positions. If that fails, scientific evidence proves that rabbit feet are lucky (How does Nike not have a deal done with Warner Brothers already?)

57. Roofies in the opponent's Gatorade always worked well for me.

58. Turns out that You were wrong.

59. Just to catch Vegas off-guard

60. If the name is changing, let's "Win one for the Devil"

61. The odds are better than winning the lottery (and people do that all the time)

62. A whole bunch of guys turn the corner all at the same time.

63. Two words: Hanging Chads

64. Two more words: Hanging Curve Balls (They have 'em and we don't)

65. Lots and lots of new legislature regarding baseball games passed REALLY quickly.

66. Didn't you hear? There's 13 Wild Cards in the American League this year (Yes, I said 13. You gotta make SURE)

67. Anything the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can do, we can do better!

68. Anything the Tampa Bay Lightning can do, we can do better! (and not cause the game to stop playing for over a year to recover)

69. The world needs more signs that it is truly indeed the end times.

70. Every time they hear the words "Go Devil Rays!" they actually go!

71. All games at the Trop declared forfeit victory for home team (Rays go 78-3 in home games, losing only to the Rangers in May)

72. "Because I said so!" (I am a Daddy afterall)

73. Basepaths shortened to accomodate SpiderMan 3 the Movie advertising on basepaths. Carl Crawford proceeds to steal over 300 bases, passes Go! and collects $200 each time!.

74. Maybe every Official Scorer will *wink, wink* forget to keep score for Rays opponents.

75. Voodoo. Jobu takes the bait, Rays reap the rings. It's just that easy.

76. George Steinbrenner's senility gets the best of him when he trades the only good players he has to the Devil Rays because he "spends an awful lot of time in Florida anyway..."

77. I have an idea for a book if they win it all. Hopefully it won't contain many lists as crappy as this one.

78. The better question is: What did I do with those 'other' two wishes that Genie gave me?

79. "Worst to First" has happened before several times. 71 wins is nice to make a franchise record, .500 is intriguing, but why stop there?

80. The Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Yankees (who all suck) are just good enough to beat each other equally as bad because they (all suck in general and) suck at beating any of the other sucky teams.

81. B.J. Upton finally gets a chance to just "play" baseball.

82. Ever heard of "bribes"?

83. Lots of post-concussion syndrome where it matters most.

84. Then we could chant "1983", "1993", "Year 2000" AND "2004" to division foes like the smarmy champs we will be

85. World Series winner decided by a game of basketball.

86. It would really screw things up for conventional thought.

87. Come on,,if the "Idiot" Red Sox can do it, ANYONE can!

88. After this season Delmon Young will be known best for how he handles a bat. And second best for being my #1 favorite Devil Ray to root for.

89. Fixing scores suddenly en vogue again. The old black is the new black again.
90. Joe Maddon: Manager of the Year (and his lucky underwear that he never washed - beats a bloody sock, eh?))

91. Because the Devil Rays have the best, most gracious, realistic fans in baseball (see? I ruin everything!), not a bunch of fluff loving barely-keeper-up-with-ers, but REAL baseball fans (at least the Devil Rays fans I've met are so far).

92. There's always prayers to be said, witchcraft to be practiced (Practice? Practice), letters to Santa to be written, wishing wells to have rare coin collections tossed into them, worry beads to be rubbed, goats to be sacrificed, 4 leaf clovers to be discovered, sidewalk cracks to be avoided, good to be lucked, effagies of Derek Jeter to be made, prodded and possibly burned.... all KINDS of stuff!

93. There's no way you can convince me that they were REALLY that bad last year. (I'm serious on this one)

94. Is the A.L. really that stacked? Come on... really?

95. Plain, old "Shit luck" as opposed to the standard "Shitty Luck"

96. Two words: Health

97. All non-Devil Ray players get suspended for weapons of mass construction, I mean performance enhancement drugs.

98. We're not the Cubs, remember? (Hey, Lou!)

99. St. Louis Cardinals proved last year that you don't need 100+ wins to win the World Series.

100. Did I mention the likelihood of magic? Over the course of 162 games, that starts to add up!

101. if the Rays truly believe that they will win, and they play their best and let all the cliches cliche themselves, nothing will stop them..

There you have it. 101 of the manny more reasons why the Devil Rays really could win the World Series this year. Hey, some team has to!

Enjoy visiting, still under construction

2007-03-07T22:30:00.000-08:00

Wear a hard hat and feel free to check out the/any progress!

What's in a Name? (Mar 7, 2007)

2007-03-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Original post HERE

by user Manny Stiles

---What's in a Name? Manny Stiles---

Manny Stiles is a character. A guy with a full time job as a stockbroker (and it IS the most wonderful, busiest time of the year, Tax Season!). A dedicated husband and father of two. A collector of hobbies. A ear-blistering recording artist/musician. An ordained minister who conducts pet funerals. A champion fire-roasted salsa maker and champion pumpkin pie eater. A prankster, a wankster, but not a wannabe gangster.

But deep underneath the schizophrenic facade is a writer at heart, at mind, at soul. A journalist by definition. Meaning: a person who journals. Meaning: not a surly guy with a mustard stain on his shirt that hates his life, has a deadline, a guy that HAS to journal as a "profession". No, this is a guy that has to write as therapy, as expression of creativity, as leisurely exercise... as **gasp!** "fun"!

No more ManWags, it's "ManRay" (not to be confused with Man Ray nor the evil Man Ray from SpongeBob SquarePants)

What do you get with Manny Stiles? Fun. If you're not having fun, what are you having? And also, you get a plethora of many styles. Volumious wiles, in fact!
Don't get me wrong. I'm still half tempted to hang a "Will Write for Food/Kids Shoes/Mortgage Payments" sign around my neck. I wanna get paid, just like every other fool with a dream and a passion for "MORE!" I'm doing this writing thing as a part-time part-time gig, you know... but for a second best option to a shot of Vitamin M in the greasy palms; Hell, this is my resume! Proceeds to charity makes it feel pretty good too.

Manny Stiles wants to bring you along on "the Journey". A twisting tale of fate and glory. A Major League journey through the veil of success and victory and into the depths of humanity and reality. Meet the players, peer within the franchise. Follow as the #2 Tampa Bay Devil Rays fanatic roots on his new favorite MLB team! Bask in the Rays of Hope.

---What's in a Name? Tampa Bay Devil Rays ---

Maybe I'm too close, maybe I'm too far away. Maybe I just think I know what's going on and there's a rational, logical explanation to this...There's been some talk about the franchise dropping the "Devil" from the moniker and naming themselves the Tampa Bay Rays.

Maybe "Devil" has a bad connotation with some. To me, a devil ray is a colloquialism for a manta ray, the largest of the rays. I know there's a heavy religion influence in Florida, but they're not the "Tampa Bay Satan Rays", after all... Rays are a fish, in case you didn't know, never thought about it or are a Miami Dolphins fan (Dolphins are Mammals, stop calling them fish). Quite fascinating fish at that! Related to the family of sharks, Devil Rays get their nickname from the "horns" on their head, their forked, pointy tails and their ability to cast spells of dreaded, everlasting evil. Ok, I made that part up; they don't have forked, pointy tails.

The other connotation I think of is the "Devil" card in the tarot deck. The "Devil" card "is the card of self-bondage to an idea or belief which is preventing us from growing" The Devil card conjures images of materialism, stagnation and self-bondage. WHAT would that have to do with this baseball team?
If I were running a baseball team and I wanted to loosen some "self-bondage", escape the chains of the past and move into a new, prosperous future maybe I would change the franchise's name to stir it up a bit. That gets people talking about my franchise. (Sometimes I think half of business is just talking about it.) Not only would I change the name, but I'd stir up "controversy" doing it.

I'm sitting in my fancy office in my mind somewhere in Sunny Florida sipping on a Pepsi product (some Tropicana orange juice, for instance) and I'm thinking about those summanahs in Miami hogging up the name Florida all to themselves. How DARE they?!?! Marlins, pfft! Such a boring fish compared to a ray!!!

And we're a team that encompasses an area, Tampa Bay. Hmmm... Dammit, it's such a diverse, expanding area. But we don't play baseball games in the bay itself, but on dry land afterall. The rhyming of "Bay" to "Ray" is cute and all, but as long as Jason Bay is a Pirate and Ray Durham is a whatever team he's on this year, there's not much to capitalize on. Calling ourselves the Western Florida Devil Rays is interesting but sounds too much like a minor league team (such as the former Western Michigan Devil Rays) and "Florida" just says it all!

And we don't want to leave out the fact that our roots are in the Tampa Bay Area... soooo... Florida Devil Rays of Tampa Bay Area... hmmm. it... just... doesn't... sound ... quite... right... yet.

We gotta represent. The stadium is in St Peterburg, we can stay true to the roots and still express exactly what's going on here. The team is up, it's coming and deal with it... ladies, gentlemen and all others, I proudly present to you...

The Florida Devil Rays of St Petersburg of Tampa Bay Area Baseball Club

Sure the Anaheim Angels of Orange County, California, Western Hemisphere did this first, but we'll do it better!!!

So the name is getting changed. (Or at least I'm on the job, working on it...) But I'm keeping the "Devil" part of the "Rays". Don't throw away history on a superstitious whim, P.C. marketing or special interest group's irrational fear. Let the other teams fear us, keep the "edge"... Honor the fine aquatic ray. He's the "Eagle of the Seas"... or at least the "Kite of the Seas" and if you know anything about kitefighting, you know a kite can mean serious business!!!

Come on! (Here comes the obligatory "Yankee Bash of the Day" - brought to you by ArmchairGM.com) In a division with the Yankees, how can "Devil" really be so bad? So Florida Devil Rays of St. Petersburg of Tampa Bay Area it is!!!

So start the countdown til the buzz dies down then I can start my next name change, to the "'Gulf of Mexico Devil Rays of St Petersburg, Florida ot the Western Florida/Tampa Bay Area, Phoenix, Arizona and All Points Beyond Baseball Team."

If we get rid of the "Devil" part, why not just call ourselves the "Tampa Manatees", jeez!

---What's in a Name? AIDS ---

What does a word make you feel? AIDS. It's a cold steel-like word. It rings like a death sentence. It is realer than real. It is heartless and empty. It changes your ease, your comfort, even your blood pressure. People don't like to talk about it. People let an acronym that became a word, "AIDS" drive them to fear, to judgement, to embarassment; driven to silence.

The fact that people can't talk about a disease is what led me to do this. When my brother died from AIDS it wasn't mentioned. It was swept under the rug. Out of embarassment, out of a lack of understanding, out of fear. I fear that the day we can't talk about something is the day we cannot move forward. Silence solves very few issues.

The auction benefits the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation. I want people to understand there IS more to AIDS than social, religious or political matters involved with this disease. It IS a disease caused by a virus that kills MILLIONS of people every year. We need to have more understanding. If "knowing is half the battle" then understanding is what writes history books. We need to fight our fears and grow our understanding, not grow our fears and fight our understanding. There's no reason we can't treat AIDS like we treated smallpox and just get rid of it. it's a stupid disease that needs to go away. No one should have to suffer from AIDS ever again. Especially not children.

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation assists with research, education and treatment of patients world wide. They are a well run foundation with a great reputation (as opposed, sadly to many other AIDS foundations which seem to come and go like real estate scams). I feel that AIDS should be no more of a death sentence than life itself. Imagine the doors that will be opened for medical advancement, imagine the understanding of the human immune system we will have, imagine the social advances that will be made when we cure AIDS once and for all!

We shouldn't feel "fear" in a word like AIDS, we should feel "victory".

---What's in a Name? Matt Silverman ---

Matthew Silverman is the name of the winning bidder and guy responsible for making me the World's #2 Florida Devil Rays of St. Peterburg of Tampa Bay Area Baseball Club fan. He's the #1 fan for a simple reason. You REALLY love your team if you go out on a risky limb, be a forward thinker or just have an eye for unique talents (I suppose it's possible) to "force" a whackjob blogger like Manny Stiles to cover your team, eh?

Matt Silverman is a pretty smart guy for a guy with a Harvard Economics background. He's a pretty smart guy who is no slouch as a fan, knows the roster inside and out. He even enjoys writing (a "guest appearance" for an article?) and running. So he has a special interest in the Devil Rays' doing well.

Lucky for me, Matt knows some people within the organization and has offered to "pull some strings" for me to access the club, it's inner workings and details from unique angle a writer like Manny Stiles, hell, ANY writer can only DREAM of having the opportunity to explore! Word has it team owner Stuart Sternberg even enjoys an occasional Manny Stiles post! (can't hold it against a guy for enjoying a little quality sports banter). Matt even says he could possibly "get me a deal" on some Devil Ray logoed merchandise! Sweet!

With Matt's help and other various devices, Manny Stiles will explore the fans, the players. the franchise and all of it's elements to get you a rare glimpse of the #2 fan's team. From the highest level overview to the strangest imaginable topics as "What are the 10 favorite movies of the groundskeeping staff", "How messy is Matt's desk?" or "101 Valid Reasons the Devil Rays Could Win the World Series ('this year' edition)"

Matt and myself have a lot in common, go figure. We both have the first name Matthew (I know, shocking! Manny is my "stage name" and your dreams were shattered as I pulled back the curtain for a moment), we are both familiar with the finance business to varying degrees (he rolled up the sleeves, merging and acquiring at Goldman Sachs; I'm a stockbroker for a large, hereby-unnamed conservative and blogger-leery Mutual Fund company), we both lost a relative to AIDS and (now) we both love the Devil Rays.

Matt won the bid of $535 to charity to have me cover his team for the year and also donated an extra $1000 on top of the bid to go to the charity as well.

---What's in a Name? the Future---

I'm still coming up with a name for the "home blog" even though the articles will run on ArmchairGM.com as well. Watch out traditional journalists of Western Florida... Dr Commento is coming! I'll have a traditional blog as a home base for "All Things Devil Ray" as well as other nonsense, tomfoolery and fun soon enough.

I've got a few ideas for a name including... "Unbelieveably Hopeful Devil Rays Fanblog", "I Cantu, So Should You", "Raving Silverman", "Crazy Devil Raysy " or "Florida Devil Rays of St Petersburg of Tampa Bay Area Baseball Team #2 Fan's fanblog" eh? eh?

Did I mention Matt Silverman is also the Team President of the Devil Rays?
So spread the news, make quality jokes only (funny is funny, but tired and poorly contrived jokes will get you nowhere), call your local radio station, do what you gotta do... Just prepare yourselves adequately - 50 Devil Ray loving articles are coming your way! Enjoy the Journey!

Go Devil Rays!

Manny Stiles' Hitting Practice

2007-03-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

With Special Guest Star!!!

Manny Stiles interviewed on "Holder Tonight"

2007-03-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

Manny Stiles was interviewed on "Holder Tonight" a radio show on CJAD 800 AM in Montreal by host Peter Anthony Holder. Here is the audio with an accompanying (and slightly offensive at times) presentation of that event.

Note - Watch as Manny sets a World Record for Most "Uh's" said by a Charity Blogger in one radio interview.

The segment was originally two parts long, but due to some intracacies with YouTube, I had to split each half in half (Ignore the 7 minute countdown, they're all around 5 minutes each... Enjoy!

Part 1 of 4

Part 2 of 4

Part 3 of 4

Part 4 of 4

Devil Rays Universe

2007-03-07T21:22:00.000-08:00

Devil Rays Universe!!!

Let the Yankees have their "Empire".

Go on with your bad selves, Red Sox "Nation".

This is the "Devil Rays Universe"

Coming Soon!

Meet Manny Stiles - Tampa Bay Devil Rays Fan!!!

2007-03-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

Original Post HERE.

by user Manny Stiles

"I know I'm crazy so therefore I must not be insane" - an unidentified voice inside my head once said.

An insane "fanatic", an irrationally hopeful being with eyes set on pennant flagged trophies with dreams of March's prayers answered by October, desparately unbending from realizing the dream...to watch MY team take home the crown, to win it all. 'Insane', 'Irrational' and Desparate'? Yeah, I can be that! Easily! How do I sign up?

I was gonna swear them off after Steve Irwin's death, but I'm a Devil Rays fan!I told you it was coming…kinda. Even **hinted** at it again… I warmed you up to the idea that Manny Stiles could be a charitable fellow…

I knew this was how this had to happen. I wasn't becoming a fan without some illogical persuasion. I couldn't just 'pick' a team. I almost became a Colorado Rockies fan just because if you spell Saint Louis correctly, 4 of the 5 teams that never appeared in a World Series are 4 of the last 5 teams when listed alphabetically (and only if you spell Saint Louis correctly). Colorado was the "other" team. I wanted the Rockies to win a World Series and the Toronto Blue Jays to move to a town alphabetically prior to Seattle (Portland or Las Vegas perhaps?) so then… bwaa haaa haaaah!!! I could have the perfectly trivial trivia question:

"In alphabetical order, list the 4 teams to never win the world series. Again, in alphabetical order!"
(again; this assumes Colorado won a World Series, okay... I'll wait for you to compose yourself again.... and then imagine Toronto moved to Albuquerque to be called the Isotopes, of course - sidebar alert! sidebar alert! Simpsons movie coming this Summer!!)

Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals. That would be the answer, the last four teams alphabetically are 4 of the last five to GO to a World Series.

There was a bid from a Seattle radio show host who tried to pool his listeners to have me follow the Mariners that fell short. Manny was on a radio station in Montreal in which the Montreal native host stated emphatically that the "Washington Nationals are dead to me". The deadspin.com article thrust the Devil Rays into it, hell even I mentioned the Devil Rays in the ebay auction (maybe I already was on my way to Devil Ray fanship!).

So naturally, I thought a Texas Rangers bid would come out of nowhere for sure. And where was the logical Diamondback buzz around my local valley? Barely a peep! (Maybe they know me too well already?) Maybe they don't have a clue!

It's just a Manny Stiles stunt show! Or is it more?

Manny Stiles likes when new teams mess it up... (“it”, being tradition). "GO!!!! new teams!!!" is a staple in the Manny Stiles realm.

No, we can't live in a world where franchises relocate to make some whackjob's trivia dreams come true (Psst... San Francisco Giants... you wanna move to Pittsburgh for me?)... dammit

So instead we live in a logical realm where ebay can serve as a human paradox ‘’or’’ a loudspeaker; where we can take ideas and make like hammers with them, building and constructing fantastic realities OR we can take ideas and make like hammers and bash ourselves in the friggin' heads (can I say "friggin'" on this station?). Devil Rays? Oh, what have I done?

So you know the story, I sold my soul to the Devil Rays for charity. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, or www.pedaids.org all over my oldest brother. Well, my second oldest brother lives in Tampa, Florida and has actually been to a few Devil Rays games, so he'll be my insider from the local angle. Although, he is a Yankees fan. (But he doesn't have/use a computer so I can say all kinds of bad stuff about him and tell him it's good) And my other brother that wants nothing to do with ANY of this is a Toronto Blue Jays fan. Anyone have an Orioles fan I can taunt and harass?

I haven't really been contacted by the auction winner, not really sure who won, nor have I really contacted them to review the terms. I am writing 50 (fifty) articles about the team of highest bid (this one not included) and I haven't decided on the name for the blog. I'm leaning to "Cosmic Rays" or "Unrealistically Hopeful Devil Rays Fanblog".

If it is indeed the Tampa Bay Devil Rays I have to fanaticize and cover (thanks, deadspin.com for putting ideas into people's heads...) I welcome the opportunity!

Hell, 50 articles about the Devil Rays is one per victory, right?

Not anymore, you sons a...! The Devil Rays have a real fan now! Manny Stiles will unleash the journalistic fury upon the impending 2007 AL East Champion Tampa Bay Dev… screw it. I can’t do it….

It’s just not right…I mean AL East winners… ahhh... who would fall for that crap?

2007 AL Champion Tampa Bay Devil Rays!!!
You heard it here first! If you don’t think a team that’s only once topped 69 wins in a season can’t win their way to become the...

2007 World Series Champion Tampa Bay Devil Rays!!!
Wait, wait… let me get a grip. (Inhales deeply)

75 Wins HERE WE COME!!! One step at a time. In early August when they wrap the 75th win up, then we'll get to talking bigger, better, more!

You've heard the jokes, you've told the jokes, I'm gonna tell you more, I'm sure. It'd HAVE to be for charity to be a Devil Rays fan, right? But this is NOT the Los Angeles Clippers, the most pathetic sub-franchise in the history of sports (as I learned earlier this month firsthand); this is not a sad sack, talentless bag of Major League pus. This is not a AAAA baseball team, this is the team with Manny Stiles as the #2 fan (the #1 fan would be the winning bidder of course)!!!

Join Manny Stiles on "the Journey".

This is TRUE fanship, I'm not faking my "Yeah"s and "Woo"s! And I don't "Boo!". I think booing your favorite team is akin to calling your girlfriend ugly. That's just how I roll.

ArmchairGM.com (in a really cool radio voice “All Sports, All You”) users are already sick of my isht and shenanigans, but I promise to make Devil Ray fanship fun for them too! Yankees fans AND Red Sox fans will fear the sting of the #2 Ray fan. Run and hide O’s fans, and Blue Jays fans… I would rip on you too, but why?

That’s right! Get all the AL East angles you can’t handle!!!

The characters
Meet Manny Stiles, a.k.a. "Dr Commento", perfect to be a Devil Rays fan. -

"Blah, blah, blah... all I ever do is yap, yap, yap. I love me talk about myself blah blah blah" - any surmised version of any Manny Stiles quote.
Meet Manny’s unnamed brother, a.k.a. “Unnamed Source”, Tampa resident/inside informer/Yankee fan –

“They need pitching. All they have is Kazmir.” Unnamed Source said. “What about Micelli?” Stiles retorted. “You heard me.” Said Unnamed Source.
Meet Jamie Strange, Manny’s friend/Philly Attitude Adjustment/Throwback Jersey Specialist –

“Jamie, if you could have any Tampa Bay Devil Ray throwback jersey, which would it be?” Manny asked.
Jamie paused a moment “They didn’t have nobody” he finally responded apathetically.
Meet Sports Shaman, Manny’s friend/spirit guide/metaphysician –

“’Devil’ ‘Rays’ induce visions of cosmic flow and beams of positive/negative energy flow. A new begining.” stated Sports Shaman.
Meet Mrs. Stiles, Manny’s lifelove/wife/putterupwithmeer –

“I don’t want anything to do with this. Good night.”
Meet The Players,

the guys playing for the name on the front, not the name on the back.
Meet the inhabitants of my aquarium

as I name each of my baby cichlids after Devil Rays players, because they’re fish (like a ray), by the All-Star break you'll know MORE about the Devil Rays players than you do about my fish (you know about the same now, don't lie) and because that’s how crazy a fan I am.
Watch as I make an all-time list of Ray’s, such as my father-in-law, Ray… who calls me “Media Whore”, whether we review great Rachel Ray recipes for pregame feasts or we relive the magic that mere mortals call Ray Walston... it will be Rays galore!

Martha Ray

Ray Charles

Ray-Ray

Ray Guy

Michael Ray Richardson

Johnny Ray

Ray Chapman, rest his knotted head.

50 articles of non-sensical eratica. Stories, interviews, fictional mellodrama, non-hurtful rumors, rumors of puppet shows, soothsaying, rabblerousing, poetry (yes, I said poetry), all-time lists (people love blogger's lists, right? The metrics show that the target groups love 'em!) and you can bet your sweet ass there'll be anagrams galore!

We'll study the enchanted, encompassing history of the franchise, it's plethora of top notch players, it's AL East Divisional dominance, it's World-Class sporting arena, what could have beens and what should never bes, and see something new about the TBDRs all the time, for sure!

Here I am, I am proud to say that (as long as the transaction flows through as expected and assumed, without a hitch delays or unneccessary legalities)

I am proud to exhibit the fan box!

I am a Tampa Bay Devil Rays Fan!

EBAY Charity Auction Status Report

2007-02-26T21:54:00.000-08:00

From MySpace Blog Post:

Current mood: definitely other
Category: definitely other Blogging

So far, there's been over 2000 hits and bids over $450!!!

I've been contacted by a couple of media outlets and have sent e-mail communications on my own to just about every media/journalism personality I respect and/or enjoy (as well as anyone else's address I could locate)

So far the response around the internet has ranged from curiosity to "that's interesting" to "it's for a good cause".

But, it seems there are a few points I need to clarify:

1. "Sounds like crap to me! Doesn't have a favorite team? That's IMPOSSIBLE!"

Yes, it's true. I have never really had a "favorite" team. I really just love baseball. As a youth I pursued the dream of playing professionally and probably would have come a lot closer if I would have had my wacky head screwed on straight, or had someone around me to keep me in line (no easy task, for sure).

As I pursued the dream of playing professionally I had decided (quite easily) that I wanted to play for whatever organization wanted me to play for them. It didn't matter to me if I played for my "hometown team" or the team with the prettiest colors. I wanted to play baseball for the color green in any town - and I could easily move to do it.

I went to college for Sports Administration in hopes of being a General Manager of a baseball team one day. Which one? I didn't care! I could make the team my own...

Alas, I never did play or General Manage professionally (so don't look for me on Baseball-Reference.com, unless you want to read the interview of the founder) http://www.armchairgm.com/mwiki/index.php?title=EXCLUSIVE_interview_with_Baseball-Reference.com_Founder

So simply enough, I have liked many organizations over the years, and more specifically many players. I was a huge baseball card collector and focused the majority of my obsession on collecting Wally Joyner cards in 1986 and '87 even to the point I considered myself a California Angels fan. And by "fan" I mean I bought a nice Angels T-shirt.

By 1991, I turned my attention from card collecting to girls, sold most of my baseball cards (not my Joyners) stopped collecting altogether and bought/fixed up my first car (a bad-assed, babe magnet Chevette... OK, maybe "bad-assed, babe magnet" is not the word I'm looking for) with the proceeds. When Joyner left the Angels in 1992 for the Royals I bought a Royals hat which was stolen a week later and that was that for my "fanship".

Since then the only team in Sports I have dedicated myself to has been the Phoenix Suns (they don't play baseball or at least not very well, I'd suspect) especially when Amare got drafted and started to develop. Then I went all-in when Mike D'Antoni became head coach and made the Suns the funnest team in sports to watch..

Now, I did try to collect fitted MLB baseball hats during the mid 90's; even had about 20 different teams at one point, but the hats I chose were based on the appeal of the logo or I liked a particular player on that team. Maybe it was just a fashion choice based on color coordination. Most times, I just bought hats that would fit my 7 3/4 inch noggin!

2. "Stiles says he doesn't care which team he writes about...yeah, right!"

When I play baseball video games I have such a tough time deciding which team I will play with that I close my eyes, push the buttons and select randomly which team I will use. Some games I have played so many times that I used EVERY franchise at one point or another. I truly, honestly could cover any team and be perfectly fine with it (Yes, even though I am a self-proclaimed Yankee Basher, I could easily write about the Yankees and LOVE it)

Since I've had kids, I don't really play many video games anymore.

3. "There seems to be a little confusion about what kind of articles Stiles will be writing about his new team."

Short answer - I don't know yet!

Short, but longer than the first short answer - I don't know because WHO will win the bid and WHO will their team choice be? It won't be traditional news coverage, I don't care much for gossip/innuendo (unless it's blatently preposterous or if I started it) and it won't be boring. I have one main credo in life - "if you're not having fun, what are you having?" I aim to make it fun.

I will use creativity, imagination, even blatent childishness, oddities and trivialities, weirdness, Simpsons references ad nauseum, sarcasm (what does that mean anymore?) and random stuff you just simply won't get from anyone else.

Ultimately, if you're the auction winner, I'm writing the blog primarily for the two biggest fans of your team - Myself and YOU!!! As winner, you will be a PART of this effort, not just a bystander! ALL THIS and you don't have to do anything other than outbid everyone else and make your **tax-deductible** (may not apply in ALL situations - "I am NOT a tax professional") charitable contribution to a non-profit organization to help benefit children with AIDS as well as funding research, education and treatment.

AGAIN, this contribution will be in YOUR name, not mine!

I'll stir in persistance, audacity, shenaningans, tomfoolery and perhaps even a smudgeon of journalistic credibility to accomplish the task.

Keep in mind - as myopic and crazed as a fanatic I might become (I might set my thermostat to gametime conditions or even get a tattoo), it WON'T prevent me from speaking my mind or commenting on the glaring truths and perceptions I might attain. So while I may be a blithering fool of a fan with disproportionate hopes and dreams I won't be a slobbering, love-fest, candycoating, info-regurgitating idiot either!

D. "Stiles already writes a bunch of self-depricating garbage on ArmchairGM.com with relatively little topical focus.He's all over the place!"

I wanted to cover baseball this year from an angle DIFFERENT than a general league overview. It's too much to try to cover 30 teams without just plain generalizing. If I focus on one baseball team this year, with a megamyopic, diehard fan's focus, I can continue to write about all the other garbage I write about already! Up for a little Noodling, anyone? (the name Manny Stiles is supposed to imply I will write about MORE than just one topic)

5. "Fifty articles is a TON!"

Actually, no it isn't. It's 6 articles a month over the course of a season... Among my 'manny' talents is the ability to talk incessantly. I don't suffer from writer's block - in fact I suffer from not having enough time to write all that I want to! I'm sure many people consider me a chronic sufferer of editor's block!

6. "OK, I see through the charitible cause; I know this is a 'scam' of sorts."

No, and Yes! It's not a scam because I really do want to write (right) a wrong. I am still pissed about how my brother's passing (and life for that matter) was handled. I HAD to do something. Nothing against the fine people at the American Cancer Society, but they shouldn't have recieved donations in my brother's memory since he died from AIDS. So the Libra in me wants to balance the scales, if you will... or tip them heavily in favor of AIDS research.

I absolutely LOVE to talk about things that make people uncomfortable. If you embrace your fears, most times you learn to unbind the strings of ignorance. I want to have people discuss AIDS instead of shunning it. I strongly feel this way.

And of course, it IS a "scam"! Although "scheme" would seem more politically correct. I'm not a politician so "scam" it is!!! I want to eventually get paid as a writer and (NOTE - if you're associated with my current employer, please skip ahead and go to point #VII) leave my job as a stockbroker. Nice job that it is and all, but I hate the chipping away my soul to sit at a desk and make people more money than I'll ever make for myself. I have ridden the safe, comfortable route long enough. I get 10,000 times the amount of joy over hitting the "post" button after writing an article than ANYTHING I do at "work".

I want to live off of my hyperness, creativity and imagination. I've acted like a guy working for a financial institution long enough, and still haven't recieved that Oscar I've earned... I want to work for my enjoyment.Yes, I live outside the proverbial "box", didn't go to school for journalism, I make up my own freeky confustications and tend to say things to purposely frustrate, confuse and generally piss people off with inflamatory remarks just for fun and I tend to use punctuation incorrectly!!!, create run-on sentences like it's my purpose in life and have a general dislike for abiding to what the rules of grammar are or where my prepositions end up at. Consider the 50 articles part of my resume!

VII - "It's all about Manny, what an egotistical prick he is! He just wants attention on himself."

It's true, it's all horribly true!!! I talk about myself alot - but in this case, it helps explain some things... I have a strong personality and it brushes some people wrong to begin with (especially without a good sarcasm font) until they get to know me. But my angle IS me. It's the only angle I know and I know it well! Truth is, I am a complexly simple character. The shamelessly irrepressible ego is there, but I am very grounded in reality. Actually it works like this, I am a giver. I truly care about people. I want them to have fun like I do! Because I like me so much, I want to share me with you!!!

Now... I am a self-admitted "whack job". I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies, I delight from ADHD (as opposed to "suffering") and I talk about myself not only in the first, second and third person I also talk about myself in the plural... because that's what it's like inside my head!

Read through my work, I make it clear. I don't see the world in the same light as everyone else. I was born a contrarian and it has served me well, now I want to be contrary to my contrarian baseball fanship tendencies, all while benefitting LOTS of people... my dreamy, lofty, hopefully prospective writing career, www.ArmchairGM.com - "All Sports, All You" (who gave me a legitimate reading audience - psst... ANYONE can join that site), to Dave Pinto at www.BaseballMusings.com who picked up on this early on and helped kick start the bidding, to www.Deadspin.com, who called me "one blogger (and a good one at that)" - that was touching! Also to Dayn Perry who jumped in with an autographed copy of his book Winners to HELP the ultimate cause - www.PedAIDS.com

Finally - "How is Manny going to top this?"

I guess we'll just have to wait and see!!!

Seriously, if you have ANY questions - e-mail me mannystiles@aol.com

I'll be a fan of YOUR MLB team for CHARITY

2007-02-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

My name is Manny Stiles. Amongst my "manny" pursuits, I am a pseudo-celebrity sports blogger. I am offering to highest bidder: For the Major League Baseball Team of YOUR choice, I will give my complete fanship including Manny Stiles' unique journalistic coverage on a blog and also featured on sports-wiki site ArmchairGM.com.

I will write 50 articles throughout the season covering the team of your choice from the end of this Auction until Nov 1st. 99% of the proceeds will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation , the other 1% will go to a logo emblazoned item for my personal use to PROVE my dedication as a fan of my new team!

From one of my archives - Here is a sample of the writing "stiles" you can semi-imagine will come forth.

WHY would I do this? I am tired of people making fun of me for not having a favorite team. They call me "Bandwagon jumper", "ManWagon", or even "ManWags" for short. I have liked a bunch of different teams through the years, but have never had my "own" baseball team to follow for a whole season. The truth is, I root for baseball! I root for almost every team at one point or another (if the Yankees played a team of Aliens in a game for Earth's freedom, then I might even root for the Yankees, too). I want to follow a team for the whole season, cover them journalistically in my own unique, quirky manners and if they win the World Series, I'll get a tattoo of their logo (just kidding, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities). I just needed a very random way of picking the team to follow!

ALL Major League Baseball teams are eligible (Yes, even the Royals, Devil Rays or *gulp* the Yankees). I will present an average of over 6 articles a month concerning the team of choice through the entire season. Meaty articles with wit, irony, blatent subliminal sarcasm and shenanigans galore!!! I will try my best to get interviews, the freshest of the fresh material and inside information. Who knows what could happen this season? I want to stretch my capabilities as a writer, creative artist and enjoy true fanship for a sure-to-be magical baseball season!

In reality, I am doing this for personal reasons. Long, stupid story short- My brother died due to complications of AIDS in September and yesterday (Feb 22nd) would have been his birthday. I did not find out he even had AIDS until he was already buried. His death and funeral was under pretenses that he had died from lymphoma. Requests were made that donations were to benefit the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers, etc. People in my family were so ashamed that my brother had AIDS, they kept it a secret. It absolutely astonishes me that (then in 2006) we could not "talk" about someone having a disease like AIDS. I fear that if we cannot "talk" about a disease like AIDS, HOW will we ever overcome it?

I chose to benefit PedAIDS.org as the recipient charity because of their reputability. They are easy to deal with and have been very helpful with this charity auction. But also because my brother liked kids, I like kids and kids don't typically acquire AIDS through their own dangerous lifestyle choices. People can't make judgements about innocent children like that. It seems that many people carry a stigma with how AIDS can be acquired, so they don't talk about such means as homosexuality or needle drug usage. As the case with my brother who was NOT a wholesome person, definitely one who was at high risk and not to be confused with a saint... but no matter who or how or why; how can we make progress on topics we don't discuss? There is one topic that needs to be addressed - AIDS is a disease that NEEDS to go away.

More at www.myspace.com/mannystiles and HERE on ArmchairGM

Contact me with any questions at MannyStiles@aol.com

10 things I like about Derek Jeter

2006-07-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

by user Manny Stiles

10 things I like about Derek Jeter:

1. He's a nice enough guy, I guess... I mean he might boot a few balls here or there but he's not kicking puppies or babies, right? Then again, they did kill a cow to make his glove...

2. Did he break up with Mariah Carey? Or did she break up with him? Either way, we're all better off for it...breaking up with Mimi also proves he's not gay.

3. He makes it easy to tell who lacks discernable sports knowledge - look for the people who wear his jersey (not including himself - he seems to have a fair amount of sports knowledge) and the obligatory mustard stain on the front...

4. Even though he's his team's second best shortstop, he knows Alex Rodriguez is a better 3rd baseman, so he stayed at shortstop...

5. OK, in all seriousness, the dive into the stands was a pretty nice effort and actually made him appear to look tough for a few days.

6. Back to the sarcasm - his baseball card is worth more than if he played for say...the Royals or Pirates, since people in New York would realize what type of player he REALLY is (since everyone who isn't a Yankee sucks!). I call this the Joe DiMaggio theory...

7. He will make a fine measuring stick of who should not be in inducted into the Hall of Fame (see Black Ink, Grey Ink, HOF Standards on baseball-reference.com - note his career stats compare similarly to Ray Durham's) In other words, if Alan Tramell and Roberto Alomar don't make it before Jeter, people need to be smacked into some form of sensibility.

8. His out-of-line statistical jump from 1998-2005 proves there's no way he could be considered in the 'performance enhancing drugs' conversation since no Yankee, person born in New Jersey or grew up in Michigan has ever cheated.

9. At least he's not the ugliest over-rated player in sports...(but he is the prettiest AND ugliest MOST-Over-rated player in sports). At least he gets to take the credit for being the main component in the highest paid roster winning the occasional championship. Ever notice Mr. November averages 1 World Series home run every 43 World Series at-bats???

10a. All those routine plays he turns into highlight plays because he has no range is uncanny! Plus, double digit GIDPs for 11 straight years from a 'speedy' singles hitter is amazing!

10b. It's really not his fault baseball hasn't fixed the Gold Glove or All-Star voting procedures yet.

Aww, what the hell... #11 - I don't hate him. I actually like him a small bit and sincerely feel bad for him. Instead of realizing Derek Sanderson Jeter is JUST a good baseball player; people will read this, FREAK OUT and hate me, spit at me and curse me to hell for ever suggesting Jeter isn't God's (and Gatorade's) gift to baseball...

So... the name is changing. What SHOULD the team's name REALLY be next year?
	Tampa Bay Devil Rays
	Tampa Bay Rays
	Florida Devil Rays of St Petersburg of Tampa Bay Area
	St Petersburg Devil Rays
	Western Florida Devil Rays
	Tampa Bay Manta Rays
	Tampa Bay Sun Rays
	Tampa Bay Manatees
	AAAA All Stars
	Las Vegas Jackpots

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How will the Devil Rays 2007 season end?
	World Series Victors!
	AL Champions!!!
	ALDS Winners!
	AL EAST winners,
	2nd place AL East, AL Wild Card
	3rd place, AL East
	4th place, AL East
	5th place, AL East
	What's the record for LEAST wins, again?
	Less than one victory per Manny Stiles article...

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How many wins will the Devil Rays compile in the regular season?
	>100
	91-99
	85-90
	82-85
	81 even
	77-80
	72-76
	68-71
	61-67
	<60

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Which Devil Rays players do you like?
	Carl Crawford
	Scott Kazmir
	Rocco Baldelli
	Jonny Gomes
	James Shields
	Elijah Dukes
	Delmon Young
	Ty Wigginton
	Dioner Navarro
	B.J. Upton
	Jae Seo
	Ben Zobrist
	Edwin Jackson
	Akinori Iwamura
	Casey Fossum
	Shawn Camp
	Josh Paul
	Brendan Harris
	Carlos Pena
	Ruddy Lugo

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Which Devil Ray(s) COULD end up in Cooperstown one day?
	Carl Crawford
	Scott Kazmir
	Rocco Baldelli
	B.J. Upton
	Delmon Young
	Elijah Dukes
	Evan Longoria
	Reid Brignac
	None of the above
	What a stupid question to ask!

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If a trade can make a difference, who do you LEAST want to trade?
	Rocco Baldelli
	B.J. Upton
	Delmon Young
	Jonny Gomes
	Jorge Cantu
	Elijah Dukes
	Evan Longoria
	Reid Brignac
	Trade 'em ALL EXCEPT Crawford and Kazmir!!
	Like what we got/ don't want to give up talented youth.

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