tampabayrays Page 17 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Too <em>Moneyball</em> For Their Own Good: How The Mets Screwed Up The Kazmir Trade
The Angels released Scott Kazmir on Wednesday, and we had seen it coming for years. Hitters clobbered Kazmir in 2009, 2010, and, in his one 2011 start. He lost his control and velocity simultaneously, and stopped striking hitters out....

The Rays Have More Or Less Every Pick In Today's MLB Draft
The amateur draft is today. If you didn't hear about it, don't blame MLB: they're trying their best to promote it, even leaking the announcement of the first overall selection to their own site. The overall lack of publicity means that Tampa Bay's surreal achievement is going unnoticed by the averag...

Rays Fan, A Lawyer, Ejected For Wearing A "Yankees Suck" T-Shirt, Surely Won't Pursue Any Legal Recompense
This is a story about Melvin H. Little, a Tampa Bay Rays $20,000-a-year season-ticket holder from way back when they still had Devil in their names, taking his two sons to a ballgame the other night. They had good seats, about 10 rows behind the plate. He sported a "Yankees Suck" T-shirt because, w...

David Price's Cartwheeling Home Run Trot Is What All Home Run Trots Should Be
Rays pitcher David Price knocked one into the right field seats during batting practice yesterday, and because pitchers in the American League don't get out much, he took advantage of the moment. We appreciate his cartwheels, his somersaults, and that gleeful flip of the bat, because even Little L...

Manny Ramirez Isn't Really Going Away
Perhaps you thought Manny Ramirez had faded away into that flickering twilight, where we'd reminisce about what a truly spectacular athlete he was. Some folks, Joe Posnanski foremost among them, would argue for Manny's Hall of Fame credentials, while others would want him nowhere near Cooperstown....

Floyd Mayweather Accompanied 50 Cent To Fight Night At Foxwoods And All He Got Was Booed
Your morning roundup for April 17, the day burglars everywhere accept the fact that trying to rob 81-year-old stroke victim/Korean vet Bobby Smith means they'll get a piping-hot frying pan filled with potatoes across the head....

Manny Ramirez Has Retired From Baseball After "An Issue" With Its Drug Program
Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports that after the MLB alerted Tampa Bay's Manny Ramirez to "an issue" under its drug program, the two-time world champion chose to retire "rather than continue with the process." [@BillShaikin, ESPN]...

Someone Stole Evan Longoria's AK-47
On Saturday, someone broke into the house that Longoria, David Price and Reid Brignac were renting for Spring Training. (Yes, it's precious that they're living together.) While they were at a game, someone entered through an unlocked window and removed $56,000 worth of " jewelry, cash, computer equi...

Watch Manny Ramirez Almost Kill Roy Oswalt
Roy Oswalt was struck "in the upper body" with a line drive hit off of Manny Ramirez's bat today in Port Charlotte, Fla. Crossing Broad captured the video, and while at first glance it appears to hit him in the back of the head, initial reports state that he was struck above the right shoulder and...

Orioles Fan Booted From Spring Training Game For Yelling Racist Comments At B.J. Upton
In his updated account of today's big Spring Training matchup between Tampa and Baltimore, Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times noted that Rays Manager Joe Maddon "had a fan - who was in in Orioles jersey - removed from the stadium after he was making racist comments about B.J. Upton."...

The Devil In Tampa: Remembering The Penny-Pinching, Snack-Policing, Nut-Cutting Days Of Vince Naimoli
In his new book, author Jonah Keri covers the rise of the Tampa Bay Rays under the stewardship of two Goldman Sachs alums and a private equity banker, who in 2008 managed to do to the rest of the American League what some of their former colleagues were doing to the U.S. economy. Before their arriva...

Rays' Spring Training Stadium Infested By Bats, Covered In Bat Shit
Alternate headline: Bats! Bats! Oh God So Many Bats! Exterminators say they'll have the situation under control by the start of Spring Training games, but their solution amounts to building a big house just for the bats just outside the stadium. I hope they release the bats for game-winning home run...

Confusion Over Garza-Benoit Confusion Finally Resolved
So the Chicago Sun-Times wasn't the only paper to mix up Matt Garza and Joaquín Benoit. The Daily Herald made the same mistake. But don't blame the papers. The error originated with a bad cutline from a wire photographer. Asshole....

<em>Chicago Sun-Times</em> Mixes Up Its Latino Baseball Players
The Cubs on Friday traded for Tampa Bay pitcher Matt Garza. Apparently, this confused the Chicago Sun-Times, which slapped a full-page photo on its back cover of...Joaquín Benoit. Both pitchers are right-handed. Both have facial hair. Let's stop there....

Your "It's Tuesday, What Are You Going To Watch, Hockey?" Rangers-Rays Open Thread
This one's for all the marbles. Well, not the ALCS and WS marbles, those come later. But this is the first division series since 2005 to go the distance, so enjoy....

Your "Carl Crawford Salute Says It's Already Over" Tampa Bay/Texas Open Thread
Down 6-0 to the Rangers in the 8th, Carl Crawford swung at the first pitch and grounded out to second. The fans chanted his name anyway since it was probably his last game as a Ray at Tropicana Field....

Rays Fans Just Blue Themselves
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day....

Your "Who Do You Have Besides Cliff Lee" Rangers-Rays Open Thread
C.J. Wilson? In game two. You sure? Okay, whatever you need to do. Discuss the revenge of DJ Kitty in the comments below....

Your Last Half Of The Rangers-Rays Game Open Thread
This week's SI cover boy, David Price, is currently getting shelled while Cliff Lee continues his absurd streak of playoff dominance. Chat about the rest of the action here....

The Official Jewish Response To The James Shields Conspiracy Theory
A nice lady called a Tampa sports talk radio show and argued that Shields is starting game 2 only because he's Jewish, and the Rays' Jewish ownership made it happen. Shields isn't actually Jewish, but never mind that....