For those of you who are not familiar, every year, and with every road trip the Rays go on, Rays Manager Joe Maddon comes up with a theme. The idea is that whatever the theme is, the team will dress like that for the flight out on the upcoming trip. With the team heading out to Toronto this past Sunday, it was decided that the theme for this trip would be hockey. When I heard about this late last week, I thought it would be a really good idea, with the news that the local team had made in hiring Mr. Yzerman, to show a little support and throw on Lightning jerseys for their trip to Toronto. After that, I really did not give it much thought.
Monday morning, I read the sports page and there was the picture of Joe Maddon and a good handful of others, sporting a brand new Tampa Bay Lightning Chicago Blackhawks jersey. First, I understand how the got the jerseys. (Apparently one of the Rays coaches brothers works for the Hawks, and supplied the jerseys) Also, I understand that this was supposed to be a jab at the Flyers because of the near dead rivalry between the two cities.
I get what the Rays were trying to accomplish here, I really do. But there are other ways to do it. If you are a professional sports franchise, in a town with multiple professional sports franchises, isn't it your duty to look out for one another? I am fairly certain that if the call was made over to Channelside drive, the local team could have done their part to loan a few jersey's to the baseball team. And that would have been the right thing for the Rays to do, because it just looks bad for everything the Lightning are trying to accomplish, to open up the sports page and see a local team wearing its competitions jersey. And let me ask this, what would the outcry be if the Lightning threw on a Red Sox jersey for a "baseball trip" in October? It would get ugly around here, as it should.
For the record, I am not one to say who you should support and if it should be based on a zip code. My main point is that if you want to do an NHL trip, and you have an NHL team in your town, as an organization, you need to support them. Not to mention, what would go through your mind, if you are one of the greatest former Red Wings of all time in Steve Yzerman, you take this job as Lightning GM to rebuild the image of the team, and one of the first things you see is a team in your town wearing the uniform of the team you have probably hated more then anything the past 27 years? Personally, that would not sit well with me, and it shouldn't with anyone else as well.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.