The Rays just went 8-2 during their most recent 10-game home stand. The local buzz is getting louder. The national media is on the bandwagon. (A bottom-feeder rising to the top is the kind of uplifting story ESPN likes to get behind.)
And maybe, just maybe, the tide turned on the attendance issue over the weekend. Saturday night’s contest was sold out, but mostly due to an after-game concert by country clown Trace Adkins. Sunday's game drew more than 24,000 — on its own merits. That’s about double what the Rays had been pulling previously. Definitely an encouraging sign.
So that makes the team’s current road trip perhaps the most crucial in its history. The Rays play a troika of three-games series against good teams — the Angels, the Rangers and, most important, the Red Sox (which starts tomorrow). Come back from the trip, say, 7-2, even 6-3, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tropicana Field greeted the Rays with a sell-out.
Skid to a 2-7, and the air’s out of the balloon. They’ll return to a quiet, canyon-like Trop. The new crop of fans will figure that the Rays have finally reverted back to their old selves. A .500 record on this trip is paramount. That should at least keep the interest and energy high.
• Last week, the St. Petersburg Times ran a story about how second-year defensive end Gaines Adams has improved his diet, which was heavy on the junk food. After a largely disappointing rookie season, the fourth overall pick in the draft is humpin’ it in the weight room and layin’ off the Mickey D’s. Instead, “I go to Subway and get me a nice sub and go home and take a nap and get ready for the next day,” he told the paper.
Note to Gaines: Uh, Subway is not health food. It’s better than McDonald’s, yeah, but don’t fall for the Jared bit. You underachieved as a high-paid rookie, and you’re trying to get on track. You want to be a great player? Invest in your future. Use some of the $18.56-million guaranteed in your contract and hire a chef!
• Thank God the Celtics took out the Pistons, because if it had been a Detroit/L.A. NBA final, I might not have tuned in. (OK, I probably would have, but not enthusiastically, and with an itchy finger on the remote.)
I look back fondly on those epic Celtics/Lakers battles of the ’80s, even though I loathed both teams. (I was a Sixers fan back then, a Magic fan now.)
I still hate the Lakers more than any other team in sports, and hate Kobe Bryant more than the Lakers.
I have managed to locate a little love for Boston, mostly because I like the way their newly added stars — Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen — have meshed with Paul Pierce to play team ball. Three veterans setting aside me-first attitudes and plugging for a title deserves my admiration. Not my love, really, but admiration.
So, go Celtics! (Never thought I’d say or write that).
But I’m predicting the Lakers in six.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2008.