baseball attendance

I think baseball has a bigger problem than a bad stadium in any given market. There were only 12k fans in the stands in Oakland on Sunday for the "Perfect Game". Here in the Tampa Bay area there is a push to replace the baseball stadium currently known as Tropicana Field. The "baseball" stadium was built approved by the City of St. Petersburg in 1986 as the Pinellas Sportsplex, broke ground over a toxic waste dump in 1987 (hence, the unoffficial name, "Toxidome"), finished it 1989, opened in 1990 as the St. Petersburg Suncoast Dome, was home to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 1992-1995 season as the Thumderdome, was host to the Basketball "Sweet 16", indoor fireworks displays, Concerts, Motivational Seminars with the likes of Rudy Guiliani, Bush 41, Barbara Bush, General Norman Schwartzkoff, etc., Home Shows, tractorpulls. Finally, after being used for 12 years by other teams, such as the Twins, White Sox, Mariners, and Giants, as a bargaining chip for new stadiums, there was a $30M face lift to the purpose for which it was originally built with the awarding of the "Devil Rays" franchise. I like the Trop. I like the catwalks interfering with the play. I saw that when they built it there would be an issue. To condemn the stadium because of that would be akin to replacing Fenway because the "Green Monster" is too high. It is always a guaranteed game, 72 degrees, low humidity, and no wind. Winning night home games have a lighted Orange Roof and can be seen for miles. It is sandwiched in between 3 Interstates. Only traffic is within about 3 block radius of the game.
Until attendance on TV and other ball parks increase, I can't see replacing this or any other park, the marketing of baseball is on the downside of the cycle at this point in time. The Rays are in too small of a market to make a difference and the Yankees are ho-hum when they win the World Series. We need more "sports geeks" positive to the game. Not more of them who can't figure out that there is fun playing and watching the game and critisizing every one of the players with unfounded accusations of hearsay, half-truths, and rumours. The Rays are not going anywhere soon - and they are fun to watch. Now, if they could only do something about making the field look better. Go Rays!!! Stay Rays!!!

Perfect Game

The Rays were just able to hold on to 1st place. They were the victims - again - to "The Perfect Game". 2nd time in a year and there have only been 19 all through over 110 years of Major League baseball 162 games a year per team. It was a thing of beauty, except, again, it was at the expense of the Rays. The Rays were out of first as a result of yesterday's game by way of percentages for several hours. They won one more and lost one more than the Yankees. Since the Yankees lost later on to the Botox, err, Bosox, they (The Yankees) fell back into 2nd place.
The Rays in 1st has been a nice ride, but there is still 130 games left to the season and the Rays and Yankees are the only ones with less than 10 losses.
Now they are starting to get into the meat of the teams to be reckoned with through the rest of the season. I think it will be a see-saw ride for Rays fans. Baseball at its BEST!

Oil Rig "Explosion"

The more I hear this story, and read the reporting, I can't help but think this Oil Rig is the Oil Industry's TMI. In 1979, Three Mile Island had a partial meltdown of the reactor and for the next 25, or so, years we heard nothing but badmouthing of Nuclear power plants. A couple of weeks ago, Obama agreed to open areas off the Western Florida coast to drilling and this happens. It is either an unfortunate coincidence or sabotage. I was looking forward to the rigs, cell phone coverage would be improved and our national security and energy needs would be filled. The oil that has been deposited in the Gulf will disapate by itself. The political ramifications will be much longer lasting. Until the environuts have to pay $5 per gallon again.