I had written that Joe Maddon, certainly no fan of Tropicana Field,
would have likely left the Rays (or any other medium-market team) regardless of the Stadium Saga. He more or less confirmed that {
link to Times' site}, as Marc Topkin writes he told reporters yesterday in Chicago "it was time to move on":
Would you have stayed if the Rays had solved the stadium issue and had better resources?
"That's
always been a big problem there, and I'm hoping they do rectify it and
get it moving forward. You saw the group we've had over the past several
years and a lot of guys had to peel off at different moments before it
was their time to peel off. We just couldn't sustain it. I think the
most pressing issue there would be to get a new ballpark. And once they
do that, because they're so good at player development and scouting and
things like that. and once you get the guys in the system that are very
good at bringing out the best in the player, a lot of it is based on
information that they generate from upstairs.
"Truly, a new ballpark in a more accessible area could really benefit
with that group. They're great guys. You're never hear me say anything
bad about that group. They were great to me and my family. I'm going to
miss them. But it was time to move on."
A look back at Maddon's love/hate relationship with Tropicana Field:
Before whoever spends $650 million for a new ball park in Tampa, who about the Rays play their games at RayJay for a couple of season to see if all those folks who say they would go to a lot more games if the stadium was in Tampa really do.
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ReplyDeleteOkay, slugger
DeleteJust go off on a tangent here, gonna take a while to get used to Joe Maddon referring to the Rays as "they."
ReplyDeleteCome on low class st.Pete. Let the Rays go to Tampa free and cleat. St. Pete needs to pay the Rays for all the inconvenience. They need to give the Rays at least 100 million for a stadium in tampa!!!!
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