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Rays Need To Ditch Gimmickry

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By Marc Lancaster, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 16, 2007

Updated: 09/16/2007 01:13 am

SEATTLE - One of the major perks of my job - a benefit that cuts through the sometimes-grueling travel involved in a six-month season - is the opportunity to see a wide cross-section of teams, ballparks and cities, each of them different even though the game remains the same.

This weekend represents something of a milestone for me, in my first season covering an American League team after three years touring the National League while chronicling the Cincinnati Reds. With this trip to Safeco Field, I have now seen a game in all 30 major-league ballparks within the past two years.

That means at least one visit to each of the game's living cathedrals (Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium) along with the rundown yards that can't be replaced soon enough (RFK Stadium, Shea Stadium).

With every box on the list checked off, I feel comfortable saying the game-day atmosphere at the stadium I see most often, Tropicana Field, isn't matched anywhere in baseball. And that isn't a compliment.

For all the strides the Devil Rays appear to be making on the field as their collection of young talent begins to mature together, and for all the significant steps that have been taken to make the Trop a more fan-friendly place to visit (free parking, more personal service), the towering wall of noise that passes for in-game 'entertainment' is one aspect in which the Rays lag far behind the rest of baseball.

Many nights, with the dome perhaps one-third full and an incessant wave of gimmickry rushing in to fill the slightest gap in the action, it feels like Double-A baseball with a roof. I can appreciate the frustration those in the Rays' marketing department must feel in trying to get people to come watch a team that has never been within 10 wins of a .500 season, but there is a line.

Too often, the philosophy at the Trop - which is spelled out right up front in the 'More Than Just A Game' slogan for this season - manifests itself in the feeling that someone is trying to wedge a baseball game into an infomercial.

It's not difficult to deduce the reasoning that might lead to this path. If you keep people busy trying to spot the Chick-fil-A cow or pondering such weighty decisions as whether the Rays' first hit will go to the left or right side - which, come to think of it, is kind of like Checkers having two different drive-through windows - maybe they won't notice the latest bullpen meltdown or another inning that ended with two runners left stranded in scoring position.

Here's the thing, though: You can only go so far in manufacturing atmosphere.

There's no question the Trop has the potential to be an intimidating homefield environment. From its confounding catwalks to its capacity for magnifying noise created by real, live fans, it's easy to envision a raucous scene should the Rays put a contending team on the field. That much was evident in the Rays' home opener this season, when a sellout crowd of more than 38,000 greeted a walk-off win with a deafening roar.

Obviously, you can't conjure up drama like that on a nightly basis, but at some point the focal point has to shift from the antics of unnecessary emcee Rusty Kath to the players and the game. Don't blame Kath; the Rays knew exactly what they were getting when they plucked him from baseball's pre-eminent circus act, the proudly counterculture St. Paul Saints, to serve as a one-man diversionary tactic.

But that's minor-league stuff, and it's about time the Rays joined their big-league brethren. When the home team is winning more games than it loses, no one will come to the ballpark to see whether the Pepsi bottle edges out the Aquafina bottle at the finish line - just as no one comes to the ballpark to see that right now.

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