TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

They Were There At The Beginning

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOE HENDERSON

jhenderson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 19, 2008

Updated: 10/19/2008 12:14 am

  Chuck Lamar

  Vince Naimoli

  Bob Stewart

TAMPA - It would have been easy to lose faith. The losses piled up year after year and baseball in Tampa Bay had become a metaphor for failure.

It was all-around misery. There was the dank, sterile stadium, where a Teflon roof covered catwalks and plastic grass and created what most everyone agreed was an awful setting to watch a game. Then again, almost no one went to the games. For years the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ranked at or near the bottom of Major League Baseball in attendance.

"Those were extremely frustrating, trying years," said Bob Stewart, who was one of the first and most fervent backers to bring a team here. "Honestly, the notion of being in the World Series or having this kind of success was such a far, distant dream."

Not anymore.

The Rays went from worst to first in the American League East. Pundits have called it one of the best stories in the history of baseball. The bandwagon is getting new members every day as the magnitude of this season spreads. Tropicana Field, so scorned, is now the place to be.

Everyone, it seems, is caught up with the Rays. This is the season they always promised when the Rays first came into being. And for three people who were there at the beginning, it couldn't be more satisfying.

The General Manager

Chuck LaMar had never been the general manager of a baseball team before he was hired on July 19, 1995, to build the expansion Devil Rays. He was fired eight years later following seven last-place finishes and a string of losses that never seemed to end.

But if you're thinking he is bitter that these Rays are winning with some of the pieces he helped acquire, guess again. He couldn't be happier for them. He now works as scouting director for the Philadelphia Phillies, helping find and sign the kind of players it takes to build a championship team.

The Phillies have already qualified for the World Series. LaMar appreciates how life can come full circle.

"I will always have an emotional connection with the Tampa Bay Rays," LaMar said. "It's a unique opportunity. It doesn't happen often that you've had some impact on two teams that possibly could play each other in the World Series."

He signed Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Andy Sonnanstine and James Shields, mainstays on the Rays' roster. He traded for Scott Kazmir. Other players he assembled here were used in trades to acquire catcher Dioner Navarro, pitchers Edwin Jackson, Grant Balfour and J.P. Howell, and shortstop Jason Bartlett.

"The work that our staff did for all those years in Tampa Bay is part of the reason - certainly not all - for what's happening now," LaMar said. "The current owners and front-office people have done a fabulous job."

LaMar knows how much went wrong during his reign. But as he watched a sellout crowd fill the Trop last weekend for a playoff game against Boston, it confirmed what he always knew baseball could be like here.

"I truly believed from the day I took the job - July 19, 1995 - that when there was a championship club in Tampa Bay the fans would respond," he said. "And they have."

The Owner

Vince Naimoli still has four season tickets to watch the team he created and ruled until current owner Stu Sternberg took over three years ago. Naimoli was a frequently polarizing figure during his time with the Rays, but talk to him now and he is a relaxed, happy fan.

"I'm absolutely delighted, I really am," he said." You have to feel good about what's going on, you really do."

Naimoli still owns about 25 percent of the Rays, he said, but he rarely shows up at the team's offices. Most of the traces of his influence on the team are fading as the new owners introduced new uniforms, a new color scheme and a new team name this year - dropping the Devil.

Although fans may think it's a whole new ballgame at the Trop, Naimoli can see players who joined the team on his watch making major contributions.

Sonnanstine, the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, is a personal favorite. Naimoli watched Sonnanstine pitch for Kent State University against his beloved Notre Dame and recommended the Rays draft him.

"I have such a warm spot for Andy because he was such a long shot," Naimoli said.

For the longest time these Rays were a long shot as well. But even though it happened after he left the owners box, Naimoli says the chance to experience what's happening now is something special. He has nothing but praise for Sternberg and his top lieutenants, team president Matt Silverman and executive vice president Andrew Friedman.

"I'm happy for them. I'm happy for the players who have been here the longest. I knew we'd always get here eventually," he said. "It doesn't matter that it happened after I left. I'm just glad that it happened. I feel good for all of us, I really do."

The Visionary
Bob Stewart was a member of the St. Petersburg City Council, one of six who voted in favor of building a baseball stadium without a team. That was in 1986.

Stewart became known as "Mr. Baseball" for his ceaseless advocacy of baseball in St. Petersburg, but even he admits there were times where it was hard not to be discouraged.

"The stages we went through to get to today began with whether or not we could build a stadium somewhere. We accomplished that, but we sat there for years without a team and there was sort of an 'I told you so' attitude throughout the community," he said.

He says the Rays' success and the excitement that has enveloped the community are personally satisfying now. It's what he thought it would be back when he voted yes to build the stadium without a public vote.

"I would be less than truthful if I didn't say yes to that. I took so much criticism and legitimate questioning along the way from the community at large. I'm the sole survivor politically of the six of us who made that decision to build the stadium.

"I certainly don't want to come off smug about it, but we've held our breath so long that at times it has been hard to breathe. There was absolutely no way I could have been more proud of the community."

He moved on from city council to take a seat on the Pinellas County Commission, although he is not running for re-election. He'll leave knowing that he was finally right in his baseball vision.

"Who woulda thunk it?" he said. "But it finally happened. It really did."

Reporter Joe Henderson can be reached at (813) 259-7861.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT