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Rays Take Feel-Good Show On The Road

Associated Press photo

Rays GM Andrew Friedman (right) and manager Joe Maddon are readying for the club's first spring training session in Port Charlotte.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY

mfennelly@tampatrib.com

Published: February 14, 2009

Updated: 02/14/2009 01:49 am

PORT CHARLOTTE - Yes, it seems strange that the team that came from nowhere last season has left home to take up new digs in, well, the middle of nowhere (like St. Pete is the City of Light). In truth, Port Charlotte isn't in the middle of nowhere, but it's in the same school district. It's a friendly place, especially when the county fair is just across the road from the ball yard.

Only the fair ends Monday.

But here come the Rays.

Joe Maddon and the boys, fresh from their romping, stomping mind-bender of a season, are suddenly one of the biggest shows in baseball. They're the county fair, hold the Yankees freak show. The defending American League champions are a genuine success story as they hit their field of dreams, the freshly renovated, splashy Charlotte Sports Park. If you rebuild it (and throw in the Rays), they will come. Oh, where is a cornfield when you need one?

They sure beat the last tenant. The Texas Rangers Baseball Club & 24-Hour Pharmacy operated out of here until 2002. Down the right-field line, you can see the old Rangers clubhouse, presumably where Alex Rodriguez first gave up milk and cookies for Primobolan and testosterone. Shouldn't there be a historical marker, like an obelisk in the shape of a needle?

Back to Feel Good.

Everybody needs a Rays fix.

Pitchers and catchers report today, and a different kind of spring has sprung, with no Rays players having to pretend to have hope - they're winners. A lot of these same pitchers and catchers helped stun the baseball world on the way to the World Series. They arrive at new digs with a new kind of history. In other words, when Scott Kazmir starts making predictions, don't order up a random drug test.

Remember, it was nutty Kaz who last spring training announced, "What's possible? Playing in October, that's possible."

Kazmir smiled at the memory Friday.

"When I said that, people looked at me funny and backed away. I really did believe it. But everybody stopped. There was almost a moment of silence, like, did he just say that?"

He smiled again.

"I walk in the clubhouse today and on the TV they're asking, 'Who's going to be this year's Rays?' When you look back on last season, sometimes you sort of go 'Wow, that really happened.'"

But something goes with that.

The Rays won't come out of nowhere this time.

We've come to the E word:

Expectations.

"Isn't that great? Isn't that just wonderful?"

That's Manager of the Year and true believer Joe Maddon, who with Rays baseball ops chief Andrew Friedman held a sunny news conference Friday on the outfield boardwalk at the Rays' new park. But then, isn't it always a sunny day on the boardwalk with Maddon?

Back to the E word.

"I think 'expectations' is actually a very good word, and I think you can apply the word 'pressure' if you want to do that," Maddon said. "It means, obviously, that we've gotten a whole lot better and there is a lot more expected of us, and I like that, I think that should absolutely bring out the best in you.

"I'm going to address that right up front with the players the very first day, that word as a motivation and a positive word. ... We're not going to run away from words like that."

They have an ungodly good young core of players. Friday, Friedman talked of a four-way battle for the fifth starting pitcher. Among the battlers will be David Price, who only smoked the Red Sox to nail down the pennant. Ah, the fifth starter. Remember when the Rays didn't have a first starter?

Who needs the fair? Port Charlotte has the Rays. This town, this area, has tons of heart. It came back from Hurricane Charley in 2004. It's a feel-good story all by itself. Now it has a ball team to match.

"How could you not want to come here and watch a spring training game right here in Port Charlotte?" Maddon said.

You can probably think of a few reasons.

At last, the Rays aren't one of them.

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