Rays reliever's pink shoe protest pays off

The striking pink shoes had been sitting in the lockers of the Rays players with Reebok contracts the last couple of days. They were black spikes, but everywhere there would normally be white highlights, including the Reebok logo, these shoes were pink instead.

It was the shoe manufacturer's answer to what has become one of Major League Baseball's most popular traditions among the players-hitters using pink bats every Mother's Day to promote breast cancer awareness, and those bats later being auctioned off with the proceeds going to cancer research.

Perhaps more than anyone in the Rays' clubhouse, reliever Joe Nelson was excited to wear those cleats for tomorrow's nationally televised ESPN game. His mother, Paula Rodriguez, is a breast cancer survivor.

"I told my mom, 'Hey, we got pink shoes and we're on Sunday night baseball - make sure you watch,'" Nelson said.

Early Saturday afternoon, though, a Reebok rep came through the clubhouse and collected the shoes from the lockers of Nelson, James Shields, Gabe Gross and others. Apparently the charity Reebok had chosen as the beneficiary for the shoes that were to be autographed and auctioned by the players was not officially certified by MLB, so the league had ruled the shoes couldn't be worn.

Nelson was very upset and called a representative of the players' union to protest.

"The last time I checked, cancer is cancer," he said. "If they were going to donate our shoes and someone was going to give money to cancer research, I could care less which one."

Around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nelson got a call back from the union. After a quick consult with MLB, the league had agreed to work something out with Reebok about where the proceeds would go. About five minutes later, the visiting clubhouse manager at Fenway Park walked through the door carrying an armful of pink-and-black shoes.

"We can still wear them, sign them, auction them off, and they'll figure it out," Nelson said. "As long as somebody gets the money, I'm fine with it. I'm glad they got it sorted out."

Go, Pat, go

Of all the gaudy numbers the Rays put up Saturday, perhaps the most unexpected was Pat Burrell recording a stolen base in the fourth inning. He hadn't swiped one since Sept. 30, 2004 - a wait of 658 games (including the postseason) between his fifth and sixth career steals.

And he got this one even though Jon Lester had him picked off first. Burrell broke for second as Lester threw over, but fill-in 1B Jeff Bailey's throw hit him and bounced into center field for an error, allowing Burrell to claim the steal and move to third.

"How 'bout that?" Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I thought he was going to call timeout and go back and pick second base up out of the socket."

Izzy getting close

A two-inning stint Friday night for Durham effectively ended the scripted portion of Jason Isringhausen's rehab assignment, leaving the Rays 10 days to figure out what to do with him.

Isringhausen's assignment is up May 19, and it seems he is healthy enough to pitch at the big-league level right now. Maddon said Isringhausen will get a couple of days off, then he'll be used as a regular reliever to be deployed by Durham manager Charlie Montoyo as situations warrant.

"There are no real obvious things to do right now, so it's just a matter of playing it out," Maddon said.

Odds and ends

The Rays acquired 33-year-old IF Joe Dillon from the A's as the player to be named later in the deal that sent Adam Kennedy to Oakland on Friday. Dillon has played in the majors with the Marlins and Brewers. ... Saturday was Carl Crawford's sixth game this season with at least three hits, four of those games against Boston.