Memo to Yanks: Rays also want a new stadium

Yankees catcher Jorge Posada said Tropicana Field is not a "baseball stadium" after New York's 7-3 win there Sunday and, well, Rays manager Joe Maddon had something to say to Posada before Monday night's Rays-Orioles game.

"Well tell them we're trying to get a new yard ourselves," Maddon said. "They want to contribute in any way, we'll take it. ... We're all for a new ballpark, tell them. We're not trying to hide that."

Posada was referring to third baseman Evan Longoria's sixth-inning single Sunday that was nothing more than a pop-up until it struck a speaker and fell untouched to the infield.

"That ball's an out 99 out of a hundred times, probably 999 times out of a thousand times," Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said. "To have a pitcher get penalized because it hits a speaker or anything else and it ricochets to another part of the field, that's just not fair. It's not baseball."

Picking on the catwalks is a popular pastime among players who visit the Trop. Add Posada and Teixeira to the list of those less enchanted with the Rays' unique feature.

It was pointed out to Maddon that a number of the Yankees, including shortstop Derek Jeter, live in Tampa Bay.

"Heck, we can just build (the new stadium) on Jeter's property out there," Maddon said, referring to Jeter's Ruthian-like 30,875-square- foot home under construction on Davis Islands.

Long, strange trip

The Rays' first road trip of the season got off to a slow start, and that was before the team even left town.

The jet used for the team charter to Baltimore on Sunday developed mechanical problems before leaving St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. The team sat on the plane for two hours before the pilot drove to Tampa International Airport, boarded another plane and flew it to St. Pete-Clearwater.

Everything on the first plane was loaded onto the second, and the flight took of at 10:30 p.m., about the time the original flight was scheduled to arrive in Baltimore.

"When we got off the first time we were supposed to be landing in Baltimore," RHP Jeff Niemann said. "But we made our connection. It was 50 yards away."

Maddon, not surprisingly, enjoyed the experience.

"The nice tradeoff was the second plane had DirecTV. So we traded the DirecTV-less plane for the DirecTV plane, which permitted me to watch 'Wall Street,' the last part of 'A Few Good Men' and the final portion of the Brewers-Cardinals game, which made the flight a lot quicker. So I really advocate that all American carriers in the very near future should get at least DirecTV within their framework of all their airliners," Maddon said. "I think it makes for a much more comfortable flying experience."

Odds and ends

Niemann will start tonight, and Maddon said the right-hander should be able to reach 100 pitches. ... SS Jason Bartlett has a 17-game hitting streak at Camden Yards. ... Monday's crowd of 9,129 was the smallest in the history of the ballpark. ... LF Carl Crawford has made four diving catches during the first week of the season - three were actually called outs - after he robbed Garrett Atkins with a running, diving catch in left-center field during the seventh inning Monday. ... RF Matt Joyce, on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham, returned to the lineup Monday two days after being struck on his right elbow with a pitch. Maddon said the latest injury shouldn't impact Joyce's recovery from a strained right elbow suffered in spring training. Joyce is still being used as a DH.