Lunch Break – 1/18/08
Friday, January 18th, 2008I got a FANTASTIC question in my email yesterday for the Lunch Break today. Remember, send in your questions (you know, like a mailbag) or your discussion topics to scottcaruso@gmail.com and I’ll make sure that they get posted.
Today’s question comes from Sean, who writes:
I am frustrated with the fact that the Rays officials get so much crap no matter what they do. Vince screwed this franchise hard, on the baseball side of things and in the community.
What is your opinion on what do they ultimately have to do to lose this bad reputation that they have inherited? It is unfair, they have done nothing but good things here and just get so much crap. The reason Kazmir is not signed is because he doesn’t want to sign here. I look at the Rays as being only like 2 years old. When the new guys took over they got a clean slate. I don’t care if this turns into a lunch break I just kinda want you opinion.
I TOTALLY agree with what you said Sean; it IS unfair that the current Rays management keeps getting dumped on as if it is just an extenstion of the previous Rays ownership. Now, I can’t speak for everyone, but it seems to me that people who are actually “in the know” or follow the team regularly don’t have such a problem separating the Naimoli-LaMar regime from the Sternberg-Friedman one. It’s the casual fans – the ones you REALLY need to get on board in order to make money – that don’t know the difference.
That’s because, by their nature, casual fans just don’t know that much about the team. They can’t separate one ownership group from another. As far as they are concerned, it’s just one group that has continued to run the team from the beginning, and all they know is that there haven’t been any winning seasons yet. Is it fair to Andrew Friedman? Absolutely not. I think he has done a FANTASTIC job of building the Rays’ organization into one that is sustainable for future growth and success. In the American League East, where there are other teams that can afford to play up to 5 or 6 times more for players in any given year, the only way to ensure long-term success is to ensure that there is a solid foundation in the minor leagues, in scouting, and in player development. Though that’s something that LaMar never seemed to understand, Friedman definitely gets it and should be commended for the work that he has done.
Unfortunately, the only way that the team is ever going to break that stigma that you were talking about is to start winning ballgames. Once the team becomes a winner, and the national media picks up on the “surprise story of the Tampa Bay Rays,” then that history that you’re talking about will slowly begin to fade away. Until that happens, Stu Sternberg and Andrew Friedman will continue to pay for the sins of those who came before them.
