New Look Lightning

Last year, new Tampa Bay Lightning GM, Steve Yserman reintroduced a winning mentality to the hockey fans of Tampa Bay. The Lightning won 46 games and racked in 103 points, 8th best in the league. This year the Bolts got a new logo, new uniforms, and a new motto, (Be The Thunder), to go along with a renovated the St. Pete Times Forum. The renovations were announced to cost $35 billion dollars from private funds. The renovation was aimed to improve the experience for players, employees, and fans. The biggest addition was a 11,000 square foot outdoor deck overlooking downtown Tampa. Another huge addition was a hockey organ, which most teams, famously the Boston Bruins already have. Perhaps the coolest addition is the 25 foot lightning bolts that shoot from two Tesla coils. The Lightning this season, are 3rd in there Southeast division and 7th. Its amazing how much you can accomplish with just a little thunder.

New Stadium Please

The year was 1990. In an attempt to bring an MLB team to the St. Petersburg area, Tropicana Field was built right by downtown St. Petersburg. In 1993 two expansions teams where given to Miami and Denver. After the expansion, rumors started to fly around about the Giants or Mariners moving. After these rumors died St. Petersburg had to wait 2 more years until 1995 when they when another expansion was given to them. This team was to be named the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Recent reports say that a site around the Fair Grounds of Hillsborough County is being prepared in case the Rays ownership decides on moving the team to Tampa.

As of now we can only hope for relocation or be content with seeing an empty Trop and our top players signing with other teams because the team cannot afford them.

Now in 2011 the renamed Rays are facing financial issues trying to compete with $150M+ payroll teams in its own division, not being able to pay their good players, and having the 2nd worst attendance in the majors.

What went wrong? Many would blame the fans for not going to the games, but as a bay area resident that may not be the case.

The main issue is the location of the Trop itself. It is located in down town St. Pete. The city itself is a beach community that has around 200,000 residents and many tourists wanting to enjoy the weather and beaches. Not an Ideal Place for a baseball stadium who has to compete with the neighboring beaches.

The location also hurts neighboring residents of the city of Tampa who have to face not only downtown traffic to get to a game, but they also have to cross the 3 mile long Gandy Bridge to get to St. Petersburg, which with traffic means a 2 hour ride to see a Rays game. This means that a person getting off of work at 5pm has little chance to catch a game at 7pm on weekdays.

To add to the negative perception of The Trop there have been games decided due to a ball hitting one of the four cat walks along the roof of the stadium.

This issue seemed to be over with back in 2007 when designs for a water front stadium were made public. Unfortunately, enough support for the project wasn't gathered and the project was terminated in 2008.

To further hurt the rays chances of a new stadium, the organization are in contract with The Trop until 2027.

Welcome Desmond

Desmond Jennings has been the spark keeping the Tampa Bay Rays in the postseason fight with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

Since joining the team on July 23rd, he is ninth in the AL in OPS (1.013) and tied for fifth in extra-base hits with 14. He also has nine stolen bases w

hich ranks him second in the AL behind Coco Crisp of the Oakland A’s.

His five home runs are only one shy of Evan Longoria’s club lead (pertaining to the time following Jennings' arrival).

Jennings has received praise from teammates, as they have likened his work ethic to that of former Rays' outfielder Carl Crawford.

Jennings is a star in the making.

He is a phenomenal athlete and former three-sport star that turned down the opportunity to play football at the University of Alabama in pursuit of a career in baseball. So far that decision is working out well.

Rays manager Joe Maddon has also noticed Jennings ability beyond his natural athletic ability.

“A lot of times to me a guy’s going to reveal his baseball acumen by what he does on the bases as a base runner and he is really sharp on the bases,” Maddon said prior to Friday night’s game against the Mariners.

“You’ve seen it on him scoring from third; you’ve seen it on turning a single into a triple.”

The Rays are 47-15 when they score first and 43-7 when they score five or more runs (Actually, they have only lost 17 games in which they held a lead at some point.)

The Rays are currently averaging 0.6 runs per game more with Desmond Jennings on the roster.

And in order for their playoff dreams to have the potential to become reality, they will need the current offensive explosion to continue.

Joe Maddon Wears Bucs Helmet

Back in February, Lightning coach Guy Boucher, Rays manager Joe Maddon and Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris sat down together for a panel discussion . Since then, the three have kept in touch and inter-mingling between the teams has been rather frequent.

Morris was in attendance at several Lightning playoff games and was featured in a promotional video, wearing a Bolts sweater and standing in front of a Bucs backdrop, that was shown on the scoreboard during games. Lightning players Steven Stamkos,Teddy Purcell, Nate Thompson and former goalie Mike Smith took batting practice with the Rays after an invitation from Maddon. Morris frequently wears Rays gear during his media conferences and Sunday, Rays manager Joe Maddon repaid the favor by wearing a Buccaneers helmet during his post-game address.

It's not unusual for athletes from different teams in the same city to interact with one another. For one thing, they tend to travel in the same social circles. For another, in spite of the differences of the sports they play, they're united by the inherent similarities found in the lifestyles of top-level professional athletes. Rays players Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton attend several Lightning games every year. Former Buc Warren Sapp used to show up early at Rays games to confer with coach Frank Howard. Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis have both been sighted at Rays and Bucs games over the years and Lightning broadcaster and former Philadelphia Flyers goalie Bobby "The Chief" Taylor is a diehard Rays fan who attends almost as many games at Tropicana Field as ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale.

What is unusual is for the leaders of these teams to have embraced each other so openly and enthusiastically, attaching the implied endorsement of their respective franchises in the process. You couldn't blame someone from an upper management or ownership position from one of the teams if they bristled at the notion of their field general rallying support for another organization that is arguably competing for the same finite entertainment dollars. However, that hasn't been the case and all three organizations seem to be enjoying the sense of kinship.

It's almost like the relationship between teams in a collegiate setting, except even more so. At most colleges, the coaches are so intently focused on their own programs that they don't go out of their way to pump up someone else's. That's not to say they don't support each other because they do, but don't expect Stan Heath or Jose Fernandez to show up for a booster function in a football helmet or Skip Holtz to hold a press conference in shorts and a tank top. That's also not to say that Tampa Bay's professional coaches are any less intently focused on their own teams. All three have been hailed as dynamic, unconventional and innovative. More importantly, all three have been successful in the area that matters most: winning.