STIRRUPS IN ’08

The Campaign To Put The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays In Stirrups

Baseball is a sport built on its history. The great teams in baseball can look back and talk about players like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams and Ty Cobb and Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron. Fans of those teams can talk about the “Shot Heard ‘Round The World” or The Big Red Machine or the GasHouse Gang or Kirk Gibson off of Eck or Bill Buckner.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays history consists of exactly 10 losing seasons, A swan song from Wade Boggs, some terrible free agent signings and some of the worst uniforms in the history of baseball.

Thankfully, the Rainbow Warriors are a distant memory and we have been treated to a much classier set of uniforms for the last few years. But the days are numbered for the green and grey, as only 10 games remain in the 2007 season. In 2008 the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will officially change their name to the Tampa Bay Rays and their colors will change to Navy, Yellow and Light Blue.

Paul Lukas of Uniwatch has seen the new unis and calls them “a total snooze — not wonderful, not awful, just booooooring“. Of course that report scares us a little bit as our only complaint about the current set was the green jersey.

One reason to allow Paul Lukas to see the uniforms so far in advance of the public unveiling (Nov. 11), may be to gauge public reaction.

So we will take this opportunity to call for a minor aesthetic change.

ADD STIRRUPS TO THE NEW UNIFORMS!

This is an opportunity for the Tampa Bay Rays to add a bit of class to the uniform. To add a bit of nostalgia to a franchise that has no history of its own.

Few things say “baseball” more than stirrups. And not just plain Navy stirrups. Why not throw some stripes in there. Maybe Navy stirrups with three stripes towards the top in a yellow-white-yellow pattern?

If you would like to see the Devil Rays include stirrups with the new uniforms, please support our campaign by sending the letter below to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Just copy the letter and paste it in the main section of THIS PAGE, with “Stirrups in ’08” in the subject line.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Tropicana Field
One Tropicana Drive
St. Petersburg, FL 33705

Re: Stirrups in ’08

To Whom It May Concern:

It has now been confirmed that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will change their name to the “Tampa Bay Rays” and that the new uniforms will be Navy, Yellow and Light Blue.

I am writing to ask that the team please consider including striped stirrups as part of the new uniforms. Stirrups have long been a part of the baseball uniform and they have fallen out of favor in recent years as longer pants and solid sanitaries have become more popular.

It is my hope that the Devil Rays would consider adding striped stirrups to the new uniforms and at the same time add a nostalgic piece of baseball to a team that lacks a history of its own

Sincerely,

Consistently inconsistent [Uniwatch]

More Evidence That The St. Pete Times Is The Rays Unofficial PR Firm

Yesterday we ran a post that questioned the integrity of the St. Pete Times (and to a lesser extent, the Tampa Tribune) when it comes to reporting on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. We are concerned about the new relationship with the Times being named “The Official Newspaper” of the Rays and the official presenter of the team’s website. One consequence that we foresaw was that the team would provide the Times with information that is unavailable to other media outlets.

You may have noticed a week or two ago that the St. Pete Times ran a story about the Rays changing their name following the 2007 season. The change is likely to also be accompanied by a change in the team colors. President Matt Silverman stated that the team would have a slight modification of the name, and the “speculation” was that the Devil Rays would just drop the “Devil” portion of the name and officially become the Tampa Bay Rays. We are not really sure why this all of the sudden garnered a lot of attention. Nothing official was presented in the article and proposed change is old news amongst anybody that even remotely follows the team. While the story may have been newsworthy in New York or Boston or nationally, it was a waste of space in the St. Pete Times. For all intents and purposes, the team has been the Tampa Bay Rays for a while. It say “Rays” across the front of the home uniform and despite the name of the team’s website, you will not see the word “Devil” anywhere.

Another move that was made at about the same time as the St. Pete Times article was the recent face-lift given to the team’s official website. The team’s trademark green color now has a minimal presence with two shades of blue becoming the dominant colors of the site. While blue is currently an official accent color of the team, the move was taken by many to mean the team will be switching to blue as the dominant color in 2008. Silverman has stated that the team is still deciding from among several new color schemes and that the changes to the website are not an indication that any official decision has been made.

Did the Times see the sites new colors and decide to run an article speculating on the new team name or was the timing purely coincidental? Considering the new relationship between the Rays and the St. Pete Times, it is hard to believe that the concurrence of the two events was a coincidence. More likely, the article and color changes occurred at the same time as part of a campaign to introduce the 2008 changes without making any official announcements, in case there was a backlash from the fans. The team may not have officially decided on a new name or a new set of colors, but the team will most likely drop “Devil” from the name and the new blue hues are most likely the Rays new colors (we have heard that yellow would be the accent color). The team is using the website much the same way they are using the St. Pete Times, as a way of gauging fan interest.

While these specific events may not have a negative effect on Rays fans, it does hint at behind-the-scenes manipulation of the media by the Rays front office. In the long run this type of relationship will not be good for the fans. We should be able to count on our local media to provide us with the news, whether it is good, bad or indifferent, and without influence or bias.

As for us? We have always liked the team’s (recent) uniforms (we like to pretend that the Rainbow Warriors uniforms never existed). But, the blue looks a lot better on everything else, like t-shirts, websites, tattoos, lingerie, etc. But in the end, it is not our opinion that matters, nor that of the St. Pete Times, or the fans in general. The only opinion that truly matters is that of Paul Lukas.