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CBS Radio’s ’98.7 The Fan’ Launches Campaign to Save Rays Baseball
Talkers.com ^ | 9/12/13 | Talkers

Posted on 09/12/2013 7:00:36 AM PDT by raccoonradio

Losing a Major League Baseball franchise would be a blow to CBS Radio’s drive to build a successful sports talk station in the market. But MLB commissioner Bud Selig has stated the league is not happy with the support the market is giving the Tampa Bay Rays in terms of attendance despite the club fielding successful teams. The league states, “Last year, the 30 Major League clubs averaged nearly 2.5 million in total attendance; the Rays, who finished with a 90-72 record, drew 1,559,681, which ranked last in the game.” So WHFS-FM “98.7 The Fan” is launching “Save Tampa Bay Baseball,” a multi-tiered campaign to help keep the Rays in the region.

But because St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster has said Major League Baseball does not “seem interested in a cooperative effort to keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay region for the long term,” the station is taking action. The campaign involves launching the website www.SaveTampaBayBaseball.com to raise awareness that the Rays may be in danger of leaving Tampa Bay, as well as a petition drive to let Major League Baseball know that the Rays belong in Tampa Bay.

The “98.7 The Fan” Street Team will canvass the downtown area offering Save Tampa Bay Baseball window stickers to all local merchants who support the Rays. In addition, “98.7 The Fan” will host an official Save Tampa Bay Baseball Rally on September 12 at Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill – home of the 98.7 The Fan “Fan Cave” – before the Rays vs. Boston Red Sox game.

WHFS-FM program director John O’Connell states, “At ‘98.7 The Fan,’ we strongly believe it’s in the best interest of the Tampa Bay community to keep Major League Baseball here. We will support our hometown Rays every way we can, and encourage Rays fans and the Tampa/St. Petersburg community to join us.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Sports
KEYWORDS: attendance; baseball; tampabayrays
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To: raccoonradio

Some? Go to a yankees game in tampa or a buffalo game at the hockey rink.


21 posted on 09/12/2013 7:41:57 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: raccoonradio

Isn’t their lease iron clad through the year 2027 though? Or is there a buyout? Is there any real threat that the Rays could move to another city, or out of the Tampa Bay area, before 2027???


22 posted on 09/12/2013 7:42:12 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego
You never know, these things could be broken. Meanwhile, flashback to 1992: You remember, the year the San Francisco Giants moved to Tampa Bay. Yep, fondly remember those Tampa Bay championships in 2010 and 2012--oops, just kidding! Because the NL team owners shot the proposal down, the Giants still had their heart...in San Francisco... and Tampa Bay had to be happy with the arrival of the (Devil) Rays in 1997.


23 posted on 09/12/2013 7:49:38 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Vigilanteman

I go to about a dozen Marlins games/year. You will not be disappointed when you see the stadium. It’s an amazing facility. What strikes you right off the bat is how tiny it is, and yet it is a true pitcher’s park. Just a really cool place.


24 posted on 09/12/2013 7:53:40 AM PDT by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Good point. Even that supposed Red Sox big sellout streak did end (and probably a lot earlier than the team was willing to admit). Camden Yards and Jacobs (now Progressive) Field were part of a new series of retro-yet-modern parks. In 1994, the Indians were hot—playoff bound, and games selling out at the Jake like crazy. In Aug. of that year I went to Fenway Park to see the Tribe face the Sox...but after two hours, it got rained out. Talked with some Indians fans there—they said they couldn’t get into the Jake, kept selling out, so they followed them on the road.

The game never got made up because a week later, the MLB strike took effect. Sorry Indians. Sorry Expos.

>> These people were never big baseball fans to start with.

Sitting behind home plate on the cellphone, waving to the cameras LOOK AT ME I’M ON TV!!! What’s the score, who cares.


25 posted on 09/12/2013 7:53:48 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

The Largest “Mistakes” that MLB make in the past 20 or so years:
1. Bud Selig
2. Tampa Bay “Rays”
3. Interleague “Play”
4. 1994
5. The “DH”


26 posted on 09/12/2013 7:54:58 AM PDT by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: Vigilanteman

Yes, and agreed on all those cities that may want an MLB
team—big enough to support?

>>they’ve won in the past.
Red Sox fans have fond memories of 2003 when the Marlins,
featuring future Sox Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett, beat the Yankees in the WS. The Yankees with the zillionaire payroll vs. the low budget Marlins. (Beating the Yanks like that
makes Red Sox fans happy...one time Marlins owner or part owner John Henry is now the principal owner of the Red Sox)

I haven’t been to the new stadium, no but have been to the following:
Bos., NY Mets (Shea), Montreal, Toronto, Cleveland (Prog Field), Milwaukee (County), Chi (both teams, new Comiskey and old Wrigley), Balt., DC (both RFK & National Pk),
Angels, Dodgers, A’s, Giants (new field), Pitt (PNC),
Philly (Cit Bank), etc.— but no have not been to
either Fla. park.

>>Montreal has already proven they can’t support a baseball team.
There is indeed an effort to bring Mont. a team again but I think you’re right. I made sure to attend a game at Stade
Olympique the last yr they were there...

>>Portland? Salt Lake City? San Antonio? All probably too small.

What else, Buffalo? Toronto wouldn’t be too crazy. Of course the O’s owner wasn’t too crazy about D.C. getting a team
again.


27 posted on 09/12/2013 7:59:12 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

should say Toronto wouldn’t be too crazy about it.


28 posted on 09/12/2013 8:00:24 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Tupelo
Major League Baseball, like the NFL has too many teams.

That's a common refrain, but were the 16 MLB teams we had in 1960 the "right" size?

We had 179 million people living in America. We haven't quite doubled the number of teams nor the national population, but the ratio is still quite similar. Add that to the fact that baseball is far more internationalized now, commanding large audiences not only in Latin America but also in Japan.

How many famous Latin American players can you name from the 1960s? Minnesota had a plethora of them (Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Camilio Pascqual) but they were the exception and not the rule. Now teams without at least three or four Latin American players are the exception.

The first Japanese player, Masanori Murakami, debuted for the San Francisco Giants in 1962. It would take nearly two decades before we had another (Hideo Nomo). Now almost every team has at least one.

So, unless the general population has suddenly become less talented, I don't think talent dilution holds much argument. American talent has (maybe) lessened. Organized kids baseball is (maybe) one big reason. While, on one hand, a kid (maybe) gets better coaching and the like, they also get a chance to actually bat, pitch and field less in an entire summer than kids of my generation did in a couple of afternoons when we organized our own games and it was the center of our lives rather than just one more diversion.

Of course, even that argument goes out the window when you throw in the international talent.

29 posted on 09/12/2013 8:03:34 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: US Navy Vet

>>1. Bud Selig

I remember the year the All Star Game at Milwaukee wound up in a “tie”...later came “this time it counts!” Selig’s fellow owners sure like him

>>2. Tampa Bay “Rays”
For a time did OK, even getting into World Series, but attendance a problem—and fans had some sort of annoying
thing they used, vuvuzuelas or blowhorns or something...

>>3. Interleague “Play”
Some may be OK but they overdid it.

>>4. 1994
Indeed the strike

>>5. The “DH”
As a Red Sox fan (but I kinda cheer for some other teams—I like the city of Pitt. and hope the Pirates do well), I’m a confessed American League bigot. I do like the DH. But it’s gotta either be in both leagues or neither, none of this “well it’s an at AL park, so...”. I like scoring. Then again now that they’re cleaning up the steroids, pitchers again
have the upper hand and yes a “pitcher’s duel” can be fun too. I just don’t like when pitchers have to bat—they could get injured and really affect a team, or they kill a rally. A few years ago Rangers played Giants in World Series. I cheered for the AL as usual (if Yanks are in WS I make an exception), and they had a rally going—oops, here comes the pitcher up to bat, as it was at the NL park. End of rally.


30 posted on 09/12/2013 8:05:10 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

(oops I mean the owners like him though Bud is no longer an owner I believe...used to be.)


31 posted on 09/12/2013 8:06:04 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

People who DESERVE to go to HELL:
Charlie Findley(for screwing up the MLB Uniform and for the “inflicting” the”DH” on MLB)
Robert Moses(for Screwing over Walter O’Malley and forcing him out of Brooklyn(NYC) and when The Dodgers left they “towed” The Giants with them to the West Coast)
Pete Rose(for screwing up a DAMN GOOD MLB Career with doing something STUPID(Gambling on his own team))


32 posted on 09/12/2013 8:15:55 AM PDT by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: raccoonradio
What else, Buffalo?

Loved most of your comments, but had to laugh at this one. Been to Buffalo lately? Or even nearby Rochester?

Both are poster children for once great towns in decline. (Their motto: "At least Detroit is doing worse!") Rochester has the once great Taj Mahal of Eastman-Kodak headquarters. Buffalo has the buffalo statues by the interstates which are kind of cool.

Beyond that, they have far more history to brag about than present. Buffalo manages to support a fairly pathetic NFL and NHL franchise because they are football and hockey crazy. Both Buffalo and Rochester manage to support (barely) AAA baseball teams which are only marginally successful both at the box office and on the field.

Not exactly the ingredients necessary to support a MLB franchise even if you could combine both markets, which I think is doable if the other ingredients were in place. But they're not.

33 posted on 09/12/2013 8:16:19 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: US Navy Vet

and now, replay review
(tho I like the dh)


34 posted on 09/12/2013 8:19:35 AM PDT by Seajay (Ordem e Progresso)
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To: Vigilanteman

Ha, well I was thinking Buff. never did get an MLB team.. I haven’t really been in Buffalo other than driving thru it on way to Toronto and even that was awhile ago. Rochester too—
in the 90s, maybe...but I can picture them being in decline
easily.
But yes you can lump Buff. in with those cities that prob wouldn’t do well if they got an MLB team.


35 posted on 09/12/2013 8:20:03 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Seajay

Even little league world series has been using replay review too.


36 posted on 09/12/2013 8:20:37 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

yeah, florida is just too hot and old to support a baseball team. Plus there is too much other fun stuff to do. The Devil Rays should move. Good candidate cities include:

1. Indianapolis: New baseball only stadium that can be expanded. Great location - growing population with very strong attendance at their minor league games already.

2. Raliegh-Durham: Beautiful nearly new stadium known as the Camden Yards of the south. Strong attendance - outstanding and deep rooted baseball tradition no other area in the country can beat. Also exceptionally large base of high income fans to draw from. Former northerners that have migrated, would love to see those teams visit. Also near RTP which is home to the nation’s largest tech companies including IBM, Cisco, SAS, etc from which the team can draw strong day time attendance, business group functions,etc.

3. Vegas: Old standby wanna team town. Hitting the skids since the recession.

My vote would be for Raleigh Durham. They are the Rays main farm team already. Just move the organization up there, make tampa the AAA team. Keep the Durham Bulls name - and let the Durham Bulls beat the New York Yankees in the next world series!


37 posted on 09/12/2013 8:25:12 AM PDT by Deathtomarxists (hillarie's feet stink - trust me - i knew her pedicurists!)
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To: raccoonradio

There is a spirited move in Montreal to bring baseball back. Charlotte and Portland have been wanting MLB for years as well.


38 posted on 09/12/2013 8:25:59 AM PDT by Buckeye Battle Cry (Audentis Fortuna Iuvat)
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To: Deathtomarxists
Either Indianapolis or RD would be great for the reasons you mentioned.

Vegas, not so much. Not even if they got lucky and were able to reproduce the successful Arizona model. The town is just far too cyclical and single-industry oriented. Either Portland or Salt Lake City would be a better choice. And neither would be particularly good.

39 posted on 09/12/2013 8:30:36 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Vigilanteman

Nashville has NFL and NHL. Closest cities with teams are Atlanta and Cincinnati which are both NL teams. Move them there, put them in the AL Central and send Cleveland to the East.


40 posted on 09/12/2013 8:49:04 AM PDT by The Free Engineer
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