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Gov. Ron DeSantis red-lined the $35 million budget item approved by the House and Senate to build a youth sports complex in Pasco County. The Rays clearly hoped to move their spring training headquarters there from Port Charlotte. DeSantis gave two reasons for the veto. The first: the Governor said he doesn’t “support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums, period.” He’s not wrong there. But the other reason was more in line with his “think like I do, or else” agenda. After the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, the Rays donated $50,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety. They tweeted: “We...

At least five players on the Tampa Bay Rays roster opted not to wear a patch the team added to their uniforms intended to celebrate Pride month in Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox (box score). During the team's 16th annual Pride Night celebration Rays caps and uniforms had logos colored in the style of the modern LGBTQ+ pride flag, but not everyone in the clubhouse chose to participate. Pitchers Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Thompson were among the players who did not wear the patch on their uniforms and chose to wear...

DeSantis’s decision is in response to the Rays politicizing recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde ahead of a matchup with the Yankees in May. Here’s what the Rays posted before the start of the game: (at link) The decision follows DeSantis’ response to Disney earlier this year. In April, DeSantis revoked Disney’s special tax and self-governing privileges after the company injected itself into the debate over a Florida parental rights law, inaccurately dubbed as “Don’t Say Gay.” DeSantis is giving a voice to the people who do not want their sports and children’s companies on the front lines of the...

The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays suspended their usual game coverage on Twitter to draw attention to gun violence within the United States. Typically, the two organizations’ Twitter accounts post live states about the game being played. Instead, they posted statistics about gun violence on Thursday. The move by the two Major League Baseball teams comes in the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.

“Seeding the Cosmos for Life” –From Supernova to Super Bubbles Posted on Jul 29, 2021 in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Science Supernova explosions release as much energy in a second as our Sun will in its entire 10-billion year existence. Without supernovae, “there would be no computer chips, trilobites, Mozart or the tears of a little girl,” wrote science writer Clifford A. Pickover.When a massive star explodes at the end of its life, the explosion ejects essential elements – carbon, oxygen, and iron – that form the basis for life across the universe. The supernovae also release tremendous amounts of radiative,...

Astronomers have observed record-breaking photons that strain classical theories of accelerationA little before sunrise on July 4, A.D. 1054, imperial astronomers of the Song Dynasty in China spotted an unknown star lighting up the eastern sky. “It’s as bright as Venus, with pointed rays in all four directions and a reddish-white color,” they wrote in notes delivered to the emperor. The glow, which remained visible to the naked eye during the day for almost a month, was from an explosion caused by the spectacular death of a star located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus. Its relics are...

Joe Buck’s necessities for the next two weeks: one giant suitcase, two garment bags, plenty of room service and at least nine novel coronavirus tests. That’s the price of entry for the unusual stretch he is in, calling what could be 13 baseball games and four football games in 18 days. As the sports schedule has been scrambled this fall by the pandemic, Buck, the lead play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports’s baseball and football coverage, has seen his itinerary warped, too. Image without a caption “The silver lining in all of this, at least in my life, is baseball is...

In the latest TV ratings, Fox’s coverage of the World Series opener between the Dodgers and Rays averaged 7.2 million total viewers and a Tuesday-topping 1.8 demo rating — though down sharply from the preliminary numbers (11.6 mil/2.9) for last year’s Nationals/Astros Game 1. Check back later for the final tally! NBC | The Voice (7.5 mil/1.0) was down a tick from Monday’s premiere, but teed up Transplant for Stateside highs of 4.3 mil/0.6. ABC | The Bachelorette (4.1 mil.1.1) slipped about 20 percent from last week. Leading out of that, a Supermarket Sweeeeeeep! encore did 1.8 mil and a...

The Rays saluted the LGTBQ community with Pride Night Friday, but unlike some franchises, the team’s commemorative night did not represent a new endeavor for the Rays. SB Nation reports that this is the first year every MLB team will feature a special recognition of the community, but it’s been a regular staple in Tampa Bay for many years.

ST. PETERSBURG — Tropicana Field will become the first cashless sports venue in North American, the Rays announced Friday. The Rays said tests with analytics and emerging tech firm E15 showed that switching to cash-free will cut transaction times in half. Payment forms to be accepted at Tropicana Field this season include major credit cards, Rays gift cards, mobile payments such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay and season-ticket holder Rays Cards, the team announced in a press release. Fans without electronic forms of payment can exchange cash at all retail locations and through roaming gift-card vendors in $10 and...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The earth is on track for its hottest year on record and warming at a faster rate than expected, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday. Temperatures recorded mainly in the northern hemisphere in the first six months of the year, coupled with an early and fast Arctic sea ice melt and "new highs" in heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels, point to quickening climate change, it said. June marked the 14th straight month of record heat, the United Nations agency said. It called for speedy implementation of a global pact reached in Paris last December to limit...

A fan attending Saturday night's Tampa Bay-Pittsburgh game in Bradenton, Florida, was arrested after charging the field and throwing two bottles into the Rays dugout in an apparent protest of the team's trip to Cuba earlier this week. Bradenton police arrested a man of Cuban descent in the top of the seventh inning at McKechnie Field and charged him with trespassing, assault and starting affray, Lt. John Affolter said.

Cosmic rays fired at Earth - now we know where from The violent region at the centre of our galaxy is the prime candidate, after gamma ray analysis, Bill Condie reports. Photo montage of gamma-rays as measured by the HESS array on the night sky over Namibia, with one of the small HESS telescopes in the foreground. Credit: H.E.S.S. Collaboration, Fabio Acero and Henning Gast Astronomers believe they may have identified the source of the stream of cosmic rays that rain down on Earth from outer space. Cosmic rays are extremely high-energy particles such as protons and atomic nuclei....

The Mariners and Rays have announced a three-for-three trade that sends infielder/outfielder Brad Miller, first baseman Logan Morrison, and reliever Danny Farquhar from Seattle to Tampa in exchange for righty Nate Karns, lefty C.J. Riefenhauser, and minor league outfielder Boog Powell. With the trade, new Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has made a striking first major move. The key piece, of course, is the 27-year-old Karns, who put up a solid 147-inning campaign last year, working to a 3.67 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9. He’ll bring ample, cheap control with him to the Mariners, even if he regresses (and/or...

Big business has come out in favor of same-sex marriage. Exactly 379 corporations and employer organizations urged the Supreme Court to strike down state bans on gay marriage, according to a friend-of-the-court brief obtained by The Huffington Post. The document was expected to be filed late Thursday morning. “Employers are better served by a uniform marriage rule that gives equal dignity to employee relationships,” reads the brief, filed by global law firm Morgan Lewis. “Allowing same-sex couples to marry improves employee morale and productivity, reduces uncertainty, and removes the wasteful administrative burdens imposed by the current disparity of state law...

After nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Joe Maddon is moving on. He won’t manage the Rays in 2015. After nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Joe Maddon is moving on. He won’t manage the Rays in 2015. Joe Maddon will no longer be the Tampa Bay Rays’ manager. The team issued this statement from owner Stuart Sternberg this afternoon: “Joe Maddon has exercised an opt-out in his current contract, a contract which was not scheduled to expire until after the 2015 season. We tried diligently and aggressively to sign Joe to a third contract extension prior to his decision. As of...

Craig Kimbrel is supposedly the heir to Mariano Rivera. In his postseason career as closer, Rivera recorded 27 appearances of 2+ innings. Uribe bunted two balls foul, ... and then tomahawked a high fastball from David Carpenter into left-field stands for a shocking two-run homer .... Note that I wrote "David Carpenter" and not "Craig Kimbrel." The Braves had to win this game. Lose, and they go home. Somehow they lost -- in the late innings, no less -- without using the most dominant relief pitcher in the game. The sad thing is, Gonzalez apparently didn't even think of using...

So this is very cool. William Dillon was sent to prison for murder at the age of 21 and spent the next 27 years behind bars. The only problem is that Dillon didn't commit that murder, as was later proved, thanks in large part to the necessary work of the Innocence Project. Dillon, though, doesn't seem to be consumed by bitterness (which would be thoroughly understandable). Rather, he's making the most of his newfound freedom. For instance, he asked to sing the National Anthem before a Rays game, and on Wednesday night that wish was granted ...

“Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.” -James Jeans Here on Earth, every living thing is based around four fundamental, elemental building blocks of life: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and, perhaps most importantly, carbon.Image Credit: Robert Johnson / University of Pennsylvania. From diamonds to nanotubes to DNA, carbon is indispensable for constructing practically all of the most intricate structures we know of. Most of the carbon in our world comes from long-dead stars, in the form of Carbon-12: carbon atoms containing six neutrons in their nucleus. About 1.1% of all carbon is Carbon-13, with one...

Fifty-two years and countless oven-hot pies later, Ray’s Pizza — the Ray’s Pizza — will serve its last slice on Prince Street on Sunday. The pizzeria announced its imminent closing over the summer, but only last week settled on the hard date. The closing follows a legal dispute over rent and a lease that followed its owner’s death in 2008. The manager of Ray’s, Helen Mistretta, 79, said that while a new pizzeria seemed ready to move into the location, the future of Ray’s Pizza and the Italian restaurant next door that shares its name remained uncertain. “I went to...