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Rays Trying To Feel At Home At Disney

By MARC LANCASTER The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 15, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Growing up in Hazleton, Pa., Joe Maddon and his friends knew all about climbing in the car and driving for a while to watch a big-league game.

He was about 90 minutes from Philadelphia, two hours from New York, 2 1/2 hours from Baltimore - all of those trips longer, he noted last week, than the drive from the Orlando area to St. Petersburg.

"When I thought about it in that perspective, the difference is the people that live [around Orlando] don't have a traditional kind of base built up with us," Maddon said. "As we get better, as we get more attractive, I would like to have the people of Orlando want us to be their team. Part of it is being more exposed to them, and I guess we're doing a better job regarding television getting over there. By getting there physically, having them see us, I think as we play better, I think they'll want to be Ray fans and they'll make the drive."

This week's pilgrimage to Central Florida for a three-game "homestand" against the Rangers at Disney's Wide World of Sports will be somewhere between a minor hassle and a huge logistical headache for the Rays.

It's a couple more nights in a hotel for most of the team, with the exception of area residents like first baseman Carlos Pena and pitching coach Jim Hickey; and getting used to a new infield, outfield and pitcher's mound. It's a remarkable amount of work for the support staff, from Chris Westmoreland and his clubhouse crew attempting to create a major-league environment in a spring training stadium to head trainer Ron Porterfield arranging for all the various medical services to be in place, including having ambulances on hand and a hospital designated just in case anyone needs to be rushed to emergency surgery.

Given a choice, just about everyone involved on the logistical side probably would rather play at Tropicana Field, but the Rays understand the reason behind the side trip and have found a way to get behind it.

"Hopefully more people from Orlando might get out to a game and realize we're a fun team to watch and they might make the drive over to the Trop," infielder Ty Wigginton said. "Orlando's really not that far away from the Trop, so you understand why we're doing it."

James Shields did his best to take advantage of the situation by - what else? - going to Disney World. He spent Monday at the park with his daughter and girlfriend, and Casey Fossum took his family, too.

Those pitchers will start the first two games of the series for the Rays, with Scott Kazmir to follow Thursday night, and Shields said they had a competitive reason to be happy about the temporary move to the Braves' spring training stadium.

"It's better off for us because it's actually more of a pitcher's park anyway," Shields said. "I don't mind that, especially when we've got an outfield that's as fast as we have and can get to those balls out there. It's going to be fun to watch."

When it all comes down to it, the three games at Disney will count just like the other 159. It's up to the Rays' marketing department to determine how successful the series is, and slow early ticket sales have team officials worried that they'll be embarrassed by anything less than a full house of around 9,500 showing up each night.

They're making this trip to show off their product, and they'd like as many new customers to see it as possible. So even though they're close to home, it won't be quite the same.

"It's going to have a road-trip feel to it, there's no doubt," Maddon said. "You've just got to be in denial if I said otherwise. We're going to be in a different city, in a hotel, in a different ballpark, so it's unique in that sense. Hopefully the fan base there will be for us and that'll give it more of a hometown feel."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.