Look at the Rays’ run differential and look at the Twins’. There’s a big difference.
First pitch: 3:10 Central
Weather: National Weather Service still gutted, NASTY humid, 94°
Opponent’s SB site: DRays Bay
TV: Twins TV. Radio: Maybe Gladden might say “junkballer,” could be
Rays starter Zack Littell was, for a few years, a Twin, or (mostly) in the Twins’ minors. He came to the team in 2017, during a weird stretch where the Twins decided they wanted starting pitching help, and traded for Jaime Garcia, who pitched in one game. Then the Twins decided they were sellers and traded Garcia, all in the space of a week. The verifiable genius of the Falvine at its far-seeing best. Littell’s played for seven different teams, now, at age 29; he is married and the Littells have two kids. I dunno if the fam goes with him to every new team, but it can’t be easy in any case.
Littell leads with his slider and splitter; his low-90s fastball and sinker are his secondary pitches. What they used to call a junkballer, although you don’t hear that phrase much, anymore. 2025 digits:
What’s up with the Rays? Well, they are better than the Twins. That’s one thing. Their former shortstop, Wander Franco, was recently convicted of a hideous crime in the Dominican Republic, that’s another thing. Two years’ suspended sentence. He’s under contract through 2032, for an additional $160 million, although he may not be able to get a US work visa at this point, and is currently on MLB’s restricted list, meaning he isn’t being paid a dime right now. (Good.)
If the Rays make the playoffs, and advance far enough, they may have to play in a different location than the single-A George Steinbrenner Field. That’s quite a few ifs.
Supposedly, the Rays are “in advanced talks” with a potential buyer, a Florida real-estate swindler developer. That was two weeks ago, and there hasn’t been much news about this since. The site I linked to wrote that 2024’s Hurricane Milton “took the roof off the St. Petersburg, Fla. ballpark and stalled local government plans to fund a new building,” which is half true. The roof half. The new stadium deal fell through because owner Stu Sternberg backed out of getting $1 billion in free money for unknown reasons, perhaps because he wants MORE, perhaps because he’s worried about rising construction costs, perhaps because MLB wants him gone. (Although they don’t mind John Fisher being an even bigger idiot in Sacramento. Here is an excellent article about how much of an idiot Fisher is being. Quantity: max idiot.)
In any case, Hurricane Milton had little to do with the new stadium deal going sour.
When the “talks” were announced, some folks were wondering around here if the possible sale price of the Rays — rather more than Forbes has the team valued at — could mean a higher selling price for the Twins. (It’s thought, by some, that the Pohlads’ asking price is too high, and that’s driving away potential buyers.)
That’s a reasonable question/speculation. My guess though, is that the Rays’ sale price (whatever it is and whenever it happens) won’t affect the Twins’ price at all. I would imagine that if the Rays are going for more than expected, it’s because the potential buyer(s) think they can get a sweeter stadium deal than Sternberg can. Which is possible — but the Twins cannot start blackmailing Minnesota for a new stadium for another few years, at least. (Their lease is up in 2040; the Rays’ is through 2028.)
I must say, that with massive federal cuts to social services happening right now, and getting far worse in years to come, it is not just a foolish waste of taxpayer money to spend it on stadiums. It is immoral. It is a great wrong. But, it’s not like Florida gives a crap what happens to their most vulnerable citizens, anyways. After a hospital company executive was golden-parachuted for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare, he was elected governor of Florida. Twice. And then Senator. Twice.
I’m personally at the point where I hate any baseball team that’s demanded and gotten public money. So I hate them all. Including the Twins. However, every team can’t lose EVERY game, so I guess I want the Twins to suffer less than whatever other team they’re playing. I like hanging on these gamethreads with you folks, at any rate.
Just a few more odds and ends… the Rays changed their name from the “Devil Rays” back in 2007, when Sternberg said they wanted to break from the past. When they announced the name change and the accompanying new uniforms, actor Kevin Costner was there, performing country music with his band, Modern West. OK.
Some people had always disliked the name “Devil Rays” since it had the word “devil” in it, and they thought this was Satanic, because Florida has a large number of idiots. Originally, the team had wanted to be the Stingrays, but found out a winter-league team in Hawaii owned that trademark, and were too cheap to buy it from them. So they went with Devil Rays instead.
Both animals can be found in local ocean waters, and both are non-aggressive towards humans. (They couldn’t eat a human, unless the human was chopped into minnow-sized pieces.) Stingrays, as their name implies, do have a venomous stinger. Do not step on one. A stingray killed “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, only the second death-by-stingray on record in Australia.
Tropicana Field, assuming the team ever plays there again, has a tank in the outfield stands with several types of rays in it, and Florida Aquarium employees to provide educational Fish Facts. Before 2021, it was possible for home run balls to land in the tank, needlessly terrifying the poor fish (it has netting on top now). Among the fish-frighteners was then-Tiger Nelson Cruz, and then-Twin Robbie Grossman. Who tries hard, gets on base, and scares fish, plus he’s a free agent right now. So hey, Twins, next time you need to fill out that roster…
Final note: BH-Baseball brought to our attention that Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz has been placed on paid leave, pending MLB investigation into some “suspicious” pitches he threw in two June games. In both cases, there had been an unusually large amount of gambling money placed on those particular pitches to have a particular outcome.
(The information came from a company called “IC360,” which MLB has contracted to keep an eye on these things. IC360 provides services to the other major sports, too. The company’s website has a .io domain name, and .io means your domain name is registered in the British Indian Ocean territories, such as the island of Diego Garcia. When I knew shipping people, which was a long time ago, Diego Garcia was pretty famed as a place where sailors on ships could REALLY go to town with various shore-time indulgences. So that’s what that is.)
It saddens me that this instance involves Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz, and not 52-year-old former Twins pitcher Ramón Ortiz (no relation). Because Ramón Ortiz was in one of my favorite baseball stories. I’ll share it again, anyways. It’s from Bengie Molina’s fine autobiography, Molina. That book’s largely about Bengie Molina’s difficult-yet-loving relationship with his dad, Bengie Sr. And that stuff’s heartbreakingly good. But it also has Silly Baseball Stories in it.
When Ramón Ortiz was with the Angels, Mike Scioscia was the manager, and enjoyed doing silly things to keep the mood fun. One time, Scioscia brought an ostrich into the locker room. Ortiz freaked, and started screaming “el pollo grande!”
You see, when Ortiz was little, his parents owned a chicken farm. So he thought the ostrich was a giant chicken, there to extract revenge for all its fallen brethren.
You are now hereby required to shout “el pollo grande!” every time you see an ostrich in real life or in a movie/TV show, and DO NOT EXPLAIN WHY. Keep it mysterious!
