Mayor Baker invites you to a Rays party

ST. PETERSBURG -- Mayor Rick Baker and City Council Chairman James Bennett are inviting all baseball fans to a celebration when -- they did not say if -- the Tampa Bay Rays clinch the American League East Division title.

That could happen as early as this afternoon, if the Rays beat the Detroit Tigers.The Rays also play the Tigers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

When it happens -- not if, remember -- a street party will be held next to the popular sports bar Ferg's, which is at 1320 Central Ave., across from Tropicana Field.

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Comments

Where did all this money come from all of a sudden? I thought we were in “tough economic times” and had to layoff staff and cut services?

[Jimbo]

During these "tough economic times", people need a morale boost. Besides, who said the city's paying for it? Get over the pessimism and enjoy the ride. It's not like this happens every year (but it may from now on...?)

GO RAYS!!!

[Chuck]

9:32 is exactly the reason St. Petersburg is a national joke. You make me sick.

Hey poor @ss, don't buy $h@* you can't afford.

Loser.

I'm sorry Jimbo, you're right... everything is just perfect in our city, county, state, country, and world. There is no war, there is no econimic meltdown, everyone loves America, nobody has lost a job or house, and there's a Rays ticket in every pot!

I love the Rays too, but bill collectors will not take Sports euphoria as payment.

[Chuck]

My god whiny liberals make me SICK.

I'm better off today than I've ever been. The fact that you aren't means you don't have personal responsibility.

Also, I'd like to point out that I plan on selling my Rays tickets for $500 a piece.

Screw you poor boy.

[Jimbo]

Stop feeding the trolls, Chuck. They're getting fat off your retorts ;-)

Everybody needs to shut up and stop whining. The Rays are kicking butt this year and we need to celebrate!

[tunamanz]

Maybe everyone can show up with REMOVE THE TARPS signs. It is B.S. that the Rays are refusing to remove them. They complain about fans not showing and now they have more fans then they know what to do with. What do they do refuse to remove the tarps and turn fans away. Hello.....these are the same fans that you want to vote on the new stadium. What the heck are the Rays mgmt thinking? Mayor Baker needs to step in on this one!

[Jake]

This is why the Rays don't sellout games. Move the stadium to Tampa where real fans will support the team.

St. Pete doesn't deserve any professional sports teams.

[Daniel]

Agreed regarding the tarps. They're going to keep 6,000 fans a night from seeing the Rays in the playoffs!

What do you mean sold-out, there are a few thousand seats up there!

[mo]

TAKE THE TARPS OFF!

[jakeisanidiot]

Jake there were a couple sellouts this year. They ended the year averaging over 22,000 per game. Your stupidity is amazing. Please stay in Tampa so your sickness doesn't spread to St Pete.

[bayrays]

Hey jake,
if you were a REAL sports fan, you would support the team whether it be in St. Pete, Sarasota, or where-ever. Tampans need to stop believing they have a better city. They dont. Get over the bs attitude and celebrate the AREA...Tampa Bay is a REGION, NOT a city.

[tunamanz]

As far as Tampa goes....I heard the Tampa Mayor on the radio this morning say that she is hosting a last regular game of the year party on Friday at a park near the forum. Last time I checked the last regular game is Sunday! Maybe she should have paid attention more during the year instead of being a band wagon jumper!

[Brian]

Oh quit whining, the sky isn't falling chicken little! Just because we are approaching tough economic times, doesn't mean that life as we know it is over. Geez, quit crying, with hard work, a TRUE American spirit, and a positive attitude, we as Americans can make it through anything.

On that note, GO RAYS! I will certainly be down there for the party.

[RealRaysFan]

If you're a "real Rays fan" living in Tampa then a short drive to St. Pete shouldn't be a problem - so shut your pie hole. Real fans support their teams and will drive to see playoff games.

In these tough economic times the one of the only "Rays" of light this part of Florida has is this baseball team. We should celebrate. The celebration is free, so what is the problem with it? If you can't afford free you're a grinch and should stay home anyway.

Go Rays! Take the tarps off owners, you want fans, you got em, now accommodate them.

[ScalpersRJerks]

Chuck, you're a jerk, $500 each? So scalping tickets is why you're better off now than ever before? Get real. True fans pay reasonable prices and won't gouge another fan.

[Pete]

Go Rays!

Jimbo and Chuck....go get a room so you can have an 'intimate' celebration together.

[Jimbo]

I'm gonna tell the people from Tampa the same thing I tell anyone else who thinks the Trop's in the "worst location" and it "needs to move to Tampa" to work.

You're not going to get the pros of the Trop site than you will anywhere else in the Bay Area: it's next to three interstates, it's completely central to three cities with 100K+ population (Clearwater, Tampa, Bradenton/Sarasota) while being in a city of 250K of its own, it's not near any strip clubs/casinos that would give people other excuses about why "I won't go there with my family", and it's in a downtown (granted I prefer the waterfront location, but if we can't have that, this will do nicely, if it's just reworked); lemme see you try to get that in Tampa. We could always demo that travesty of Channelside and put it there, but you still have the ingress/egress problem and too many strip clubs to count; besides, if the neighbors around the Ford Amp have has huge of a problem with that venue as they do, what makes you think they'll ever go for a baseball stadium, especially when there's no way to turn the dB's down to their liking?

Point is, there's no "end-all, be-all" solution, and someone will always feel slighted, no matter where it is. People have to realize that Tampa's not the center of population; it may be (currently) the largest city in the metro, but the center of the 4-million population is here in St. Pete. Sorry, Brooksville and beyond, but there's not enough up there to justify a northward move. Orlando and Lakeland are not that bad of drives, so long as they, too, take the alternate routes (namely the Crosstown Expressway and the Skyway, which is actually much quicker and easier than it looks on paper), and if people like me can go to the Orlando series from St. Pete, they can reciprocate just as easily.

[Jimbo]

And I agree, the tarps need to come down. They'll probably come down for the ALCS, so long as there's a huge push for them. I see the reasoning why Stu et al want to keep it closed; it gives people who have never been a bad experience since the catwalks are right in the way. However, that should outweigh the positives of opening them up: more attendance, more money, and more cowbells.

And yeah...Chuck, you suck! Scalping is horrible, though it is a free market, so if someone wants to pay $500 for a $20 ticket, they're just perpetuating it. Make the scaplers suffer...don't buy the ticket!

GO RAYS!!!!

[Bobbert]

I am not a baseball fan but - I am a taxpayer....So....Could the Mayor just mail me a check for the cost of my share of the party?

[Bill Gates]

Hey Chuck,
Not everyone is a whiny liberal, so if you are going to inject your conservative clap trap, then save us the annoyance and go back to listening to Rush Pillpopper on your AM radio.

I am a liberal, I make a lot more money than you can dream of, and I also help out my fellow man instead of being a greedy putz who sells baseball tickets at 10 times the face value.

Obama/Biden 2008

Gotta decline the invitation. I have an economic and foreign policy briefing with my dog.

Jeez, I can't stand Rick Baker, but you people are just nuts! He didn't say he was buying $700 billion worth of beer for the whole city to get smashed on. He said a party. My guess is Ferg's will have plenty of beer to sell and maybe they will have a high school band there and maybe some of the players will come sign autographs. Big deal! How much will that cost?

[Gaston]

You can always count on a few killjoys to rain on the parade.