Dukes gets "personal day" off

UPDATE Manager Joe Maddon said the team gave Dukes "a personal day" off and did not know if Dukes would be with the team on Thursday.

"Elijah is not here today, and he's not going to be here today, and we're going to play one man short,'' Maddon said. "Just based on the events of today we gave him kind of a personal day and we're going to leave it at that.''

Maddon said he was "not sure" if Dukes would return to the team for Thursday's noon game, and that he had to talk more with executive VP Andrew Friedman "to really understand what we're going to do and what's going on with the whole situation.''

Maddon said he was informed by Friedman that Dukes "was not coming in.''

Friedman was not available before Wednesday's game, but he released a written statement through the team 30 minutes before first pitch.

"After conversations with Elijah and his agent today, the organization approved Elijah's absence tonight," Friedman said.

Also, B.J. Upton, out since Friday with a strained left quad, is again not available and it sounds as if could end up on the DL afterall.

------

Elijah Dukes is not in the Rays lineup Wednesday, following a report of more off-field issues. The decison to not play Dukes was unexpected, since the Rays have no other centerfielders available. As a result Delmon Young will play center for the first time this season and Greg Norton will play right. It did not appear Dukes was in the clubhouse as of 4 p.m., which is when the position players were due on the field. And he did not join them on the field.

Comments

[Jim Dietrich]

Why do we feel the need to constantly bash a guy who's not horrible in the field? If I go around and impregnate every woman I see, no one would care except the women carrying my children. You know why? Cause I'm a nobody. Just because you know his name doesn't give you the right to judge him for his personal life. The keyword in that sentence is "personal". If I pryed into someone's life like this, I'd have a restraining order put against me. This type of coverage is an insult to people with some sort of intelligence and a waste of space.

What we really need to be focusing on is Maddon's insistance on keeping an atrocious player like Edwin Jackson in the line up. Before last night, it was plain awful, 0-7, 7.+ ERA in 13 starts. And after his start last night, he's now 0-8, 8.20 ERA...I guess 5 runs in the first inning and only one out before being pulled will do that to you. He's now sunk to a new level of suckdom that's unfathomable. Yeah, his heat was 98+MPH, but that doesn't justify his inability to play the game. It's a crime to leave him in the rotation, and someone should pay for it.

And yet, we continue wasting time on a decent player who had some sexual indiscretions (OK, so that's being nice; this is a public forum, after all). However, we did nothing to Bill Clinton for doing the same thing (yeah, he was impeached, but that was farce as well), yet he was the greatest president of my lifetime. Let people's personal lives remain just that, personal, and report on bigger problems with the team, such as being the lowest paid franchise (Roger Clemens' salary this year alone ($28.4M) is more than the entire Rays' payroll ($24M)), marketing to areas 100+ miles away in hopes they'll come (people won't drive here from Tampa, why expect Brooksville, Ft. Myers, or Orlando residents to come?), and dealing with the pitching problems (they're getting better, but people like Jackson should be remanded to Princeton (WV, our A team) for all eternity), not someone's sex life. Grow up; this is the 21st Century and yes, people will have sex outside marriage. It's about time the media realized it and left it alone.

[Robert Walker]

The idea of trading Dukes at this point is ridiculous, unless perhaps he is traded to a team in the California Penal League. The Rays management, if they had a clue, should have recognized the type of person he was and should have stuck another team with him during the last off-season. It's too late now, in more ways than one.

[Josh]

Lets hope Dukes is sitting because there is a trade imminent.

On another note, Hammel has looked good so far tonight, considering he had to unexpectedly start, and the Pads started the game with 5 runs...wait, youre saying that was Edwin Jackson that started and gave up 5 only getting 1 out? i am shocked.

5.2 IP, 3ER and 8K means Hammel likely will be getting the nod instead of Jackson next week. Good riddance.

[Dale]

I'm starting to think the ray's are a Class A organization and I'm talking about their morals not their play. It's time to cut ties with dukes he's a time bomb ready to go off. Baseball has made it's stand about steroid use to the youth of america and I applaud them for it, now answer me this how can you justify his action to our youth?