Sternberg: October dreaming

The optimism flowing through the Rays clubhouse has reached principal owner Stuart Sternberg, who admitted he has to temper some of it, but still said Tuesday during his first visit to camp he thought the team could be good enough to make the playoffs.
"I would think if everybody produces to the best of their abilities, we could be - could be - talking about October,'' Sternberg said. "If guys don't really get it done and get hurt or what not, we're not going to be so doing well.''
Sternberg declined to make a specific prediction or projection on the number of wins, but said he would continue to have a goal of 50 home wins. And, perhaps more realistically, he shared this vision:
"What I would love to have happen, you don't know October is going to look like, but you'd like to get well into the summer, into August and see that the guys are performing real well and that you're withing at least shouting distance and that you're making some noise, making some trouble. If we can stay out of a bad stretch like we did last year, we had a real rough spot in July, I think that's very possible.''

Other tidbits from a nearly half-hour chat with area reporters:
* He said there would be flexibility during the season to further raise the payroll that had already been increased more than 70 percent to around $42-million.
* That while there is a relationship between the number of games the team wins and the number of votes cast for the team's new stadium proposal, the team was not focusing on the connection. "I know it's there, but what I try to do and what I've instilled in the organization ... is to remove as many variables as I can from any equation. So I said to them immediately is take the stadium out of it,'' he said.
* Asked about potentially signing Barry Bonds, Sternberg cited team policy to not discuss individual players but certainly sounded as if he was open to it, saying "payroll wouldn't be an issue" and in discussing how the Rays have dealt with controversial players in the past, said: "When there's opportunity, nothing frightens me, and you deal with it as comes around.''

Comments

[Frank LaChat]

If Mr. Sternberg can take the stadium out of the equation for the players, I do hope he can also take it out of the equation for the taxpayers and owners of the waterfront property he so desparately wants to turn into a memorial for his team. We cannot afford to indulge him or any other billionaire who wants to feed at the public trough.

He, and his highly paid staff, are busy trying to convince the voters that getting rid of a perfectly adequate structure with only $109,000,000 in outstanding debt is a good idea because it will employ a lot of construction workers. So would remodeling that perfectly adequate stadium, adding a multi-story parking structure, and then building on the Trop asphalt. Best of all, the construction jobs could start faster because it would not require the voters consent.

Given the state of the state's economy, all we can expect is more cuts in services and more unfunded mandates from Tallahassee, or from Washington via Tallahassee. We don't need anyone else, especially not a private business, telling us how to spend our money.

Mr. Sternberg, keep your hands out of my pockets and your baseballs off my waterfront.