D Ray origins

by blazinrayz on May 28, 2008 1:24 PM EDT

sorry about the terrible title, but I noticed some cool things about our current 25 man roster...

6 players (Garza, Howell, Percival, Shields, Gomes, Bartlett), and our manager (Maddon) are from CA

2 players from TX (Crawford, Kazmir), both natives of Houston

only 1 player from FL (Riggans)

2 players from IL (Floyd, Zobrist)

5 players born outside the country, surprisingly only 3 latin players (Pena, Reyes- DR, Navarro- Venezuela). The other 2 being Jackson- Germany and Aki- Japan

1 Ray player (Sonny) and 1 soon to be ex-Ray (Glover) from OH

7 remaning players from different states in the US.

I find it interesting that the majority of our team -born outside Cali- are from different places scattered around the country, and planet. Also, it is very odd that only 3 of our players are hispanic, and our team is comprised mostly of whites and blacks. Even our biggest losses from last year, Harris, Norton, Wilson, Camp, Dukes and Young, are either black or white. Our team is kind of unique in this day and age

This post was written by a member of the DRaysBay community and does not necessarily express the views or opinions of DRaysBay staff.

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The small number of Latin players is probably in large part due to the past small presence in Latin America for the Rays which consisted of a working agreement with a now defunct Mexican League team in Mexico City and a short-lived Dominican summer league team in the 1990’s. The D’Rays did sign some Mexican players in the late during that time, including Jorge Cantu, Humberto Cota (originally signed by the Braves during LaMar’s tenure in Atlanta), our one-time pitching prospect Gerardo Garcia and minor league/Mexican League catcher Iker Franco.

Since the Rays establishment, the only Latin players who were signed and developed in the Rays system to make it to the majors have been Jorge Cantu as well as Dominican relievers Juan Salas (used to be 3B), Bartolome Fortunato (traded in the Kazmir deal) and Jose Veras (w/ the Yankees) who were coincidentally all later revealed to be older than originally thought when signed.

Longlorious.

by RATW on May 28, 2008 2:52 PM EDT reply actions

Edwin Jackson is german?

by Cory Alexander on May 28, 2008 6:18 PM EDT reply actions

Military brat...

Also, we have one of the higher percentages of black (non-hispanic) players. You could call us the anti-braves. How funny was it when the Braves let Andruw go and replaced him w/ Kotsay?

by rglass44 on May 28, 2008 6:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Ahh you beat me

"Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me." -Dusty Baker on OBP

by vtcub on May 28, 2008 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions

He's American, just born in Germany.

His father was in the army and was stationed in Germany.

"Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me." -Dusty Baker on OBP

by vtcub on May 28, 2008 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions

I tried making this into a fanshot, but I might be the only person who got confused by those things lol.

by blazinrayz on May 28, 2008 8:39 PM EDT reply actions

Try using the 'Quote' or chat feature

And just start typing in the boxes. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an actual sourced quote, that is just the forum in which to write short things.

Again, I would appreciate it if people wrote their shorter FanPosts in the FanShot section, and I appreciate the thought on your part to try, but your post is long enough that I have no problem with it being where it is.

by Patrick L. Kennedy on May 28, 2008 9:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Your awfully pushy for a punk without a drivers license...

jk! I just love mock mocking things that are beyond people’s control. WHY AREN”T YOU OLDER!!!! YOUR PARENTS SHOULD HAVE CONCEIVED SOONER!!!

by rglass44 on May 28, 2008 11:45 PM EDT reply actions

I'm a natural-born tight ass

by Patrick L. Kennedy on May 29, 2008 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions

TopGunNumba1 is an older and actually funny version of Patrick.

"I've seen many, many blue skies turn gray, but the sun will eventually return, and so will I. So will I." - Carlos Pena

by R.J. Anderson on May 29, 2008 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions

lol you lost me

by blazinrayz on May 29, 2008 12:11 AM EDT reply actions

How so?

What can I help you with? I want you to understand the functional uses of this site as much as possible so you can maximize their usefulness, so just tell me what you need clarification on from the statement above? That goes for everyone else as well, if you have a question about how to do certain things on the new platform, please feel free to ask. I won’t call you stupid. Publicly.

by Patrick L. Kennedy on May 29, 2008 12:17 AM EDT up reply actions