Barry Bonds had his black leather recliner. Troy Percival has a water cooler.
Oh noes! Another Barry Bonds sighting in a Rays newspaper.... {/smacks head on desk)
But wait, there's more...
The venerable apparatus sits alongside Percival's locker in the Naimoli Complex clubhouse with a sign taped to the tank that reads "Percival use only!" It was a gift from the Rays' clubhouse attendants, presented after the veteran reliever complained that he couldn't find a bottle of water anywhere following one of his early workouts at the complex.
The most interesting part of this story was this...
When Percival was perusing his options this offseason, he saw similar qualities in a group managed by a man he trusts and believes in, Joe Maddon, and decided to take a leap of faith rather than take more money to be a setup man for the perennially contending Yankees.
"You look at the Yankees - they're obviously a much more experienced team, a very talented team," he said. "But this team ought to go talent-for-talent with anybody if we can get them to believe it. That's something that I relish, getting the opportunity to come in here with you guys and say, 'Look, we can go position-for-position with them.' We can do that. There's not many teams out there that we can't go position-for-position with."
"You look at the Yankees - they're obviously a much more experienced team, a very talented team," he said. "But this team ought to go talent-for-talent with anybody if we can get them to believe it. That's something that I relish, getting the opportunity to come in here with you guys and say, 'Look, we can go position-for-position with them.' We can do that. There's not many teams out there that we can't go position-for-position with."
You had me at hello, Troy. You had me at hello.