Like the title says, it's a slow news day. There has been a trade today (Blue Jays acquired Yunel Escobar, if you hadn't heard) and some scuttlebutt, but none of it directly relating to the Rays. We've got two full days without any baseball, and it's shaping up to be just as long and dreary as I feared. And so, to help get us through, here are a couple blurbs that weren't quite big enough to be worthy of their own post:
Rays-Red Sox TV Ratings Blow-Out
This bit of information came to us last week from Amy Pempel (Fox Sports Florida):
This week's Tampa Bay Rays vs. Boston Red Sox 3-game series on Sun Sports was the highest-rated and most-watched Rays series on local television in more than 2 years. Plus, each of the 3 games this week ranked #1 for the entire day among all broadcast and cable programs in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market, based on Nielsen preliminary overnights.
I take this news to mean one encouraging thing: this fanbase is growing and it's growing rapidly. It hasn't translated into more butts in the seats at the Trop so far this season, but it's obvious that the Tampa area does care about the Rays. Anyone that still says this area can't support a major league, please shut up.
This is awesome. If you're a senior citizen and want to have a fun night out, you should definitely give this a look. The Rays love reaching out to different people and different groups, and this is just another great example.
We posted a couple of these videos when they first hit the interwebs, but the Stone Crabs have kept going and now have a total of eight SportsCenter commercial knock-offs. They're all awesome, but I recommend numbers one and six.