Running off at the typewriter …
The Tampa Bay Rays are 12-0 after Wednesday night’s 9-7 win over the Boston Red Sox and one win shy of tying the record for the best start in Major League Baseball history — and still it doesn’t matter.
The Rays are one of the best-run organizations in professional sports and do more with less than any team in any sport, yet they still have the fourth-worst attendance in all of baseball. Which is better than last year and the year before when they were third-worst in attendance even though they made the playoffs in both seasons. And in case you were wondering, the last time they made the World Series during a non-COVID season was 2008 when they had the fifth-worst attendance in the league.
If you’re scoring at home, the Orlando Magic, which just finished the NBA season 14 games below .500, outdraw the Rays. The Magic averaged 17,765 fans this season at the Amway Center while the undefeated Rays are averaging 16,769 fans at Tropicana Field.
Translation: The Tampa Bay area simply doesn’t deserve such a quality team. Time to demolish the idea that baseball will ever work there.
Raze the Rays!
Move them to Orlando!
Short stuff: Glad to see that the Florida Gators just restructured and renamed their NIL collective, which now has been rebranded as “Florida Victorious.” Sounds like AD Scott Stricklin, after the Jaden Rashada fiasco, said enough is enough and decided to put some very smart business people in charge of the new collective. After the clownish way the old collective handled the Rashada situation, I guess you can say UF’s NIL arm has gone from “Florida Uproarious” to “Florida Victorious.” … Maybe Orlando Magic team president Jeff Weltman is bluffing to try to create some trade interest in Jonathan Isaac, but during an interview earlier this week it sure sounded like Weltman plans on Isaac being back with the team next season. I love J.I., but I have a hard time believing the Magic will pay $17.4 million next year for a player who sadly just can’t stay healthy. …
Color me cynical, but it was announced on Wednesday that longtime UCF rowing coach Becky Cramer has “resigned” in the middle of the season to “spend more time with my family.” Excuse me? The season only lasts another month. I think her family will still be there in May. If you read Jason Beede’s story in the Sentinel, you’ll see that there’s more to this than UCF is letting on. … Speaking of UCF, Masters winner Jon Rahm has a connection to the Knights. His caddie Adam Hayes went to Rockledge High School and played for the UCF golf team in the late 1990s. Maybe that’s why Rahm kept “charging on” and blew past Brooks Koepka during the 30-hole Masters marathon on Sunday. … By the way, what was more shocking at the Masters — those pine trees falling down or Phil Mickelson rising up? …
I saw where the Orlando Magic are moving their G-League affiliate from Lakeland to Osceola County, where they will play at Silver Spurs Arena. Question: Who will be the home team when they play San Antonio’s G-league affiliate? … Speaking of Osceola County, it’s hard to believe that one of the region’s most famous companies — Tupperware — may soon go out of business. I’m just guessing, but maybe Tupperware’s financial woes have something to do with a business model in which they sell lids that somehow alter themselves and change sizes once they’ve been bought and don’t fit any of the containers in anyone’s kitchen cabinets. … Let’s give it up for UCF’s John Rhys Plumlee, who will play centerfield for the baseball team on Friday afternoon and then play quarterback for the football team on Friday night. No word yet on whether JRP will also be coaching the UCF rowing team on Friday, raising some money for the NIL collective and helping AD Terry Mohajir put the finishing touches on the 2029 football schedule. …
FAU has given basketball coach Dusty May a 10-year contract extension after taking the Owls to the Final Four. I’m usually against giving a coach such a long extension after one spectacular season, but in this case I’ll make an exception. If May is indeed a one-hit wonder, his one hit was better than Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, Hey Jude, Respect, Purple Rain, Piano Man, Satisfaction, Free Bird, Heartbreak Hotel and Johnny B Goode. … I don’t know about you, but I love new Auburn coach Hugh Freeze’s idea of playing a spring game against another school in the state. “Alabama can play Troy and we play UAB or vice versa, or whoever, I don’t care. Alabama State or whoever,” Freeze said earlier this week. I’d love to see UCF play Florida State or Miami play Florida in a spring game. It would be a great way to create interest, sell tickets and, yes, make money. …
New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson has been out three months with a non-surgical hamstring injury and says he had been physically cleared to play in the play-in tournament but was opting out until “I feel like Zion.” If only we all got paid millions of dollars to not go to work when we don’t feel like it!!! …Tiny Quinnipiac upset mighty Minnesota to win the NCAA hockey title over the weekend and coach Rand Pecknold was so emotional that he asked ESPN reporter Colby Cohen to give him a hug during the post-game TV interview. So do you know what Cohen did? He gave Pecknold a hug, of course. It sort of reminds me of the last time Urban Meyer won a national title and asked a reporter for a hug. When Meyer made contact with the reporter, the reporter turned to ashes and Meyer wickedly grinned and walked away. …
Last word: With Friday being National Thomas Jefferson Day, a quote from our third president: “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
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