The Sinking Ship of the Tampa Bay Rays

There is a very good chance that the Tampa Bay Rays are going to cease to exist in the next decade.



David Price gets traded (To this day I claim it was a dumb, dumb, dumb trade). Andrew Freedman is gone to the Los Angeles Dodgers (expect them to make major changes within the organization). But the biggest of all is the departure of longtime manager Joe Maddon.

Joe Maddon isn’t just a manager, he was the heart and soul of the Rays. 754-705 with the team, and an astounding 446-365 record this decade. He started the winning culture of a franchise that had seen pretty much none of it in the first decade of existence. Not even the mighty Lou Pinella was able to shake things up back in the early 2000s---even though we can attribute this partially to the abysmal budget, extremely tough division, and questionable upper management moves. Joe Maddon literally turned the fortunes of this baseball club around in a direction the baseball world had never seen. To go from 10 straight losing seasons to going to the World Series and suddenly being relevant against the Red Sox and Yankees was unimaginable, unexpected, and a euphoria to a league that had seen the big budget squads have all the fun. The Rays even with this disappointing season have one of the 5 best records since the 2008 season when the dropped the Devil from its name.

Maddon is creative, patient (which is a diehard requirement being in the Rays organization), easygoing, accepting, and just the perfect guy to run rookies, has-beens, wanna-bes, and under-the-radar players looking for just a little bit of baseball skills TLC. He is a man that knows that the cluster of players will change every single year and he must find a way to keep the attitude, keep the culture, and keep the sanity intact as the revolving door of prospects and low-budget players kept rolling.

His best ability is draining as much talent and value as he can off of the players that show up in the Tampa doorstep once everyone else abandons them. The Devil Rays/Rays used to be the final stop for veterans before Maddon, as we saw Tino Martinez, Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, Greg Vaughn, Vinny Castilla, and Jose Canseco make their way here before their careers had finished. Now, we saw the likes of Fernando Rodney, Kyle Farnsworth, Troy Percival, Sam Fuld, and Ben Zobrist arrive and suddenly thrive when wearing the colors of the Rays.

And to continue talking about the subtle and nearly underrated genius of Joe Maddon, look at the impact of Rays players when they went elsewhere. Carl Crawford became a valuable asset in the Dodgers organization. Rafael Soriano and Fernando Rodney became successful closers after exiting Tampa. Johnny Gomes became a champ with the Red Sox in 2013 by becoming an extremely valuable secret weapon. Wade Davis and James Shields helped transform the Kansas City Royals into American League champions. Sam Fuld went from near Cubs burnout into yearly valuable asset as he improved the Twins and the Athletics with his defensive skills and never-say-die style of play. Players improve when entering the Rays circle, and Maddon and company are major components as to why. Maddon even revolutionized certain techniques, like the crazy outfield/infield shifts, new heavier emphasis on set-up men, and even the rise of importance of the unsung utility men can be attributed to Maddon.

And could any manager other than Joe Maddon propel that extremely improbable 2011 Rays team to the playoffs? I think not...............


Even though any team can nab good rookies here and there, it takes good managers to allow them to grow and mold into superstars. A lesser manager can damage a player, like when Tommy Lasorda overused Fernando Valenzuela back in the 80s, or when Dusty Baker ruined the arms of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. Under Joe Maddon, nobody gets overused, nobody gets overworked, and people hardly get put in a tough spot. Joe Maddon has the utmost faith in all his players and staff, which might actually be his only downfall----as Derek Shelton had his rough patches in terms of improving the offense. Even though the offensive efficacy was consistently amongst the best in the major leagues, when the Rays slumped they definitely slumped. If there is anything I can fault Joe Maddon with, is that he sometimes has too much faith in his players: Jose Molina being the favorite example.

The fact is, we have gotten a bit spoiled with the success of the Rays. Say what you will about the Moneyball techniques of the Athletics, the As still spend an average of $20 million more than the Rays each year—and do keep their players much, much longer. The Rays are always at the bottom of the spending rankings. And the other intangibles of baseball don’t help either: Tampa itself is a smaller market, the stadium situation is abysmal, the attendance is beyond awful, and the threats of relocation consistently glare upon the franchise. San Antonio, Montreal, Portland, Mexico City, Charlotte, and even to a far lesser extent Brooklyn are licking their chops, waiting for MLB to finally lose patience of the Tampa Bay ordeal. And yet somehow in spite of all this, Joe Maddon keeps the Rays relevant, keeps them in the conversation, and keeps them in the loop-------even with an average of less than 20,000 a game in an area with over 4 million, and also certified as one of the top areas for the coveted 18-40 age range in the nation.

And now, I am going to be quite frank here: The Rays are sinking. They pissed off Maddon secretly when they traded David Price for essentially nothing. They could have kept him for the rest of the year and attempted a nice run—especially considering that 3 of the 4 top AL teams got plagued with injuries and/or suckiness (Tigers, Orioles, Athletics especially) towards the end of the season. But instead of gunning for it, management trades him away and remains satisfied with a mediocre season because they were able to cut costs. And quite frankly that may have been the beginning of the end of the Joe Maddon era. Similar to when Lou Pinella criticized the front office for the similar technique of never aiming for immediate success, Maddon clearly was running out of patience with the revolving door style of team maintenance.

So what now? Joe Maddon was the strange case of being the face of the franchise, simply because he was our go-to person for when we needed good news, we needed reassurance, and we needed someone to calm the waters and remind us that everything was going to be okay. He was the face of the low-budget, indie, out-of-the-box image of the Rays, and with him gone I can guarantee you that even with familiar faces in the infield and in the pitcher’s slot the entire dynamic has been visibly shaken to its core.

This might be the nail on the coffin, unless St. Petersburg, Tampa, Orlando, Lakeland, and all the political heads in between the I-4 zone come up with a way to build a new stadium, build a new future, find new fans, and figure out a way to prevent the Rays from moving away from Florida. Bud Selig has been extremely patient (to a point of being comatose) but who knows if our upcoming commissioner will have the same willingness to wait. Baseball is inches behind the NFL in terms of revenue and with the upcoming television contracts prepared to set the profits on fire, it might be down the road when MLB will actually be making more money than any other American sports league. They are honestly a few rule changes, a couple relocations, and a few Spanish teams away from accomplishing that. Seriously, a Puerto Rican, Mexican, and/or Dominican team would flip the script on their earnings. So there are no more excuses about the low payroll, no more excuses as to why in a league with more parity than ever are there even more budget cuts. 90+ million people visit Florida a year, with 53+ million in Central Florida alone. No excuses.

Joe Maddon has been just as pissed about the stadium situation as the average Rays fan, especially one that lives in Central Florida and farther away from the insanity of visiting the stadium in the ONLY bad part of Tampa Bay (raises hand). Him leaving might be the ultimate “YOU BETTER FIX THIS SITH RIGHT NOW” card as he hasn’t even announced another team, hasn’t even ruled out the Rays in 2015. He still might come back. But as of now, he sees the poor situation the Rays management has put him, his players, and his few remaining loyal fans in, and it was time for some drastic action. Joe Maddon’s drastic action was just walking away from the rising flames.

The ball is in the court of the Rays organization. We have lost the best pitcher, manager, AND president in the history of the organization. If nothing is done to stop the bleeding, we will definitely see our wonderful players of Tampa Bay wearing different colors.......












Red….White….Blue colors….

The Rising Power of Business Disney (And the Stagnant Pulse of Creative Disney)

Disney has always been a company that has been split into two: Business Disney and Creative Disney.


Back when Walt Disney was alive, he was the heart and soul of the creative decisions that made the company such a controversial powerhouse. He pioneered the animated movie, helped pioneer the sound system in movie theaters, pioneered the modern-day nature documentary, and pioneered the modern-day theme park, among lots of other accomplishments. That being said, he also sent the company down financial tailspins time and time again with his risky decisions. Snow White was a big gamble, as was Fantasia, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. And let’s not get started on the craziness behind Mary Poppins.

Walt needed someone to keep him in check. Roy Disney would be the person assigned to make sure nothing went too out of control. Business Disney made sure that Creative Disney never went off the rails, while Creative Disney made sure that the brand remained consistently ahead of the curve. The overwhelming success of the Disney brand in the 20th century is because of this nice system of checks and balances.

Today however we are facing an extremely different story. Business Disney has seemingly become more powerful than ever before, which is leading to incredible profits that undeniably are taking Disney to new heights. The acquisitions of Marvel and LucasArts has definitely helped, as also the rising Florida economy, the brand remaining relevant, the exploding tourism industry, and even the rebirth of Universal Studios. And also with that, spending has increased significantly within the parks by the people visiting.



Creative Disney though……he’s not doing so hot.



Creative Disney hasn’t built a new park in 16 years. Creative Disney hasn’t built a massive (original) attraction since Everest. And if anyone says Snow White Mine Cart, they probably don’t know that the ride is shorter than the actual Heigh-Ho song that plays in the attraction itself. Creative Disney hasn’t given Epcot a new country in decades. Creative Disney hasn’t improved Hollywood Studios since Toy Story Mania---which is a carbon copy of a California Adventure attraction. Creative Disney hasn’t given Animal Kingdom anything new in years, and hasn’t expanded their nature selection since 1998. Honestly, where is South America, Madagascar, and/or Australia? Creative Disney still hasn’t created an attraction that rivals the technologically-astounding Spiderman ride at Islands of Adventure. Creative Disney has been instead focusing on ways to increase spending while at the parks themselves.

Creative Disney has been finding ways to force guests to spend more money in order to receive the full experience. There are less tables in Food and Wine. These are less places to view the parade in Magic Kingdom (and Hollywood Studios when they had their Frozen parade). There are less places to view the fireworks at Hollywood. There will be less places to view the Christmas lights once we hit November. There will most likely be less places to view the fireworks at Magic Kingdom as well. All this changes once you fork over the extra cash and get your exclusive viewing locations. It has gone from Where Dreams Come True to Where Dreams Come True----But They Can Come True More Often if You Pay the Extra $75.

Disney has accidentally created war against the Florida locals and the Cast Members trying to have a good time in the parks. Cast Members still don’t have their special wristbands. Cast Members get to book FastPasses 30 days before visiting, but resort guests get 60. The locals who just want to visit for the day have to deal with longer periods of block-out dates and having to put up with less accessibility to rides and special shows simply because they don’t have to plan their day as much—resulting in limited options if you arrive in the afternoon or early evening as now nearly everything in the parks is transforming into some sort of VIP/reservation system. There are less full days in Magic Kingdom as now we have increased dates of the Halloween and Christmas parties. The spontaneity in Disney World is rapidly dying.

Creative Disney hasn’t found a way to make it seem like disabled guests are being punished at this new direction Business Disney has wanted to take. After all, a good portion of us are being forced to plan our day just like a regular guest even though the circumstances are less than regular. I took my autistic brother to Magic Kingdom and it was a nightmare having to bounce to each attraction and have to linger around because we can only return on a specific time. Try convincing a tall, 215-pound, high-functioning autistic Disney fanatic that he has to wait an hour to get in the Fastpass line to ride Space Mountain. The point of the handicap pass was to prevent the waiting that people like my brother are incapable of handling----and now you have a disgruntled mentally handicapped Disney fan in a park surrounded by 50,000 other guests in a hot day. I wonder if you can figure out how my day went….




….and go ahead, ask me if I have brought him back to the park since that day….



Creative Disney’s power has been severely diminished and reduced to the movies and television spectrum, and now the parks have become a massive shop of brands. Notice that the less the attraction is tied to a Disney brand, the more likely that it will shut down as opposed to getting an upgrade. Maelstrom went down, Backlot Tour went down, American Idol went down (the show died years ago, we all know this), Toontown went down, Camp Minnie-Mickey went down. This is all within the last three years.

Off-Kilter is gone. Mo’Rockin is gone. The patriotic drummers in the American Adventure are gone. The World Showcase Players are gone. The talking trash can is gone. And of course we can’t forget losing the Adventure Club despite heavy protests and not having the seedy reputation that was surrounding the Pleasure Island clubs. If your attraction or show isn’t attached to a movie, television show, or creation that is within the other medias of Disney World, then you are in danger.

Now, why would Disney fix this if it works? Why would Disney not really focus much on the local crowd and the hardcore Disney parks crowd if they are making money? Because the second that your wave of contemporary success disappears, you’ll have the hardcore dedicated crowd to fall back on. And if they aren’t there to catch your fall? Well…..you are in for a wild spiral.

The Walt Disney Company hasn’t always been well above water. Disney nearly went bankrupt a couple times and in the 1980s the company needed some drastic changes. Even in the 2001-2004 period there was some turmoil. After the last economic scare, it does make sense why Bob Iger revved up the efforts to increase spending within the parks while aggressively making high-priced purchases like Pixar and Marvel. But also in economics whatever is up must eventually come down—and depending on how many bridges you burn determines the length of the fall. Disney is slowly but surely burning down lots of Florida, Local, Domestic, and Cast Member bridges with its arsenal of new rules, sudden required planning, refusal to update most of its product (Poor Innoventions at Epcot), and worst of all creating a class system that has heavily rewarded those that have the extra money while punishing those that have just enough to get into the parks in the first place.

Best example was the Frozen parade at Hollywood Studios. Most of the event took place in front of the hat at the center of the park. There is a stage set there for everyone to see Anna and Elsa. If you aren’t in front of the hat, you will miss most of the action. Half of the area in front of the sorcerer hat was VIP, leaving hundreds upon hundreds of guests standing adjacent to the hat missing all of the action. Seeing all the confused faces of guests standing around for a dozen minutes while the VIP guests got to receive front row seats to the Frozen event was rather jarring. Now, those with extra, extra $$$ don’t even have to mingle with the rest of the crowd half the time; with their exclusive seating in nearly all of the parks.

And if you think that the hardcore and dedicated Florida crowd isn’t important, look at the Blockbuster story. If you had told me 15 or even 10 years ago that Blockbuster would go from powerhouse rental company into a business joke, I would have never believed you. Blockbuster was on top of its game, making fantastic money through its ability to rent out movies and video games to consumers. It was even defeating Netflix for the first part of the 2000s. What happened? It didn’t evolve, it never attempted to make the experience easier for consumers, created more complications for the avid customers, and it neglected to notice the rising competition from Redbox, Amazon, and the second punch of Netflix. Ultimately, the place collapsed extremely quickly.

I am not saying that Disney will go down this route, as they are much bigger than Blockbuster could ever imagine. What I am saying is that a company that relies much more on branding and marketing above the actual finished product will eventually hit snags and if it continues to upset the original hardcore audience that made you, then you might be in for lots of trouble once the temporary revenue stops streaming. Honestly, is there a plan if suddenly Universal Studios becomes the more attractive place to visit? Is there a plan if the movie industry suffers a series of flops? Is there a plan if suddenly the amount of travelers takes a severe dip?

Look at Nintendo after they infuriated the hardcore crowd: the Nintendo Wii was a mainstream smash hit back in the late 2000s and now the WiiU is getting annihilated by Sony’s Playstation 4. Apple owned the handheld music and phone market before they got lazy and now are in a massive war against Samsung. Not even McDonalds is safe. McDonalds abandoned their cheaper price and simple menu routine and now make less than Chik-Fil-A in terms of revenue per unit.

Disney World has focused more on the people outside of Florida as opposed to the people in Florida. The annual passholders still don’t get benefits of those guests staying in Disney resorts. We see increases in prices every year in the parks and yet don’t see as many deals or specials for those within the Florida borders. What it looks like is Disney wants to drain as much as they can from guests visiting for their first and potentially only time, knowing full well that a nice percentage of people that actually come to these parks will see it only once or twice in their entire lifetime.

And yes, ultimately this is all about business. I perfectly understand that all these things I am complaining and remain worried about is part of the current business practice of Disney. What I am worried about is the sacrificing of Creative Disney throughout the company’s path to the top. You can disguise lack of quality as much as you possibly can---but in the end we the consumer will notice. The IPhone used to be unstoppable, until the Galaxy came in. Nintendo used to be unstoppable until Sega (and then Sony) came in. KFC used to be unstoppable until Chik-Fil-A rose from the Southeast. K-Mart and Target used to be good competition, until Wal-Mart upped its game and now destroys so much that some cities ban the behemoth.

Disney, I beg of you: please stop the class system that is quietly separating everyone in the parks. Please stop having to brand everything and eliminate those that don't have connections to a movie or television show. Please remember your Floridian locals and hard-working cast members that would rather not see an entire month of lack of family access to a theme park. Please try to become at least the slightest bit economically-friendly and fair to those closest to you, as opposed to those closest to you in terms of net worth. Walt Disney would not at all be happy at the prospect of lines, tapes, ropes, separating everybody into different spots depending on who spent more, who planned more, who studied more, and who ultimately knows more about Disney. I know you have a business to run but please remember that it is the people that spend the money to allow for your company to run.

As a cast member working the parks I have given guests more bad news today than I have at any given moment during my entire decade-long career. With the rules, regulations, required extra spending, required extra planning, and required extra knowledge of the happenings within the parks, I have seen more unintentional punishment to those that just want to have a simple, good, carefree time.

This isn’t the Disney World I used to know. And if it continues treading down this road, I don’t know just how many people will be left once the masses give up and abandons your World. I have defended your company and the way things are run for years and years. But I am running out of excuses…but its never too late to make a change, to turn things around, to try to appeal to the homecrowd again.


Surely there is more financial blood than ever pumping through the veins of the House of Mouse. It’s just a shame that the heart has seemingly gotten smaller.

Gone Girl: 9/10

Gone Girl starts off with in an unsettling fashion, even throwing the opening credits quicker than normal. This makes the audience a little uneasy as the story begins.

And the audience will remain uneasy and struggling to catch up for the remainder of the film.

Gone Girl is polarizing, intense, extremely jaded, and quite manipulating. David Fincher's fingerprints are all over the adaptation of the best-selling novel that alters the tone of the book to adjust better to the cinematic medium. From the direction to the spellbinding and haunting musical score, Gone Girl hits all the right notes, does an excellent job maintaining the tense mystery without becoming predictable, and leads an all-star cast (Even Tyler Perry was bearable) surrounded by talent in the art, cinematography, and production department.

What starts off as a simple tale of a quiet mysterious husband (Ben Affleck) worried about the disappearance of his wife (Rosamund Pike in a pure Give Me My Oscar performance) turns into a darkly stylish thriller with twists, turns, unexpected surprises, intrigue, and slick commentary on American marriage and the American media's mannerisms surrounding the news and the people involved in it. Similar to Social Network, it presents an interesting character and sociological portrayal while mixing in an exhilarating story to propel the movie forward.

And…then we go in a very different direction for the final act.

In a style similar to Hitchcock's also-polarizing Vertigo, Gone Girl consists of two parts: the mystery and the consequences of the mystery once the conclusion has been unveiled. This makes Gone Girl practically two different movies that might be equal in tone but splits into seemingly opposite roads. While the film is 150 minutes long, the climax of the original conflict actually arrives much much sooner than the norm—just like Vertigo. And just like Vertigo, it's slightly tough to appreciate the unveiling of the wild card when there is still so much poker left.

The best way to describe Gone Girl without revealing any of the surprises and revelations is this: Gone Girl's first two acts are like a dark roller coaster you've never ridden before; full of turns and inversions that you will enjoy and consistently anticipate and request more of. The final act of Gone Girl is like a good roller coaster you've ridden before; where you can appreciate the thrills, appreciate the details, but at the same time make you wish you could be surprised more.

And----like Vertigo----if the movie had played out the mystery and the conflict a bit longer then the payoff would have been much grander. The timing of the payoff is extremely important in movies like this, it can make a movie like Fight Club and The Usual Suspects, or it can totally shatter a movie like Lucky Number Slevin (Oh, you don't remember this one? Of course you don't…). Not to say Gone Girl loses too much momentum once the movie takes a jarring shift, but that second roller coaster ends quite abruptly, leaving you with a satisfied feeling with a side of emptiness.

But hey, there is a good chance that Fincher's intention was to never let you find your footing during the grim adventure. There is a good chance that Fincher had spent a good deal preparing a beautiful cinematic present without even considering topping it with a nice bow. Because at the end of the day, whatever timing and tonal shift issues the Gillian Flynn script presented, it was eradicated by the high value of the overall film. It is unique, it is breathtaking, and it will devour your thoughts long after the movie is over—if it wasn't any good, would I even spend so much time trying to figure out how to judge this flick?

Good movies are enjoyable, great movies linger in your consensus. Like the thickest of peanut butter gluing to the roof of your mouth, Gone Girl will meander in your thoughts as you continuously struggle to soak in all the grim, all the insanity, and all the sheer hurricane of subtle tension you had just witnessed.

If only it had less Vertigo….