Call it the fortnight that was for the St. Petersburg-based Tampa Bay Rays.
*Talk ratcheted up further on the alternatives-to-Tropicana Field scenario. This time the Pinellas County-based ABC Coalition suggested that Hillsborough County sites actually made the most regional sense for a new facility location.
*Then groundbreaking ceremonies were finally held for a new state-of-the-art stadium in Miami for the Florida Marlins. Recall that the Marlins, who don’t even draw as well as the Rays, still want to be “Florida’s Team.”
*Then the Rays were on the losing end of the 18th perfect game in baseball history, the one thrown by the Chicago White Sox’s Mark Buehrle. And when video was shown on the NBC national news, anchor Brian Williams referred to the Rays as “Tampa.”
*And then the Tampa Tribune ran a major weekend piece that made the point that even though the Rays have a Trop lease through 2007, there’s ample precedent for teams paying damages and breaking such agreements.