Tampa Bays interest in baseball spans from the sports earliest days to the regions win of a national league franchise in the last decade of the 20th century. Hosting more major league spring training games than any other region inthe United States, Tampa has been home to a number of spring training camps, for teams including the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Senators. St. Petersburg has played host for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles, among others. Not only does this region have a rich professional baseball history, but a thriving Little League and recreational league tradition. Stars, both young and old, have played for these teams and have brought glory to their hometown. Both St. Petersburg and Tampa formed their own local teams when the minor league was created in 1919, but Tampa Bays dream for a major league team of its own finally came true in 1995, when, at a meeting of baseball owners in West Palm Beach, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the thirteenth expansion team in major league history.

Tampa Bay's interest in baseball spans from the sport's earliest days to the region's win of a national league franchise in the last decade of the 20th century. Hosting more major league spring training games than any other region inthe United States, Tampa has been home to a number of spring training camps, for teams including the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Senators. St. Petersburg has played host for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles, among others. Not only does this region have a rich professional baseball history, but a thriving Little League and recreational league tradition. Stars, both young and old, have played for these teams and have brought glory to their hometown. Both St. Petersburg and Tampa formed their own local teams when the minor league was created in 1919, but Tampa Bay's dream for a major league team of its own finally came true in 1995, when, at a meeting of baseball owners in West Palm Beach, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays became the thirteenth expansion team in major league history.

A revised Team Spirit Baseball edition featuring the Tampa Bay Rays that chronicles the history and accomplishments of the team. The Team Spirit series paints an engaging, detailed yet accessible picture of professional sports teams. By focusing on the history, great victories and memorable personalities, the books have an enduring quality that will not go out of date quickly. The text is enhanced with plenty of full color photographs as well as reproductions of vintage trading cards and team memorabilia.

"The history of the Tampa Bay Rays professional baseball team from its inaugural 1998 season to today, spotlighting the team's greatest players and most memorable moments"--Provided by publisher.

This is the true, complicated story of the decades-long battle to bring a baseball team to Florida's West Coast. Back in print for the first time in two decades, Bob Andelman's detailed investigation has been enhanced with hundreds of political cartoons and photos that illustrate the community's sometimes brutal campaign, as well as an all-new introduction by best-selling sportswriter Peter Golenbock and an afterword by award-winning Tampa Bay Times sports columnist Gary Shelton. Plus, interviews with original Tampa Bay Devil Rays franchise owner Vincent J. Naimoli and the man to whom he sold managing interest in the team, Stuart Sternberg. No baseball, business, or community development bookshelf should be without this unique story. PRAISE FOR STADIUM FOR RENT (First Edition) “Journalist Bob Andelman tells in painful detail how close (Tampa Bay) came to winning... Recommended for serious sports collection.” – Morey Berger, Library Journal “Andelman points a finger not at the bay area’s civic leaders but at the panjandrums of baseball. He provides an impeccably researched play-by-play of every inning of this high-stakes game in which the home team has been shut out... The story is compelling, and in Andelman’s hands, it’s masterfully organized and written.” – Tom Chase, Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine “A phenomenal read. The guy did his research... I became so engrossed, I couldn’t put it down.. a superb job on how he put it together.” – Erica Stuart, associate producer, 60 Minutes, CBS-TV “Andelman put it in perspective.” – Tom McEwen, “The Morning After,” Tampa Tribune “Andelman tells the bittersweet, folly-filled tale of Tampa Bay’s courtship of a major league franchise—the Florida White Sox, perhaps, or the St. Petersburg Marlins. St. Petersburg, in particular, just couldn’t take no for an answer and built a beautiful stadium, despite a lack of encouragement from Major League Baseball. As it was probably always destined to do, the franchise went to Miami, and St. Petersburg’s stadium is the elaborate home to tractor-pulls.” – John Mort, Booklist “A work that could cause an iceberg to boil. It has everything but a happy ending, rattling off the aggravation we’ve endured here in the clinical manner of an autopsy.” – Joe Henderson, Tampa Tribune "Awesome." – Tedd Webb, 970 WFLA Radio “In Stadium For Rent, Bob Andelman details St. Petersburg's journey from stalking horse to major league market with great skill and attention to detail. It's impossible to fully grasp the impact of the worst-to-first AL pennant winners of 2008 without learning how they came into existence.” – Jonah Keri, author of The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First “A home run... If you think there was a lot of public game-playing (if you’ll pardon the pun) going on while the City of St. Petersburg kept getting the short shrift, you should read the book to see what really went on.” – John J. Tischner, Pinellas County Review “A finely detailed account of this region’s dubious distinction for taking brush-back pitch after brush-back pitch from the denizens of the diamond... It isn’t a pretty story. It isn’t even ugly. Just pathetic. Stadium For Rent is a good, albeit frustrating read.” – Dan Ruth, Tampa Tribune “The best parts of the book are Andelman’s portrayals of personalities who led the baseball effort. Among them: Jack Lake, the cantankerous newspaper manager obsessed with getting baseball; Frank Morsani, the remarkably baseball-naive car dealer; and Rick Dodge, the steel-willed assistant city manager who bounced back after each defeat only to become embroiled in yet another plan.” – E.A. Torriero, San Jose Mercury News

What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens—the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history. In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail. Together with “boy genius” general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the “devil” from the team’s nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the game’s intangibles—that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing one—they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant. A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your life’s passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.

"Presents the history, accomplishments and key personalities of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. Includes timelines, quotes, maps, glossary and website"--Provided by publisher.