Vince vanquished, Stuart Sternberg steps in

Something great happened in Tampa Bay sports at noon today.

Vince Naimoli, the worst owner in professional sports, ceded control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to Stuart Sternberg. It's at least eight years too late, but the fans of Tampa Bay will still take it.

Vince did do one important and positive thing that few others could have: He convinced Major League Baseball to place a franchise to Tampa Bay. The community needed a bulldog to secure a franchise when it was armed with only a lousy dome--a dome Major League Baseball said not to build in the first place--located in a lousy spot for drawing fans.

Vince got that done. And then he immediately set out to accomplish one goal: lining his pockets. Vince is a man with absolutely no concept of the role of civic duty in sports ownership. Baseball was just another way for him to make money--and he made lots of it--everyone and everything else be damned.

He alienated players. Team employees. Managers. Media. Corporate sponsors. The fans.

This is a man who recently said that Tampa Bay was not a good baseball town. Well how the hell would he know? He never ever put a professional product on the field to find out. This is a man who invited an area high school band to perform the national anthem--and then made them buy tickets.

This is a man who tried to get his wife out of a traffic stop by pompously declaring "Do you know who I am? I am Vincent Joseph Naimoli!" In a way, Vince did have a point. The cops should have forgotten about Mrs. Naimoli's traffic violation and arrested Vince for grand larceny.

This is a man who argued with fans. He threw an opposing scout out of his owner's suite for using the bathroom.

Does Vince care about his legacy at all? Does he care that he eclipsed Hugh Culverhouse as the worst sports owner this community has ever known? Can it really be 100% about the bucks? Because that's all Vince has now. He's piled up money. But he'll be forever reviled in this town, and ridiculed in others.

Congratulations, Vince. You supposedly pulled down $26 million to cede control today. Enjoy that bed you've made. Is it really all that comfortable, even though the mattress is stuffed with cash?

No one really knows what new owner Stuart Sternberg will bring. There are rumors he is as responsible as anyone for Lou Pinella's departure, because he conveyed to Lou that he has no plans to start pouring big cash into this franchise.

But frankly, it would be a mistake to go out and make a big splash with a Texas Rangers, Alex-Rodriguez-style signing. That's not what the Devil Rays need right now, and that's not what will get this team playing winning baseball.

What this team does need is smart acquisitions in key places. A great place to start: A veteran, inning-eating starting pitcher to sprinkle in with Scott Kazmir and a number of prospects. Could the Rays make a run at an A.J. Burnett? Maybe not, but today is the day Rays fans can dream about such things without the assistance of hallucinogenics.

One radical thing I would do if I were Sternberg: change the name of the team. The stigma is that bad. Get fans involved. Hold a contest to Rename the Rays. Start fresh. And if Bud Miller Selig frowns on that idea, wholesale uniform and logo changes are, at a minimum, in order. If you're going to excavate the guts of the operation, you might as well apply a fresh coat of paint to the exterior, too.

Some changes are already in motion. A new general manager is on the way. Chuck Lamar, fired this morning along with some other senior staffers, was a fine steward of Vince's cash stash, and he managed to bring in some promising prospects. But clearly he lacked the respect of others around baseball, and the Rays need a seasoned, respected baseball man running the day-to-day operations. How about John Hart?

In Sternberg's news conference, he talked repeatedly about the importance of reaching out to the community. Naimoli's damage is extensive, and the Rays have a lot of burned bridges to rebuild. Sternberg talked about "dramatic change." He was heavy on enthusiasm, but light on details. One bone has already been thrown to the fans: free parking for all of next season.

Nobody knows what the future holds for Tampa Bay baseball. But for maybe the first time since opening day 1998, a Ray of hope is shining down on these Devils. And for today, that's good enough.