STADIUM FOR RENT:
Tampa Bay's Quest for Major League Baseball
By BOB ANDELMAN
<>
Acknowledgments
In addition to the dozens of interviews a work of this nature
required, I also relied on 15 years' worth of newspaper stories
published in the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune.
When substantial information from a source other than my own
interviews and research appears, I have made every attempt to
credit the original reporter and newspaper.
In particular,
I wish to note the work, in alphabetical order, of Bob Chick,
Joe Henderson, Steve Koff, Steve Liesman, Tom McEwen, Hubert
Mizell, Tim Nickens, Michael Sznajderman, Tom Tobin, Marc Topkin
and Karl Vick.
Ernest Torriero of the San Jose Mercury
News and Gail DeGeorge of Business Week also provided
invaluable assistance and advice
I am also indebted to
Michael Benson, author of Ballparks of North America (McFarland
& Company), an invaluable resource.
I don't think
the many events and words that have passed across Tampa Bay could
be expressed without the eloquence of the political cartoonists
at the daily newspapers. My thanks to Wayne Stayskal of the Tampa
Tribune and Clay Bennett and Don Addis of the St. Petersburg
Times for granting permission to reprint a treasure trove
of witty, sarcastic, belligerent and at all times funny cartoons.
The photographs illustrating these pages come from a variety
of sources. My thanks to my old roommate Dennis Osborne (Jump
Monthly), friends Bud Lee (Tampa Bay Life), Chris
Coxwell (Florida Trend), Christopher Wright (Florida
Business), David Durbak (Maddux Report) and Karen
Entner (Tampa Bay Weekly) for granting me permission to
reprint their wonderful images.
Thanks also to Charles
Rainey and Earle Halstead Jr. for providing invaluable scrapbooks;
to Frank Morsani and Bill Bunker for opening their files to me;
to Kristin Brett and Steve Small at the St. Petersburg Times;
to the many City of St. Petersburg employees who helped track
down details and documents; and to Billy the Phone Freak at WYNF
for digging up the lyrics to Kill the Kohls.
My
gratitude also goes to Jean Martin MacRae who rescued me in the
last weeks of this project by transcribing more than a dozen
interviews and thereby keeping me on schedule.
Mike "Trade
Secrets" Culotta pestered and cajoled me for months to finish
this book so we could resume our Friday lunches at El Cap. Thanks,
Mike. This week, the burgers are on me.
Dave Wilson,
another El Cap regular, provided razor-sharp editing skills to
more rough drafts than either of us care to count. I am indebted
to his experience, good taste and savoir faire.
Anna Kyriakou was a "giant" help in the research department.
I don't know what corner of the library she goes to, but her
assistance was tremendous.
My friends at Zebra Color
-- who resisted my suggestion of a name change to "Giant
Color" -- did a great job finding images in my negatives.
The support of family has been invaluable. Mine always
supported me in whatever I chose to do and I love them for it:
my parents, Phyllis and Richard; my grandmother, Becky Kaplan;
my brother, Ira; my sister, Lori Parsells; my mother-in-law,
Helga Holsten; and my biggest fans, Chief and Sandy.
My
late grandfather, Sam Kaplan, took me to Yankee Stadium for the
first time in 1966. I wish he could see what his mischief has
wrought. And I also want to acknowledge the contribution of my
late great-aunt, Bess Sher, who provided emotional and financial
support to me for many years. I miss them both.
I have
been fortunate to have some of the best and most supportive friends
a guy could ever want: Allen Solomon, Bruce Kessler, Tony Doris,
Carol Burger, Steve Bonett, Paul Simpson, Tom Howland, Rick Georges,
Steve Goldin, Sharon Kirby, Kathy Harrison, Fred Arnott, John
and Lisa Wertz.
Several editors went out of their way
to accommodate this book during the last two years, including:
Larry Marscheck, Barry Bradley, Carlen Maddux, Lynda Keever,
Gwen Smith, Deidre Leipziger, Bill Templeton and Ron Boyko. And
former Florida Business editor Joe O'Neill, who inadvertently
launched this book when he bought my idea for a story on the
Join The Team campaign in 1990.
Steve Wilson at McFarland
& Company helped me through many rookie questions and problems.
Thanks.
Finally, I would be nowhere without the talents
and hard-nosed editing skills of Mimi, my best friend and wife.
