Stadium For Rent: Epilogue

STADIUM FOR RENT:
Tampa Bay's Quest for Major League Baseball
By BOB ANDELMAN

Epilogue

This is the end to one story, but the start of another.

A blizzard of lawsuits began falling from coast to coast even before the National League announced its final vote on Tampa Bay's bid to relocate the Giants. First came the San Francisco group's pre-emptive bid in a California court to have a judge declare that Magowan, Shorenstein and the others had not interfered with the Naimoli-Lurie contract. Then Frank Morsani, the man who tried to buy the Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Oakland A's and an NL expansion team, launched his $100-million suit -- filed under the Florida Antitrust Act of 1980 -- against Major League Baseball and 60 specific defendants.

Morsani's suit was small change compared to the one filed by Vincent Naimoli, a $3.5-billion counterclaim against the City of San Francisco and the investors who were given the opportunity to buy the Giants by the National League. Naimoli and the City of St. Petersburg then filed another suit, this one to have their indemnification of Major League Baseball declared null and void. St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Baseball Ownership Group had agreed they would not sue baseball -- if baseball conducted negotiations in good faith.

Exactly seven days after the vote in Arizona, Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth subpoenaed National League President Bill White.

No more games.

The Antitrust Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee scheduled hearings on whether Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption -- which had, since 1922, protected baseball from rules of general business practice and common decency -- had outlived its usefulness to the nation.

St. Petersburg took steps to convert its $1.5-million "Join The Team" season ticket reservation fund to a "Join The Fight" legal defense fund for the coming battles with baseball and San Francisco. Season ticketholders were asked to pledge their $50 reservations to the fight. A newspaper ad for Join The Fight shirts read "Don't Get Mad -- Get Even."

More than 100 Tampa Bay area attorneys, working through the St. Petersburg Bar Association, donated their services to the fight.

Tampa Bay baseball fans, accustomed to unreasonable and extreme frustration, took out their anger in creative ways. Many called into WFLA radio's 1-900-370-FANS line to blow off steam. "We wanted 1-900-STICK-IT or 1-900-SHOVE-IT, but those prefixes weren't available in this dialing area," station operations manager Gabe Hobbs told the Tampa Tribune. A portion of the charge per call was donated to the Join The Fight legal defense fund.

Paradigm Communications (creator of the "May the team come true" advertising campaign) and Native Sun Sportswear ("Tampa Bay Mariners" T-shirts) teamed up on a new T-shirt that caught the mood of the community. Above the words "Tampa Bay Salutes Major League Baseball" was a baseball glove with with four fingers folded down.

The Advertising Air Force flew a banner over the Florida Suncoast Dome with a message of its own: "Sue Baseball."

And St. Petersburg resident Roy Staggs stood on a street corner for six hours collecting loose screws which he then sent to the National League.

Lawsuits were last on the list of preferred options for the Tampa Bay investors, the City of St. Petersburg or area baseball fans. All they ever wanted was what baseball fans in more than two dozen cities live for: to hear the cry of "Play ball!" from a big league umpire, to take pride in an August pennant drive, to argue about whether ERAs and Ks were more important, to complain about overpaid ballplayers and to joke about bonehead decisions by their team's manager.

Maybe it was too much to ask in a small town, but Tampa and St. Petersburg had long considered themselves to be big cities and together, a top market. Over 15 years, fans and businesses put their hearts and wallets on the lines for baseball.

The people of Tampa Bay are knocking at baseball's door. One day, baseball will let them in. Or else.

The End.