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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Knology picks up Sun Sports package

Posted Apr 21, 2009 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Apr 21, 2009 at 04:40 PM

SEATTLE—Good afternoon from the Emerald City, where it’s an unseasonably beautiful day as we await tonight’s series opener between the Rays and the Mariners.

It’s an opener that will now be seen by Knology customers in Pinellas County after the cable company came to an agreement with Sun Sports to carry the network’s Rays package. By my unofficial count, Knology had been the lone holdout after Comcast picked up the Sun Sports games late last week.

“This is great news for Tampa Bay Rays fans in these Florida markets,” Steve Liverani, Sr. VP/GM of FOX Sports Florida and Sun Sports, said in a press release just sent out by the network.  “The Rays enjoyed tremendous success last season with their first-ever ALCS title and interest in the team is especially high again this season.  This agreement ensures that Knology customers in Florida will now have access to the full schedule of Rays games on our two regional sports networks.”

In other news…

* Geoff Baker at the Seattle Times believes the Mariners rearranged their rotation to ensure Jarrod Washburn got a start against the Rays. His numbers against Tampa Bay are pretty outrageous (11-3, 2.60 in 16 starts) given he isn’t exactly a perennial Cy Young contender. There is one line in the blog entry that will draw a chuckle from those who have watched the Rays over the last week, though:

The Rays have struggled on the mound so far, but are hitting the ball—posting a top-five slugging percentage and homer total in the AL. So, the Mariners need Washburn to contain them and put up the kind of outings that he has so far in his first two starts of the year.

I’d say they’ve done a pretty good job of containing themselves since last Monday. We’ll see how they fare tonight.

* Well, unfortunately you figured it would come at some point, and it’s already here: Boston put Rocco Baldelli on the disabled list today with a hamstring problem that has been bothering him for a few days.

* And finally, gotta love this story about a D.C. Little League group offering to pay the $500 fine levied on Elijah Dukes for being five minutes late to the ballpark the other day—because he was visiting with Little League players.

“It’s not a question of whether this guy can afford the 500 bucks,” Great Falls Little League president Jim Mraz told the Washington Post. “We’re just trying to send a message to our kids: He was here for us. Now we’ve got to be there for him.”