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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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The worst promotion in baseball history? No, but close

Posted Jun 20, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Jun 20, 2010 at 12:40 PM

ROGER MOONEY
MIAMI Saturday’s mini vuvuzela giveaway was not the worst promotion in baseball history. Not when there has been 10 cent beer night in Cleveland that caused a riot and Disco Demolition Night in Chicago that caused a riot and Ball Night at Dodger Stadium that caused a hailstorm of baseballs aimed at players.

But, handing the annoying noisemakers to the first 15,000 fans through the gates at Sun Life Stadium deserves at least an honorable mention.

Listen to the horns as the crowd reacts to a home run by Hanley Ramirez in the sixth inning http://www2.tbo.com/video/2010/jun/19/want-to-hear-loud-44989/video-sports/

The umpires wore earplugs. Marlins second baseman Dan Uggle wore earplugs. Rays third base coach Tom Foley wore earplugs.

Naturally, the game dragged on for 4 hours, 36 minutes, spanning 11 innings.

Two hours after the Rays 9-8 victory, Marlins left fielder Chris Coghlan blogged that he couldn’t sleep because of the ringing in his ears caused by the World Cup-like atmosphere created by the faux vuvuzelas.

“I know when I walked out before the first pitch it was kind of weird, I couldn’t really hear myself talk with those buzzers or whatever you call them,” Shields said.

At that point, the fans were just getting warmed up.

The drone caused by the noisemakers was headache-inducing and may have led to the ejection of Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez in the ninth inning. Gonzalez made a double-switch in the top of the inning and inserted shortstop Brian Barden into the ninth spot in the order.

Home plate umpire Lance Barksdale put Barden in the three-hole on his lineup card. So did Rays manager Joe Maddon, who brought that fact to Barksdale’s attention after Barden drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning.

Gonzalez was tossed for arguing and Barden was ruled out, with the putout credited to Rays catcher Dioner Navarro.

Was it possible the noise prevented Barksdale from hearing Gonzalez correctly while the manager was making the double-switch?

“It could have,” crew chief Tom Hallion said. “It was the most uncomfortable baseball game I’ve been a part of in a long time because of that. Whether that had anything to do with it, I don’t know but it could have. When’s the last time you heard something like that at a baseball game? Never. You don’t see this kind of stuff at baseball games.”

Maddon, who found himself screaming to his players during a tighter-than-normal huddle during his trips to the mound, is one who would like to be part of the one and only vuvuzula giveaway in major league history.

“First of all, I really believe horns should be banned from baseball, especially in domes. It’s really weird. I was really surprised at the energy of the crowd to sustain if for that long,” he said. “There must have been a lot of soccer fans in the ballpark tonight, where they had some practice doing this in the past. That was one of the thoughts I had. It’s annoying to both sides, not just to us. If you’re into soccer, I guess it’s cool, but it’s really a weird thing.”

It was the type of night where a 10 cent beer would have hit the spot.