All locals need to check in at Fergs starting at 5 PM for the Meat Up today. Any one that is a local and does not share their reason below, can expect a one day ban.

LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ LEECAZ 

Also, feel free to use this as a place to comment on the recent proliferation of garbage fanposts (funposts h/t Hatfield) that your fellow posters have started to make.

Get to work!

 

Millions of Floridians head back to work today after a three-day Fourth of July weekend.

But Toni Gugliotta won't be among them.

She'll be applying for $275 a week in unemployment benefits instead.

The Pinellas County woman is among 1,300 state employees put out of work by the new budget approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott on May 26.

Scott kept his promise to reduce the size of the state government bureaucracy. But he did so at the expense of real people with mortgages, health care bills, college tuition payments and credit card payments.

Many of them earned less than $30,000 a year after years of state employment.

To them, the Scott mantra "Let's get to work" rings hollow. They now join the hordes of Floridians looking for work in a state with an unemployment rate that, while declining, remains in double digits at 10.6 percent.

The state agencies that took the biggest hits are the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Children and Families, which together account for most of the layoffs.

"It's like 12 years going down the drain," Gugliotta said.

 

Tier 1 is Charlie and Frank. Tier 2 is Mac and Dennis. Tier 3 is Sweet Dee. Tier 4 is all the cats in the wall.

Just kidding, it's my favorite time of the year (or actually every 107 days). It's the day that everyone who thinks that they are the best commenter on here gets put into their proper place. Yes, it's Tier Day.

Let's cut through the bullshit since you guys all know the rules and get down to the hardcore dividing.

Once again, we’ve got to acknowledge the preeminent commenters to ever grace these pages. Tier Father Figures is the wildly popular bobr, the increasingly curmudgeonly sternfan1 (who you can follow on twitter @sternfan10), Stu S, who needs to start commenting on here more if he doesn’t want to be moved down with the monsters in Tier 4.

Onto the best tier featuring the best posters, Tier 1. First up is putupyourDUKES. If you’ve got a question about salads, Apple products, flowers, or what to do when your girlfriend starts living on the couch (like any of you have a girlfriend), DON”T ask him, he’s just going to berate you. Next up, FreeZorilla, he’s left the writing scene on DRaysBay to concentrate on pointing out the inconsistencies in your arguments with sternfan1 (don’t argue with sternfan1, you will never win). In that way, he’s not too different than another Tier 1 poster, Sandy Kazmir. Sandy Kaz, what can we say about you that hasn’t been said about Henry Ford, Bobby Fischer, Mel Gibson and firemangreg? Well, the man knows his watermelon, and he's not afraid to go in on another member of the masthead. Alright, moving on we have rglass44. He knows a lot about prospects and he is willing to fight you if you talk shit about Tim Beckham. Next, for some reason we have rglass44’s alt, Ryan Gilliss. Weird. Finally, the reigning best commenter alive*, the king of cutting and pasting newspaper comments, Top Gun Numba 1.

Okay, Tier 2. Tier 2 has a lot of new members, Tier 2 is comprised of guys that have the talent to be Tier 1 but for one reason or another didn’t make it there during this evaluation period. Let’s start off with former Tier 1 poster, arguably the best commenter the last time the Evaluation Committee met, PlayOnWords. His game is still strong, but his volume is not long, and that’s going to cost him a tier this time.  Moving up a tier after being placed in Tier 3 due to an extended hiatus is Patrick L. Kennedy. He’s as adept at posting a newspaper comment as he is at keeping score at the game, unfortunately he will probably move down a tier again as soon as he goes back to school and leaves us wanting for more when it comes to transportation talk. Speaking of transportation, that brings us to wtbudlight. He’s really keen on throwing up roundabouts and speed tables, he’s got at least one black friend, and is always willing to buy a lap dance for a friend in need, and that’s why he’s moved up to Tier 2.  He’s followed up by the king of the thread bomb, Buc Wild. If you aren’t going back and reading the OTTOTD after 4:30 PM, you are missing out on some of the best comments in there. Also finding his way to Tier 2 is Suttree. He’s overcame a lot this year including falling out of a chair, and losing the cardboard box that he lived in, but luckily he’s become fast friends with a poster who has quickly become one of the greatest commenters on DRaysBay. That man is Hatfield. The man is the King of the One Liner, and they way that he can use your own words against you is just art.

Tier 3 features some former members of Tier Anti-Libtard, a poster who has finally decided to share their voice, the commenter who gets banned for images more than anyone else, the best alt currently still active, and generally a bunch of all around solid commenters. Tier 3 is Warde**, firemangreg***,  MikeB,  daveh33, DaPriceIsRight****, Sveet, MagicMark, EminenceFront, Doug09, Steve Slowinski,  and Vin.

Tier 4 is filled with the worst commenters that aren’t bad enough to warrant their inclusion in a specialized tier. Tier 4 is made up of the following: blackraven***** , LeeCaz******, kericr, P Brady, deadeyeRR, PriceMultiCyYoungs, Badancil, rjw123, LongoisRayking, 4QB and SRQman.

Finally onto the Special Tiers for the real monsters amongst us (comments when necessary):

Tier Glove Oilers: PGP, RZ

Tier Unknown Insider: StylezMcKoolAid*******

Tier Press Box Insiders: td32, Tommy Rancel, Jason Collette

Tier Paralegal: JaxRaysGirl, ReasonableDoubt********

Tier Assorted Masthead Fodder: MrNegative1, CB Jones, Bradley Woodrum, Jason Hanselman*********, Mulva, Imperialism32, jcmitchell

Tier Eurotrash: Lurch's Lobbyists, Staplemaniac

Tier Who?: Brickhaus, webdoyanne, Transplanted, Navi’s Navy, ramedy,  Mish, mattc286, Peter Piontek, dbullsfan, nomoredevil

Tier Might As Well Be A RIUN: budman3, Landlord, Danny Peterson, DaveMartinezbeard, IhateDanJohnson, SandalsNoPants, Witty, Erik Hahmann*

Tier RIUN: PewterPirate55, RaysTheRoof, Rays Rev, Dome Biscuit**********

Tier Bachmann 2012: miamigirl54, matthan***********

*Topper made me write this

**also known to stalk Raheem Morris (who would want to do this?)

*** Technically wasn’t a member of Tier AntiLibtard, but he might as well have been

**** If he wasn’t an alt for RJ Anderson he wouldn’t  be this high

***** Would have still been Tier 3, but Topper insisted that dobber receive no credit for “copping his style”

****** Easily the angriest and most delusional poster, paranoid about other posters commenting about him, known ginger, ran the garlic fry stand out of business, has no taste in television, known to challenge people to fights on the internet, all around good guy, king of the caption contest

******* Has not been posting lately. May or may not be due to a giant whole in the side of his house where his internet connection was. Oh Yeah!

******** Why , you may be asking yourself, is ReasonableDoubt, a lawyer, listed under Tier Paralegal? Well, we’ll just have to wait for him to finish trying that big case in North Florida to come back and explain why.

********* Makes great front page posts, never comments

********** Alt is RaysRule44

*********** He’s right. You’re wrong. Deal with it.

~~~Edited to reflect omissions~~~

So the book is finally here. Feel free to chime in here with your thoughts, feelings, critiques, corrections, and general feelings of apathy or despair at not being name checked in the acknowledgements.

Also, feel free to check out our friends at SBN Tampa Bay, your leading source for coverage of all your favorite local sports teams. The site features Toppah, Buc Wild, Emmy, Pete Shoes and many other DRaysBay greats. http://www.tampabay.sbnation.com

A lot has been made recently on what level of commenting each individual commenter is at. Consider this your judgment. A lot of time has been spent determining where you belong in the DRaysBay heirarchy, but if you feel that your #Tier is incorrect you are welcome to make a case below. On to the ethnic cleansing.

The first tier is #TierFatherFigures. These aren't necessarily the most prolific commenters, but you should think twice before disagreeing with them. #TierFatherFigures is comprised of: Sternfan1, bobr, and stu s.

Next up is #Tier1. These are the most prolific commenters. There is a good mix of baseball analytics, humorous comments, and a guy who writes sci-fi but won't let anyone see it. #TIer1 is Sandy Kazmir, FreeZorilla, TopGunNumba1, and the aforementioned, PlayOnWords.

That brings us to #Tier2. A strong group of commenters that is comprised of football blog editors, internet stalkers, long armed prospect fiends, a troop hating elitist pasta snob, a guy who bangs fat girls on the side of a mid to late model Ford Escort, and a robot. #Tier2 is Buc Wild, myself, rglass44, putupyourdukes, Suttree, and RJ Anderson.

#Tier3. #Tier3 is composed of a few johnny-come-lately's and a number of other commenters that just don't participate enough in OTTOTD's to warrant a higher ranking, and a pedophile. #Tier3 is wtbudlight, blackraven (dobber), PriceMultiCyYoungs, DaPriceIsRight, Patrick L. Kennedy, Vin, Steve Slowinski, EminenceFront, and daveh33.

#Tier4 is a group of commenters that have on occasion contributed to the hilariousness that is DRaysBay, but for one reason or another insist on posting anime, talking about horrible music, have found their way onto my "enemies list" or are virgins. #Tier4 is led off by P Brady, followed by kericr, LeeCaz, and obviously SRQman.

We are going to get into a little more specialized #Tiers from here on out, so I'll just fire through them. The #tier names should tell you all you need to know about why they are in the tier.

#TierGloveOilers

• PGP
• RZ

#TierPostingPals

• ReasonableDoubt
• 4QB

#TierRadioPersonalities

• td32
• Tommy Rancel
• Jason Collette

#TierAntiLibtard

• firemangreg
• DeadeyeRR
• Warde

#TierAssortedMastheadFodder

• MrNegative1
• CB Jones
• BWoodrum
• Matt Slowinski
• Mulva
• Imperialism32

#TierWho?

• Transplanted
• Navi's Navy
• Lurch's Lobbyists
• ramedy
• Mish
• Brickhaus
• webdoyanne

#TierMightAsWellBeARIUN

• budman3
• Landlord
• Erik Hahmann

#TierRIUN

• MagicMark
• Rays Rev
• PewterPirate55

If you are not included above you are welcome to make your case for inclusion. RIUN's will obviously go in #TierRIUN, no exceptions. No girls allowed. Good day, gentlemen.

Today we are blessed to have two strong topics of discussion to lead us off. The first involves a local semi-pro team and racism, while the second is just to show that you are all sycophants who worship in cult of Sternberg.

Continue reading this post »

That means you, SF1.

From Deadspin yesterday:

I am a sex addict. Since age 19, I've been completely unable to control my use of pornography on the internet, my compulsive masturbation, my driving need to seduce women, and in recent years my nasty habit of spending hundreds of dollars a night in strip clubs, not so much making it rain as shamefully shoveling a wad of 20s at a stripper before scuttling away. It took a decade to hit bottom and shake my denial, but on the eve of my 30th birthday I flew to Hattiesburg, Miss., and finally decided to give myself a new chance at life.

The easiest way to break the ice at Gentle Path is to mention how little resemblance the place bears to the lush, leafy green compound shown on the website of its mother hospital. I'd been stoked to get away from life and go to a place whose publicity shots just screamed "stereotypical rehab." Tons of trees, a walking path, maybe a water feature or two? I could do 45 days there, no sweat. Problem is, the sprawling campus featured online (which I proudly showed my freaking grandparents to put them at ease) is where the drug and alcohol addicts get to go. Gentle Path is a few minutes down the road, adjacent to an Enterprise Rent-a-Car and sandwiched between two auto-glass shops. It's on the former site of what locals fondly remember as "the sleaziest motel in Hattiesburg." There are very few trees and certainly no water feature. It's not a residential area and train whistles — long, drawn-out train whistles — bellow incessantly through the night. I checked in one evening in early March, though that seems like a million years ago now. My time there was the hardest experience of my life, but I wouldn't have traded it for the world. Frankly, sometimes I think I'd like to go back for more.

There's no individual therapy at Gentle Path. The staff believes "shame reduction" is the only way out of sex addiction, and so every unbelievably perverted, scandalous, depressing thing I had to confess or tell a therapist was done in a group setting, sometimes in front of all 25 of my peers. Things I'd never said out loud — not even to myself — I shared with relative strangers, some of whom had just checked in that day. I went in there confident I would never talk about paying for sex with strippers, never talk about looking at animal porn, and sure as hell never describe how many times I'd been unfaithful to women. I planned on boasting about going to swinger's clubs with my girlfriend, but I quickly found out that activity was not considered "healthy sexuality" at all. Anyway, I shared everything — and it worked. Hearing other men say they've struggled with exactly the same websites was incredibly cathartic, and hearing them bare other struggles — voyeurism, kids out of wedlock, childhood sexual abuse — made me understand I wasn't alone.

We didn't pay $32,000 just to talk amongst ourselves, of course, and lectures, seminars and workshops took up most of my time there. I learned about why traumatic childhood events are essentially the building block of any addiction. I learned to see my problem as one of shame and isolation, and I enthusiastically warmed to the 12-step concept that I was completely powerless over my sexual behavior.

I learned about my "arousal template," and how massively fucked it was after years in the Internet's underbelly. I saw a psychologist who drove in special from New Orleans to meet patients with extreme tastes in porn. I told him every miserable detail, which he repeated to the staff in a Southern drawl/monotone sounding exactly like Mr. Mackey from South Park: "Uhhh, the patient has made plans to visit a British porn star who eats feces," he said. The staff nodded sagely. "But it was just to watch and it fell through anyway!" I wanted to plead, but had to stay silent. One of the more attractive nurses was in that meeting, and I wanted to die. It was the most mortifying day of my life by far. Except maybe for when I confessed the same things to my mom on Family Week. But she was a trouper.

My therapist said the fact I was aroused by shit and animal porn meant I had brain damage, simple as that. His conclusion took a couple of days to sink in. Essentially, the part of my mind responsible for rational decision-making has been overridden by a huge desire for more pleasure chemicals, and I do stupid, dangerous things to get those chemicals no matter the consequences. That's addiction. That's why I'd return to a strip club only days after being thrown out for getting a girl to piss on me, or why I'd drag my exhausted body back to the computer for another porn binge, having just finished an all-nighter. That's why I once dropped a girlfriend off at home, only to meet some friends for a drunken foursome, praying no one would notice how crooked and out-of-shape my porn-abused dick had become.

Every peer at GP has stories like that to tell, and that's the magic of rehab — to meet other humans you can relate to while thinking: "Wow, this guy's pretty fucked. Guess I'm not the worst person in the world after all!" Fellowship like that is key to recovery, and so our walking track and dining hall became decompression chambers, places to chat with other guys and hear their stories. Our aging basketball hoop hosted endless games of HORSE and I'd often try the "bottom lines" shot: shooting while reciting my list of sobriety-violating behaviors. It was fun to see others try it, and there was something freeing about being able to laugh a little about the worst things I'd done.

So it wasn't all homework and weepy confessions at Gentle Path, but we all knew that socializing as much as possible had inherent therapeutic value. We had an ancient foosball table, a closetful of board games, and an endless pantry of junk food to console ourselves with after dark. Once a week we'd be allowed to watch a therapist-approved movie on our giant flatscreen, and we got permission to watch the Final Four and the Masters, too. We heard that a South Park episode about GP came out while we were there, but there was no way in hell the staff would let us watch that.

Once a week came the much-welcomed trip to a Hattiesburg Wal-Mart to stock up on approved supplies (no caffeine, no alcohol-based toiletries, staff member inspects our bags) and chill out at the attached McDonald's. A peer with a fat-woman fetish confessed it was all he could do to keep his eyes on the ground when we visited. I couldn't laugh; it took my every strength not to objectify the super-hot college girls who worked out at the gym we went to three times a week. In Gentle Path terms, staring at women for longer than three seconds constitutes "objectification," and thus requires a reset of your sobriety date. And nothing is more discouraging than that.

The rhythm of life at GP got grating after about a month. In those first 30 days, my mother came, listened to the worst of me, and left even more proud and supportive than she'd ever been. On staff advice, I broke up with my girlfriend via speakerphone so my therapist could listen, and I spent a few days absolutely shattered. I reached a month's sobriety and knew I could make the 45 without worry. The constant workouts and yoga improved my body and settled my mind, and I felt a serene calm I'd never felt in my adult life. My shame, anger, fear, and suicidal thoughts melted away as the Mississippi winter turned to a scorching spring. I felt great but my therapists warned me I could use a few months in a halfway house, or at least a couple of more weeks at GP, to calm down my brain. But I'd had enough. I was ready to go home and re-start my life.

My last night there was the most powerful and amazing experience I've ever had — I told my life story to the full group, and in turn they offered me their best wishes and a book full of their warm thoughts and contact information. A camp-like "we'll be in touch forever" vibe prevailed. I was officially sent off with a primal scream-type ritual I thought was idiotic on Day 1 but couldn't wait to do by Day 45. I've since realized that night was the ultimate act of "shame reduction." For the first time, I believed from the heart that I was a good person and not a monster. I signed my full name and phone number into peers' books, now completely vulnerable and trusting them implicitly with my darkest secrets. Being able to do that made me feel more human than anything else.

Speaking of which, a word on confidentiality: I can't tell you what you want to know. Sorry if you made it this far in the hopes of finally reading some salacious tabloid gossip, but I just can't. Nearly every morning in our "community" meeting, staff would brief us on the importance of confidentiality and how vital it was to building a sense of trust. Several people confessed to telling wives or new peers about "famous people" or "celebrities" who had passed through, thus offering themselves up for punishment and public shaming. Now that I'm out, it's not like I'm legally bound or anything, but I made a commitment. And for once in my miserable addict's life, I'm going to honor a commitment and not crap out when it's convenient. So that shit goes with me to the grave.

I will say that in preparation for an alumni weekend, our director asked for help taking down the hideous black anti-paparazzi tarps that made the place even uglier than usual. I looked at her and said, "So are we not getting any more A-listers?" She glared for a second and shot back, "Dave, you're an A-lister." The funny thing is, she was right. We all were. Stars in our own minds, grandiose addicts who spent years thinking the rules didn't apply, absolutely unmatched at pleasuring ourselves and smashing lives in the process.

 

I noticed that they Rays again seem to have spent some money during the offseason to improve the aesthetics of the stadium and overall experience for the fan attending the game. 

I think they started doing this about three years ago with the transformation of the party deck and the improved screen in centerfield. Some things I noticed last night:

1. Outfield walls are now blue instead of green as they had been for as long as I can remember

2. A lot of the railings that were caution tape yellow have been painted to different shades of blue

I was curious about anything else anyone might have noticed.

Nice article by Leitch on the Rays. Really doesn't give any insight to the upcoming season, but he has a few nice things to say about the Rays. He seems to know what he's talking about, although I don't think they have missed out on signing any major draft picks, at least not inordinately more than any other franchise. Here it is:

http://deadspin.com/5489160/tampa-bay-rays-a-nuclear-switzerland

I was perusing ESPN's baseball page when I stumbled across an article about Manny Ramirez and his recent comments about not being back in Los Angeles next season. When I clicked on the link I saw that it was from ESPNLosAngeles.com and written by Tony Jackson.

It was all fairly basic commentary from Manny and Joe Torre about the reactions that Manny elicits whenever ever he does anything at all. Then something caught my eye. A short paragraph on Manny's season last year: 

Ramirez will turn 38 on May 30 and is entering the final season of a two-year, $45 million contract. He spent a large chunk of last season serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy and most of the rest of the season struggling at the plate.

I looked at the top of the article and saw Manny's abbreviated slash line of  19 HR's, .290 AVG., .418 OBP; so I did a little more research at FanGraphs and saw that he OPS'd .949 and had a wOBA of .396.

I would hardly call this "struggling at the plate", Tony Jackson. I guess this is a long way of saying that I'm really looking forward to ESPNTampa.com with baseball writer Marc Topkin.

Topkin must be bored, as it appears that he spent most of the morning cutting and pasting the columns of the Boston papers.

I especially liked this quote from the Globe, "Kazmir, who still hasn't taken that turn toward elite status that Jon Lester has..."

Am I crazy in thinking that Lester hasn't proven himself as well as Kazmir in any respect other than throwing no-hitters and recovering from cancer? Did the Red Sox win the World Series last night, cause there fans seem to think so?

Chris (Orlando): Hey Joe, How far do you see the Miracle Rays going this season? Thanks

 Joe Morgan: It depends on whether they get Longoria and Crawford back healthy, and I'm not sure when that's going to happen. It's going to be tough for them to go deep into the playoffs without those two. Once you get into the playoffs, though, everyone can win--even Wild Card teams have won the World Series in the past few years. But I'm not sure their three top starters could match up with the top three of the other playoff teams.

Ugh.