The Rays are in the midst of one of their most successful seasons. As the road trip continues at \u201cThe Trop\u201d, we sit down exclusively at The Crawfish Boxes with a familiar face and friend, the one and only Dewayne Staats. He\u2019s called over 7,000 games and has been with Tampa Bay since their inception back in 1998.<\/p>\n
Q: How much have the Rays benefited this season being pushed in their divisional race by New York? <\/p>\n
A: I actually think the Yankees benefit from being pushed by the Rays. Regardless of how the race ends, I really think this club has been focused on its own performance: self critical, self pushed, self accountable. It very well may come down to the final week in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
Q: This upcoming weekend should feature some quality baseball from both sides who each are expected to reach and play significant games in October. What do you expect this weekend?<\/p>\n
A: Astros are a test every series they play. The Rays play the schedule one series and one game at a time. There is plenty of respect for the Astros talent, which serves as a motivation for the Rays.<\/p>\n
Q: Are there any weaknesses on this Rays club beyond starting shortstop? <\/p>\n
A: This roster has been really interesting as and perhaps a throwback a decade or two ago. Not just home runs and strikeouts, but a roster depending on a variety of baseball talents. The top three or four hitters in the lineup sport extra base hit power\/production. Beyond that is a \u2018manufacturing\u2019 of runs utilizing a variety of skills including speed, moving runners, being smart and aggressive. Like most teams, overcoming injuries is always present. Athleticism and versatility has helped this team.<\/p>\n
Q: Finally, what would say to Houstonians who grew up with you in their living rooms back in the 70\u2019s & 80\u2019s calling Astros Games?<\/p>\n
A: My years in Houston were a dream come true. I was a Colt45\/ Astro fan growing up in the Midwest listening to Gene Elston. Gene answered my letters and was a major figure in me pursuing a Major League Baseball career. He was a very special force in my life. My daughters were born in Houston. We own a place there as well as Florida, and still have great family and friends there including Todd Kalas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays are in the midst of one of their most successful seasons. As the road trip continues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[158173,141750,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-396897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-houston-astros-analysis","tag-houston-astros-discussion","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}