Whirlwind

Kevin Stocker was grilling at his home in Philadelphia when he got the call from the Phillies saying he was going to be playing for a new team. A REALLY new team.

It was November 18, the day of the 1997 expansion draft, and the Phillies had made a trade with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays; they had selected outfielder Bobby Abreu from Houston’s list of unprotected players, then traded him to Philadelphia.

“My wife and I were cooking dinner after the season, watching the (expansion) draft on TV. And then that’s when it happened during dinner. I get a phone call from Phillies GM Lee Thomas, who said, ”You just got traded,’ and then we saw across the ticker (on TV), we could see that I was just traded,” said Stocker, now a broadcaster for the Phillies.

“I knew that it was a possibility that I was going to be traded. I did not think that it was gonna be an expansion team. The reason is because the month prior up to the trade deadline there was a whole bunch of talk about me being traded or so forth. During that time as far as trying to help a team, you know, continue on in the playoffs. So I knew that the Phillies were kind of interested in a possible trade because they had other needs, but it was a surprise going to Tampa,” he said.

“Honestly, I was like, ‘oh, interesting.’ I didn’t even know, wasn’t quite sure how this works, but it was ok. I think I was disappointed we were gonna be leaving the Phillies because we loved it. We loved Philadelphia,” continued Stocker. “We had a house here. So that was a little bit of a shock at first, but then the reality of something new, and I’m always about, hey, let’s try something new, that sort of an attitude. It was ok. We were ok. And then I got the phone call from (GM) Lee Thomas. He was very nice and he said, thank you for the time (I’d spent with the Phillies).

“After that I did some interviews on the phone. And then seven days later, we sold our house and we went down to Saint Pete because I didn’t know anything about the stadium. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. But we went down and did some introductions down there, and my wife and I found a place to live and that’s how it kind of started.” Stocker and his wife had many other tasks to complete, such as hiring movers, registering to vote, enrolling their daughter in school, finding health care professionals (he found a dentist pretty quickly) and so forth. Baseball teams have staff to help new players adjust to a new city, but the Devil Rays were so new they didn’t have that type of department to assist newcomers.

Stocker said clubs would have “daycare {rooms) at their stadiums so wives could bring young children, and have them stay there while they watched their husbands play. (Stocker said he liked his wife to see the game so they could discuss it later.) When the wives of the new Devil Rays players approached the club about a daycare room, a team official said, “I never thought of that.”)

(Note: after the 2007 season, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays dropped the “Devil” from their name and are now known as “The Rays.” Stocker, by force of habit, still calls them the Devil Rays, so that’s why that name appears throughout the column.)

I was planning to write a three-part series on the first year of all 14 expansion teams when they joined the majors. I was going to do it chronologically, starting with the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators in 1961 and concluding with the Devil Rays in 1998. Some famous players were with first-year expansion teams: Gil Hodges, Ted Kluszewski, Mike Garcia, Richie Ashburn. I spoke to many players and coaches from the first eight teams, such as Bob Aspromonte of the Houston Colt 45s, then I spoke with Stocker. He was so articulate, and his experiences touched on practically every aspect of a player joining an expansion team, that I decided to do a whole column on him, followed by three columns on the remaining 13 clubs: if I meet my deadlines.)

The 1993 Phillies came out of last place the year before to lead the NL East for all but one day. There was one hole the team couldn’t fill: shortstop. After trying several players, the team decided to call up Stocker, who was at the team’s AAA affiliate. He made his major league debut on July 7, in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers that the Phillies won in the 20th inning. Stocker went 0-6 that night and set a still-standing record of the most plate appearances for a player making his major league debut, with nine. But he wound up hitting .324 for the rest of the season. He also steadied the team’s defense. After winning the NL East, the Phils defeated the Atlanta Braves in six games for the pennant but lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series.

The ’93 Phillies were a group of colorful players who played hard on the field and just as hard off it. They were big on practical jokes, including the occasional sneaking up behind players being interviewed on TV after games and stuffing a shaving cream pie in their face. “Manager Jim Fregosi,” said Stocker, “told some of the veterans the night before my call up that the team needed me (and) asked them to take it easy on any practical jokes or initiations.”

“I said, I’m here in town playing for the Devil Rays, and she asked me, ‘Oh, is that a new soccer team here in town?’”

So when he was sent to the Devil Rays, he wasn’t surprised he was going to another organization, albeit a brand new one.

During a trip to the dentist, he struck up a conversation with a dental technician.

“This was in January, before spring training started. I’m in the dentist chair in downtown Saint Petersburg, and the gal was working on my teeth. It’s great. And she finally asked, ‘What do you do for a living?’”

“I said, I’m here in town playing for the Devil Rays, and she asked me, ‘Oh, is that a new soccer team here in town?’

“You could almost look out the window and see Tropicana Field. I mean, it’s right downtown and yet she didn’t know. So there was some of that, there was a lot of education that needed to be done on what this was that was coming into the area,” said Stocker.

There was an educational process for him, too. Stocker was going to have a roster of “new” teammates. He knew a few players whom he had played against, such as Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff and Dave Martinez.

“And honestly, the fraternity in Major League Baseball is so tight like you walk in and say, ‘Hey, how you doing’ and before you know it, you’re teammates. That’s the thing about Major League Baseball: you really don’t get to choose your teammates. You go in, you fit in, but you have this thing in common where you’re playing at the highest level. So it was no problem fitting with the guys. Then in spring training, you find some time to do some golf things and kinda get to know each other better. So that wasn’t an issue at all. The only player that I knew was a coach, Billy Hatcher. Billy and I had played together a little bit in Philly, so I knew Billy and his attitude. So that was nice. Other than that, I didn’t know anybody. In fact, I had to get to know (second baseman) Miguel Cairo.”

The Devil Rays held their first spring training at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg. It had been the spring training site for the St. Louis Cardinals, who moved to accommodate the new team on the block. During that spring, the club had the pair go to the stadium to film an episode of This Week in Baseball with host Ozzie Smith.

“They had us do a walk around of Tropicana Field to highlight some of the new items that were gonna be in the field, in the stadium that were new, things like TV (and the view from) in the seats behind home plate. That was new. So we sat down and did a little fun bit and I got to know Miguel just doing that. That was kind of an easy way to get to know the second basemen a little bit and we of course, became friends. But it’s not hard when you mix into a team. The hardest part is adjusting to the stadium. The process, where do you go, where do you park your car? You know, all of that sort of stuff. I know it seems silly, but when you get traded. That’s (what happens). In Philly, I knew the Vet (Veterans Stadium), I knew the fans, that part I didn’t have to worry about, so I can just focus on baseball,” he said.

“You go to an expansion team, everything is new and it’s new to the ownership group. Like it’s brand new, Tropicana field, they think they have everything covered until the players go into the stadium and you’re like, hey, where’s this? And where’s that? We’re missing this. And there was a lot of learning to do, I think from that standpoint, as far as the ownership and just what’s important to the players and what’s needed,” added Stocker.

Also, the fans were new, not just to the team but to professional baseball – and because most people in Florida are from somewhere else, they had previous loyalties.

“I think the fans that came to the game were excited for baseball. All right, they were excited to have a major league team, but I also think that the fans that came to the game were excited to see their team – come to Tropicana Field. So we played the Yankees – full house. We (had) a full house when we played the Yankees and we’d have a healthy majority of the fans rooting for the Yankees.

“(When) the Braves came to town, most of the fans were for the Braves, and that was very difficult as a player. And that’s not because of the Devil Rays organization,” he said, as the Braves trained in nearby Orlando and the Yankees held spring training in St. Petersburg for many years.

“They (Yankees) had a bunch of fans. So that was a little tough to get used to. In fact, it was really hard to get used to something that would happen during a game and against certain teams it would go against us,” he said. “The fans would cheer and it was like, wait a minute. That was a little tough to get a hold of, I don’t even know to this day if that’s changed a whole lot. I think it has because they’re a much more competitive organization.”  He added that the team’s owner then was good friends with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

“So, because of that, sometimes we would cater a little bit to the Yankee fans. Maybe they play music. Who’s the rat pack guy? Frank Sinatra? You might have some Frank Sinatra playing over the speakers (sometimes singing “New York, New York”) and I was like, wait, what are we playing here? So some of that was tough to get used to. But those fans that wanted baseball, I mean the Devil Rays (fans), they were great. I mean, they would come to the games, but again, even though the numbers overall showed really good attendance, it’d be interesting to see how much of that attendance was actually rooting for the Devil Rays,” Stocker said.

Most expansion teams played in ballparks that were, to be charitable, decrepit. The Washington Senators played in Griffith Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium). The Mets played in the Polo Grounds until Shea Stadium was completed. The Seattle Pilots played their only year in (get ready for this) Sick Stadium, a ballpark unprepared for Major League Baseball. Its troubles were a main reason the team didn’t draw well and went into bankruptcy. They were bought by Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee the following year. The Expos initially played in Montreal’s Jarry Park, which one account described as “austere, as it was intended to be only a temporary home for a maximum of four years.” It was also exposed to the harsh Canadian winters which were still in season in April as well as in September and October.

Suncoast Stadium (now called Tropicana Field), the home field for the Devil Rays, wasn’t decrepit by any means, but it had its troubles.

“Tropicana Field, for what it was, was fine,” said Stocker. “Like the roof. It had issues that they had to figure out like we had the first rainfall – and I don’t wanna just harp on the bad things. These were just things we had to get through. We had the first rainfall with that roof and had a huge leak – and there were a couple of leaks – and we got a big puddle behind second base,” Stocker recalled.

“I’ll never forget the game. I’m looking at Miguel and I’m like, dude, look at that. You just deal with that kind of stuff, that was hilarious,” he said, adding “our clubhouse and locker rooms were awesome. Those were great. I enjoyed that for sure.”

In 1986, the city of St. Petersburg began construction of a domed stadium with the intention of luring a major league franchise or an expansion franchise. The stadium was completed in 1990 for $130 million and was and still is the only non-retractable roof facility in MLB. Before the Rays arrived, the field was home to college football games, a college bowl game and some soccer play. After the Rays were awarded a franchise, the city spent $70 million to renovate the park for baseball only, and naming rights were sold to the Tropicana company. Because the stadium is domed, games are usually played in a dark environment, and the upper decks were covered as they were rarely used. The lower seats could accommodate 25,000 fans, the smallest number in MLB.

The city has made several efforts to raise funds for a new ballpark, but citizens have voted against them. A good friend who has been a sports information director for colleges and an official scorer for games, said this about the Devil Rays home ballpark: “I went to a Yankees game in Tropicana Field. The most sterile, boring baseball environment I have ever been in. There were about 11,000 people, it’s indoors and it’s Astroturf and the lighting sucked.  Just a weird vibe the whole game.  Sam Fuld (now the Phillies GM) played right field.  The key word is sterile: indoor Astroturf with mediocre lighting and a poor crowd just did not work for me.”

(Years and millions of dollars later, the stadium is still facing problems. Tropicana Field was heavily damaged by Hurricane Milton in October of 2024, and the Rays are playing their 2025 home games at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the New York Yankees play their spring training games. With a seating capacity of 11,026, it will be the smallest MLB stadium in 2025).

The Devil Rays played their first regular season game on Tuesday, March 31, 1988 in St. Petersburg against the Detroit Tigers, who won 11-6. Stocker went 1-3 that day.

In their first season, the Rays went 63-99 and finished fifth in the five-team AL East. Stocker played in 112 games and hit .208.

“I didn’t play well, and that bothered me,” he said.

As for the losing, Stocker said he was talking about teams with his broadcasting teammates.

“We were just chit chatting about baseball and teams and building teams and I literally, as an ex player, we were talking and I looked right at those guys and I said, ‘I want you to know, and this is just me, I don’t know about other players, but for me, I truly believed every spring training no matter what team I was on, that we had a chance to win.’ And they kind of laughed at me. I’m like, yeah, like even on some of the Phillies teams, ’96, ’97, we were terrible. Like we couldn’t win anything but I didn’t know that coming out of spring, I truly believed – all right, we’re gonna be competitive. This is gonna be our year. It was the same with the Devil Rays. I see these guys, but it’s a mix of veterans with the young guys and I truly felt like we were gonna compete. And so when we went out there and started losing like we did, we went through a couple of stretches. It was a little bit of a surprise and then I realized, well, we just can’t compete. That was hard. But to start the year and even each year after that, I’ll be honest with you, as a player I just truly believed we were gonna compete. I never had that idea of like, ‘oh, we’re a new team.’ We’re not gonna be very good. It didn’t even cross my mind.”

He rebounded the following year by hitting .299.

Stocker joined the California Angels midway through the 2000 season and finished his major league career at the end of the year. He spent 18 years as a college baseball color analyst for the Pac-12 Network, CBS College Sports Network and ESPN. In 2018, he began broadcasting select road games for the Phillies and joined the club’s full-time announcing squad in 2022.

Despite the losing and the puddles behind second base, Stocker has some fond memories of his time with the Devil Rays.

“I was part of the first ever team, the OG as they say,” he said. “That’s cool to say I helped to start the franchise.”