Seeing Vinny Castilla, remembering Devil Rays’ Hit Show

DENVER — Vinny Castilla looked good, wearing his Rockies uniform on the field near the home dugout at Coors Field Friday morning, especially for 56 and nearly 20 years after his last game.Castilla is a big part of the Rockies organization, having played quite well for them when they started as an expansion team in 1993 and for nine years total over three stints. He has been a coach and now, comfortably, special adviser. He was cheered loudly during pregame introductions.But Castilla also has a place in Rays history, which goes beyond the question he asked Friday: Does he still hold the record for the longest home run hit at Tropicana Field? He wanted to tease fellow Mexican Isaac Paredes, the Rays’ current third baseman, who Castilla speaks fondly of.Castilla does, in fact, hold the record: 478 feet into the party deck above leftfield on April 4, 2001, when distances were, pre Statcast, very much estimated.Castilla, during a brief and conflicted stay with the Rays, also was part of one of the most interesting, and ultimately unsuccessful, gambits in early franchise history.The Hit Show.After finishing the 1999 season, their second, with a 69-93 record, Devil Rays officials decided to double down on power. Jose Canseco had hit 34 home runs (in just 113 games) and Fred McGriff 32 (in 144), so they added two more power hitters, hoping to add wins and draw more fans. (Plus, they came up with that infamous jingle.)On Dec. 13, 1999 — no, it wasn’t a Friday — the Devil Rays spent what for them was a lot of money to sign Greg Vaughn to a four-year, $32 million deal. That same day, they announced they had traded two players — pitcher Rolando Arrojo, their first All-Star, and useful utilityman Aaron Ledesma — to the Rockies for Castilla, and took on the remaining two years and $13.5 million of his contract.There was much hype and expectation over the fearsome foursome. Vaughn had hit 50 and 45 homers the previous two seasons; Castilla had averaged 38 over his past five.The then-St. Petersburg Times posed the 30-somethings in an alley wearing muscle-baring T-shirts for the cover of the 2000 season preview section.Ultimately, they were a big flop, as the team again won 69 games.McGriff was his usual consistent self with 27 homers. Vaughn did OK with 28. But Canseco was limited to nine homers and 61 games due to a back injury and then allowed to be claimed on waivers in August.And Castilla?He never seemed comfortable, and definitely not happy, with the Rays. He was limited by injury to 85 games and only six home runs in 2000, then 24 games and two homers in 2001 before being released in May.Making it look worse, he signed with Houston and hit 23 homers over the remaining 122 games of the 2001 season. He went on to play five more years, including a 2004 return to the Rockies, where he hit 35 homers.Bally Sports Sun has a new feature on home game weeks — Waechter Wednesdays — in which pre/postgame analyst Doug Waechter spends the game reporting from the camera well near the Rays dugout. …. Always informative and entertaining game analyst Brian Anderson is working in the first of a new three-year deal. … For this road trip, and maybe others, Bally is doing the pre- and postgame shows from the stadiums rather than its Tampa studio, with in-game reporter Tricia Whitaker handling triple duty.Andrea Shenton, mom of Rays infielder Austin , had a funny encounter with Patsy Cash, mother of manager Kevin. During the first couple of games, a bunch of Austin’s friends were in the stands by the Rays dugout hoping to see him play and yelling for Cash to put him in. Andrea said she and her husband “kept our heads down and pretended we didn’t know them.” When she got to meet Patsy a few days later, Andrea wasn’t sure if she should apologize. Turned out, there was no need: “(Patsy) said, ‘I got the biggest kick out of those guys.’ She thought that was hysterical, all of them yelling at her son. Lots of great moments.”Though he had chances to do so face-to-face during the Rangers’ recent visit, Josh Lowe followed what he said is current protocol in leaving brother Nate a note — placed on his locker chair, along with several bottles of Japanese whiskey and some fancy cigars — formally inviting him to be best man for his Jan. 11 wedding. … Mom Wendy Lowe, battling brain cancer, is feeling good and made it to the Trop for Tuesday’s game, even though both of her sons are on the injured list. … There’s some chatter the Rays could unveil their new City Connect uniforms in May. … Does Wander Franco really need the $34,000 in bail money that he asked a Dominican Republic judge to return, or was that request and the one to halt his monthly court check-ins — both of which were denied — just more legal wrangling? … Both team presidents, Brian Auld and Matt Silverman, made the trip to Denver, which sounds like research related to the planned new stadium and development. … Junior Caminero was first and Xavier Isaac fifth in mlb.com’s list of top 10 power-hitting prospects . … Relieved an MRI showed no issues with the tightness he reported in his left side, Brandon Lowe had some fun in saying one benefit is, “I can make fun of our training staff, like, ‘You guys overreacted’ and there was no reason, and ‘I was right and you were wrong,’ versus the other way around.” … Though limited from his bout with vocal cord cancer, legendary ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale stopped during a recent Trop visit to whisper questions about some of Kevin Cash’s lineup decisions and the team’s overall outlook. … Baseball America’s list of 10 top prospects on Double-A rosters didn’t include Carson Williams. … Jim Bowden, writing for The Athletic, ranked the Rays rotation 13th in the majors. … The announced crowd of 18,881 for Wednesday’s 1:10 p.m. matinee was the third-best crowd of the homestand, better than the Friday night or Sunday afternoon games.• • • Sign up for the Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. 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Seeing Vinny Castilla, remembering Devil Rays’ Hit Show

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