Joe Smith of the St. Pete Times is reporting that Evan Longoria has won the AL Rookie of the Year award. The vote was unanimous.

Longoria was listed first on all 28 ballots submitted by two writers in each league city for a perfect total of 140 points. White Sox second baseman Alexei Ramirez, who hit 21 home runs (including four grand slams), finished second in the voting with 59 points, and Boston Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury (.280, 9 HR, 47 RBI, 50 SB, 98 R) was third at 26 points.

Longoria is the first Rays player to win the award, and seventh player to win the award with a unanimous vote. Delmon Young finished second last season.

Tampa Bay Rays' Evan Longoria wins AL Rookie of the Year [The Heater]

This interview of Evan Longoria is a few days old, but we have a good excuse. We are big fans of "Big League Stew" over at Yahoo! Sports, but we don't remember 'Duk conducting any interviews before [Ed. note: Interview was not conducted by 'Duk. Rather it was David Brown, and the "Answer Man" series is a regular feature]. Couple that with some of the strange questions and answers and honestly, we thought this interview was satire. Apparently we were wrong.

On Eva Longoria:

I'm done talking about that. I did it all through the minor leagues. That's all I had to hear was her name associated with mine. I think we're kind of past that.

On who would play him in a movie:

Mark Wahlberg.

On which member of the Rays should not get a mohawk:

Well, he still doesn't have one. Carlos [Pena]. And I told him not to. He asked me multiple times if he should get one. I just don't think he'll look good with it. He's the clean-cut Latin guy on our team. I guess it's debatable if he's Latin or not. He is Dominican. I told him not to.

On the difference between being from Tampa and from St. Pete:

It's almost like — from my perspective — the difference between being from Long Beach and being from L.A. I don't want to say there's a — I don't want to say "stuck up" — but the St. Pete natives come to the game dressed as baseball fans. Tampa people come dressed to go out. There's girls in heels dressed up and ready to go out. Usually, the St. Pete people that are fans, are FANS. They're there to watch the game and support us.

Apparently Dirtbag needed a "Crash Davis" in the minors to mentor him on learning cliches.

One of the nice things about rooting for a small-market team, is that an interview like this will not become a national story. If Longoria played in New York, he probably would have been crucified for some of his answers. But he plays in St. Pete and our reaction is, Meh.

Answer Man: Evan Longoria talks Tampa Bay, Dick Vitale and Eva [Big League Stew]

Just want to let you know that we added an item to the Rays Index Store, based on requests.

No poem to mark the occasion today...but just know that if we had a daughter, we would buy this shirt for her and make it happen. Is there a bigger compliment that one man could ever give to another?

Click on the image to be taken directly to the Rays Index store.





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Long Beach State University's mascot is the "49ers". However, as those of you that follow this site regularly already know, the baseball team has it's own moniker, "The Dirtbags". As a former member of Long Beach State's baseball team, Evan Longoria, the new face of the Tampa Bay Rays, embodies everything that "Dirtbags" symbolizes. This is why we always refer to Longoria as "Dirtbag".

Well, Jack Curry of the New York Times ran a fun little piece yesterday morning about Longoria and Jason Giambi and their ties to Long Beach State University.

Evan Longoria did not merely call Jason Giambi a fellow Long Beach State 49er. The baseball team goes by a different nickname, a grittier, sloppier handle, so that was how Longoria referred to him. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Giambi swiftly said.

And that was it. Nowhere in the article does Curry actually use the word "Dirtbag". Is "Dirtbag now a "bad" word? Would the New York Times face a fine for the use of what is the mascot for a collegiate baseball team?

We honestly cannot come up with a single reason why Curry would tiptoe around the use of the word "Dirtbag", and yet he will freely use the word "Yankees", which clearly should have been one of George Carlin's "7 words you can't say on television".

Giambi and Longoria Share Root and a Battle [New York Times]