SP Times: Out of the spotlight, Naimoli still loves the Rays

Having anything to do with the Rays…in Naimoli.

Four hours before Monday’s first pitch, as the ballplayers were filing into Tropicana Field and bartenders were tapping kegs for the fans and bloggers were betting that night -—surely — the Rays would clinch a play-off spot, the man who brought Major League Baseball to Tampa Bay sat a few blocks away.

Alone.

In the back of Haslam’s bookstore. Reading his memoir.

“VINCE NAIMOLI,” screamed the hardback’s gold headline, in inch-high, all capital letters. “Business, Baseball & Beyond,” whispered the white subhead on the glossy cover. Last fall, Naimoli published 5,000 copies.

Monday afternoon, the man who used to be the face of the franchise, who for a decade owned the team and made all the calls, waited to see if anyone would show up and ask him to sign his story.

“If you need any more copies,” Naimoli told the bookstore owner, “I still got a bunch of them at home.”

Someone had shoved a round wooden table into the aisle between shelves labeled Business and Baseball. Someone had poured cranberry juice into a cut-glass bowl, set out a tray of Pepperidge Farm cookies. The store cat, Teacup, batted at a stack of Styrofoam cups.

Twenty minutes after the signing was scheduled to begin, no one had even looked at one of Naimoli’s books.