SARASOTA, Fla. -- Looking for a little team bonding roughly midway through Spring Training, the Rays brought some Southern tradition to Charlotte Sports Park on Friday night.
Following their 9-9 tie against the Twins on Friday afternoon, and their 14-11 victory in the annual Rays Families vs. Twins Families Charity Softball Game immediately afterward, the Rays hosted a crawfish boil in a standing-room section of their spring ballpark. Players, coaches, staff and their families all gathered for a delicious meal, courtesy of pitcher Jacob Waguespack, and a cornhole tournament that carried on for a few hours.
“Just guys hanging out, playing cornhole, eating crawfish and watching the children run around. It was a great night,” second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “People were like, 'This is awesome. We should probably do this again.' And talking with guys today, just like, 'That was a lot of fun. Let's do this next time.'”
The Rays have been looking for ways to build unity and cohesion in the clubhouse, believing that can only help them on the field. This particular team-building idea came from Waguespack, a Louisiana native who engineered a similar event early in 2020 in Blue Jays camp. And the timing -- with all the players’ families already at Charlotte Sports Park for the softball game -- was perfect.
“It was awesome. It was one of the best team events, so thanks to Wags, certainly,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Wags, his wife and all of the people behind the scenes … that supported it. The guys had a blast. It was really cool.”
With help from senior director of player development Blake Butera, team dietician Courtney Ellison and the Rays’ clubhouse chefs, among others, Waguespack made the meal. He bought Louisiana spices online and flew in 200 pounds of crawfish from a company in Natchitoches, La.
From there, it was just a matter of getting everything in a massive seafood boiling pot -- or four, in this case -- and Waguespack finding the right ingredients.
“I have my own little concoction, which is just from being home and going to so many boils -- onions, lemons, garlic, potatoes, sausage, corn, shrimp,” he said, smiling.
When it was done, they dumped it all over a table and let the players and staff gather around to enjoy the feast. Some had to learn proper crawfish-peeling technique, but they all raved about Waguespack’s work.
“Very good. A-plus,” infielder Curtis Mead said. “First time. I was pleased.”
Even with all they ordered and prepared, Waguespack said they only left with “like three handfuls” of leftovers.
“Guys loved it,” he said. “It was awesome, man. That's what it's all about. It's all about the experience and just kind of seeing a little bit of that Cajun flair and cuisine, but it was more so just about camaraderie and talking to people, meeting families and stuff like that.”
There was also a little competition amid the camaraderie, as a cornhole tournament broke out. Outfielder Kameron Misner and catcher Logan Driscoll took home the championship, beating Lowe and Ryan Pepiot in a lengthy final matchup.
“It was really cool to get the whole group together and not be on a baseball field,” Lowe said. “We spend so much time together, but it's always in the confines of a locker room or we're out on the baseball field. So it's nice to get everybody together and have fun, shoot the breeze, just be friends.
“You're friends here and you're brothers in here, but you introduce the friendly competition of cornhole, and all of a sudden I'm trash-talking somebody that doesn't speak very good English, and he's yelling at me in Spanish, and it's just having fun.
“This game, it's tough, and the season's long and it drags on sometimes, so when we can break it up with stuff like this, it definitely makes it a lot better.”
Senior Reporter Adam Berry covers the Rays for MLB.com and covered the Pirates from 2015-21.