For years the Devil Rays took it on the chin with the national media when it came to the biggest joke short of Vince Naimoli swearing that his season tickets were going to be the foundation of the franchise.

Little did anyone know that he was referencing a type of Jimmy Hoffa under Giants Stadium underpinning as he tried to not only bury the fans but the franchise as well.

Of course I speak of the rings, those four cylindrical objects that hover over the field and certain seating areas that hold out the rain, heat and humidity of Florida springs, summers and autumns.

• The media had their fun calling games at Tropicana Field "pinball baseball."

• The Rays tried to hide them covering them with the kind of wallpaper your great-grandmother would only use in a cellar.

• Enter flower power as if someone had a bad flashback from Timothy Leary's drug of choice in the 1960's.

No matter what they did, the rings were still there and they weren't going to go away. A scribe once said that the pig in the blanket still had a pig inside.

With the Rays the worst run franchise in baseball, sportswriters had to send something to their editors other than the constant nauseating stream of winning recaps, right? "Bad baseball in a bad stadium and a win by our team" was usually the norm in stories sent to cities not in Tampa or St. Petersburg.

I called our humble baseball abode "The Big Trop" or playing a game "Under the Big Trop" because, in may respects, it was a circus in downtown St. Petersburg only the clowns were not funny. And that was just the front office.

The latest incarnation in the attempt to make the rings visually disappear has worked to some degree as your eyes now tend to gravitate downward toward the field instead of up at the "joke" because of paint schemes, cleanliness and other improvements made over the winter.

It came at a price, some $10 million in renovations by new owner Stu Sternberg and his partners, easily more than the previous group likely put into the place during their entire run, only therein lies the rub. It may be time to tear it all down and use it as a positive like no one has ever thought before.

Jonny Gomes, the player that Lou Piniella and coaching staff could not find a roster spot for last year sending him back to the minors with no clear instructions as what to work on, finally made it to the bigs only when injuries and inept play by some veterans forced the skipper's hand.

Now when people look back at Tampa Bay's second half surge in 2005, a plus-.500 record overall, they point out what Gomes brought to the table - a fire and desire to win that was so infectious it made Piniella nothing more than a bystander until his contract was eventually bought out.

The 25-year old Californian made his mark and as far as new Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and field manager Joe Maddon were concerned, he was going to be the face of the organization as they launched a new era of Rays baseball.

Coming off a 21-home run season in just over a half-season, Gomes has the look, is glib and possesses a sense of humor that has even taken Maddon by surprise. Best of all, he is fast becoming one of the most popular Devil Rays ever.

Now with all that going for him, what, you may ask, could he possible do that would make him more of a household name in such a brief big league career.

Meet Jonny Johnson Gomes, "Lord of the Rings."

That's right folks, Gomes is doing something even the mighty, and somewhat enhanced, Jose Canseco couldn't - turn a negative, a gigantic negative, into a positive.

Now you may wonder why anyone would want to be the Lord and Master of something that has been nothing more than fodder for eight-plus years?

To use the answer that George Mallory gave when he was asked why he climbed Mt. Everest, "Because it is there."

Every ballpark has their own idiosyncrasies and Tropicana Field has what some have called those gawd-awful rings. Or so it seemed before this season.

The old Yankee Stadium had monuments in the field of play, a place where Jimmy Piersall once hid behind during a game. Houston has the centerfield hill just like the old Crosley Field had. Nooks and crannies. Speakers hanging from the roof. Name a ballpark and someone will tell you there is something special (or subject to ridicule depending on who you talk to) about it.

Tropicana Field is no different and maybe it's time to unveil those rings as part of "The Pit" as Maddon wants to make it. We could even use the old Brooklyn Dodgers gimmick at Ebbets Field, the one that said "Hit Sign, Win Suit," only stick signs in different parts of the rings and select a fan before the game to win a trip on Delta Airlines, one of the Rays corporate sponsors, should anyone actually do it.

It's a natural. Ball flies up to ring, fans flies away.

As I started this piece, Gomes was the only player in 2006 to hit one of those things and he has done it four times.

Due to two sets of rules governing what ring is hit, one of those "hits" actually turned into an out. "A" and "B" ring, ball in play, "C" and "D" a home run. Gomes clocked the pole holding up the "C" on Tuesday while it was still on the rise.

So what if you can't accurately measure what the distance would have been but just how many of those so-called 450-footers are really precise anyway?

See, I told you we have our very own idiosyncrasy and maybe it is time that we stop trying to hide it like the old fuddy-duddy at a family gathering and turn the ugly duckling into a swan.

OK, maybe that is a little over the top but you get my drift.

Funny thing though. Just as I reached this point, the ring was hit for the fifth time although Gomes had nothing to do with it. It was the Red Sox Kevin Youkilis hitting the "B" ring and Carl Crawford did a U-turn from foul territory back into fair and caught the ball for an out.

Call it a home field advantage.

And with all due respect to the successful book and movie franchise, Tampa Bay now has its very own "Lord of the Rings."

His name is Jonny Gomes.

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I've expressed it on my radio show but I also want to say it here.

I was overwhelmed by the number of e-mails and phone calls over recent weeks with well-wishes before, and now after the surgery on my neck.

As it turned out it was a non-malignant tumor, thank God, but was giving me severe headaches and residual pain down my left side. Everything is slowly returning back to normal.

I have only been to Tropicana Field twice over the last five weeks and likely will not return to full action until the Rays return home after the All Star break on the 21st where I expect to take my usual spot in the second row of the press box.

I just want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers during this time.