David Shilkitus
Welcome to a website dedicated to David Shilkitus and his love of Tampa Bay sports. It’s a great time to be a fan of professional teams in the Bay Area. Not only are the Rays in the midst of another October World Series run, but the Lightning are about to drop the puck, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are outperforming what the “experts” predicted for the team before the season.
Future blog posts will touch on the latest ongoings in Tampa sports. David Shilkitus is hopeful that he will be able to discuss a World Series run for the Rays and an NFC South Division Title for the Buccaneers in the not-so-distant future, but for now, David Shilkitus is excited to discuss some of his favorite Tampa Bay sports moments in his history of fandom.
David Shilkitus on The Best Buccaneer Moments
David Shilkitus is so proud to be a modern-day Buccaneers fan. The latest generation of fans equate the Buccaneers with a winning franchise, but this wasn’t always the case. The franchise started out going winless in their first season in 1976. In the following season, the team took 13 games to finally enter the win column. The first win was huge for the organization – not because they then had hoped to make the playoffs, but because they had fans who were showing loyalty even when the product on the field wasn’t as strong as they may have hoped. David Shilkitus believes that the excitement in Tampa Bay surrounding the first win for the team allowed the NFL to understand that Tampa Bay was a great pro football city.
The 1995 NFL draft is one of the most important nights in the history of Tampa Bay sports. David Shilkitus notes that this draft brought two of the greatest players in the history of the organization to Tampa Bay. Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks would serve as the cornerstones of a defense that would lead Tampa Bay to their first Super Bowl trophy in 2002. A culture of losing was erased with the addition of two players who helped show a franchise what it means to be great.
In fact, Derrick Brooks would go on to secure the first Super Bowl by coming up clutch for the Bucs in one of the biggest moments of the game. While the Buccaneers did indeed route the Raiders to win their first Super Bowl, David Shilkitus notes that many fans forget that the Raiders cut the lead to 13 after falling behind 13 points. With the Raiders driving and looking to cut the lead to a one-score game, Derrick Brooks picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
Finally, the moment the Buccaneers signed, Tom Brady will go down as one of the greatest days in the history of Tampa Bay sports. Brady was the undisputed greatest quarterback of all time before heading down to Tampa. Coming off a heartbreaking home playoff loss for the Patriots the year prior, many fans and league experts wondered if Brady had anything left to give an NFL franchise. The Buccaneers took a shot, and the veteran leadership of Brady helped the team win their first title since that magical run in 2002. The franchise’s willingness to make the move for Brady is one of the best decisions in the history of the team.
David Shilkitus on the Rays
Much like the town’s football team, the town’s baseball team took some time to gain prominence on the national scale. The Rays are a relatively new team, as the franchise got their start in 1998. It took ten years before the Rays would be able to obtain a winning season. David Shilkitus provides a lot of the credit for turning the franchise in the proper direction to manager Joe Maddon. When the Rays acquired Maddon as the manager, he was known as a quirky bench coach for the Angels. He turned out to be one of the best baseball managers in MLB history. With four playoff appearances in six years and two AL Manager of the Year Awards, Maddon helped turn the Rays from an afterthought to a perennial contender.
The Rays have yet to return to the World Series since 2008, but they have had plenty of postseason history since then. David Shilkitus believes the most exciting Rays game of the last 25 years did not occur in the postseason but rather on the last day of the 2011 regular season. Down 7-0 to the dreaded New York Yankees, the Rays looked to be squandering their chance to clinch an AL wildcard playoff berth. Against all odds, the Rays fought all the way back to force extra innings. In the 12th, Evan Longoria became only the second player in the history of Major League Baseball to hit a walk-off homer in the final game of the regular season to put his team in the playoffs. It was truly a magical time in Tampa Bay sports.
David Shilkitus on the Lightning
While The Lightning has been one of the most successful NHL franchises of the 2000s, the team wasn’t always the championship-caliber squad they are known to be today. Before the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, the expansion franchise struggled to find its footing after joining the league in 1992. Much like the Buccaneers drafting players to turn their franchise around, the Lightning drafted Vincent Lecavalier in 1998. By 2003, Lecavalier would lead the team to their first playoff series win. The next year, the Lightning hoisted the Stanley Cup trophy.
The Lightning once again gained national attention in 2018 when they won an incredible 62 games. At the time, this tied the record for wins in an NHL regular season. Unfortunately, the team would fall to the Columbus Blue Jackets in one of the biggest upsets in modern sports history. Fortunately, the team was able to bounce back and win the next two Stanley Cup titles.
David Shilkitus hoped you enjoyed this trip down Tampa sports memory lane. For his thoughts on the latest in Tampa sports, be sure to check out the blog on this site!