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Rays official a big hit with students

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: November 25, 2009

TAMPA - Thirty-six years had passed since Mark Fernandez sat in Theresa Peters' fourth-grade classroom, but his childhood felt fresh when he returned Nov. 18 to Forest Hills Elementary.

"This is actually surprisingly emotional for me," said Fernandez, 46. "I'm a little choked up."

There was the familiar brick entrance. The classrooms where he learned to love history and Florida explorers. The playground, now a basketball court, where he spent summers. The stage where he dressed as a girl for a gag in the class play.

And Peters herself, still a teacher at the school.

"Hello, Mark," she said, greeting him with a hug.

Fernandez came back to Forest Hills at Peters' request for the Great American Teach-In. Now senior vice president for the Tampa Bay Rays, Fernandez hadn't seen her since leaving elementary school in the 1970s. Peters had kept a scrapbook, though, of each year she taught and pulled out a photo of him with friends in a Dolphins T-shirt and one of him in a dress for the play.

She always thought he would be an attorney, she told him.

"He was a leader in class," Peters said. "He was enthusiastic. But most importantly, he was fun to teach."

It was rewarding for her to have her former student return, said Peters, who had retired from Hillsborough County in 1991 but came back to Forest Hills to teach second grade. Rosalyn Knight, her teaching partner for Fernandez's class, has died.

The teach-in attracted hundreds of parents and volunteers to Hillsborough County public schools. At the annual event, school officials invite speakers to talk about their jobs and hobbies and the importance of a good education.

The line-up was diverse, with serious discussions about the Holocaust, the military, politics and police on one hand. On the lighter side, visitors entertained students with animals and demonstrations and displays of cars and motorcycles.

Fernandez made a splash when his colleague, shaggy Rays mascot Raymond, arrived to the shrieks of students. He also let them try on his World Series ring, from his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and his American League championship ring with the Rays.

His sales and marketing job means making weighty decisions, he joked, such as what color jersey Raymond should wear or which players should be bobblehead giveaways.

"I was one of you guys, living right across the street, and now I have my dream job," Fernandez told the fourth-graders who gathered to hear him speak. "I go to work every day at the ballpark."

He returned to his hometown almost five years ago with his wife and three children, after spending 20 years in Arizona. He had always loved sports and got a job working for the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks.

He jumped at the chance to move to Tampa when the Rays position opened under the team's new ownership. His parents and siblings live in the area.

Others thought he was crazy to leave the Diamondbacks for a team struggling to win. The Rays' success showed that "hard work and humility pay off," he said.

The children asked him what baseball players he had met, whether he got paid for working for the team and whether Forest Hills looked different today.

Fernandez picked their brains, too. He said he is always looking for new ideas to attract people to games and wondered whether the students had some suggestions.

One boy said the Rays should have a barber at Tropicana Field to give Rayhawks to fans.

That could be a good idea, Fernandez said. You never know.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (727) 451-2343.

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