Texas school shooting hits ‘close to home’ for Rays pitcher

By DICK SCANLON
Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was especially disturbing for Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Brooks Raley. Uvalde is the 33-year-old left-hander’s hometown. He grew up playing baseball there, and his parents and a brother still reside in the small community of 16,000 west of San Antonio. Raley was in the Rays’ clubhouse in St. Petersburg, Florida, less than an hour before a game against the Miami Marlins when he learned 19 children and two adults had been gunned down at his old grade school, Robb Elementary. He says the news was difficult to hear and he feels deeply for the families of the victims.