The Blank Rays
I’m not much of a baseball fan, but I follow sports in general enough that I like to think of myself as aware of all baseball traditions. For example, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are a bad team. My great aunt Dahlia lived in Tampa all her life, was a baseball fan, was very excited when the Devil Rays came to town, and then was disappointed by the fact that they sucked. There you have it. Tampa = Devil Rays = Bad.
Then I flip to this season’s post-season and what do I see? Not only has Tampa become good, they’re not the Devil Rays anymore. They’re just the “Rays.” Like a ray of sunshine. I suppose you can’t argue with success, but this strikes me as a much lamer name. It used to be that no matter how bad the team, you could at least say “well, we’re still named after a bad-ass fish.” Now once their good players are all poached by other, higher-payroll teams what are they going to have left? Nothing!
Meanwhile, I note that Alaska’s lack of big league sports franchises is a major advantage on the stump. Palin’s been in Florida the past two days congratulating local ralliers on the Devil Rays’ success and she’s able to really do it wholeheartedly; she’s got a background in sports commentary, and no divided loyalties based on an allegiance to a local team.
71 Responses to “The Blank Rays”
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October 7th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I don’t expect a non-fan like yourself to know it, Matt, but these Rays are going to be good for a long time: most of their best players (Longoria, James Shields, and rookie pitching phenom David Price) are locked in to long term contracts at vastly below market rates. That being said, Rays is a dumb, dumb name, but Devil Rays isn’t a whole lot better. I mean, how bad ass can ANY fish (other than a shark, of course) really be, even if it is named after the Prince of Darkness?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:38 am
The Tampa Bay Rays. Not Devil Rays. Just Rays. (Not a fan is an understatement I suppose.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:38 am
you could at least say “well, we’re still named after a bad-ass fish.”
There’s no such fish as a devil ray. But as anyone who has done any diving will tell you, members of the ray family are about the coolest thing under water.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Actually the Ray’s are set up for (relativerly) long term success. Most of their valuable players are signed to inexpensive mid-term length deals. Everyone scoffed when the Rays signed Evan Longoria to a long term deal after a couple of days in the bigs. Obviously, they knew what they were doing.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:44 am
“Rays”, “Devil Rays”. Whatever. They’re winning by playing great ball, and without any big names. And you gotta love that.
However, there are professional sports teams that do need to change their names: “Redskins”, “Indians”, “Chiefs”, “Braves” etc.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:47 am
The Indians just need to change their fucking logo. Chief Wahoo is a disgrace. I have nothing against how the Braves and Chiefs handle their indigenous-themed monikers.
As for Alaska, I think most of them are Mariners fans if anything.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:49 am
It’s hard to be a Mariners fan this year. Best just to pretend the team doesn’t exist.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
It’s simple: the team underwent an exorcism, purged itself of its losing ways, and became division champions. Get thee behind me, Satan!
October 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Yeah, when I was in Anchorage a few years back, I saw lots of Mariners gear and got the impression that they were the adopted “home” team.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Delaware doesn’t have any major league pro sports either. Anyone know which baseball team Biden roots for? The Phillies?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:55 am
My great aunt Dahlia lived in Tampa all her life, was a baseball fan, was very excited when the Devil Rays came to town, and then was disappointed by the fact that they sucked.
Why would/should anyone expect an expansion franchise to be good? Sunbelt teams lacking in tradtion such as the D-Backs and Marlins and Rays have absolutely no business expecting championships right off the bat without paying their dues. I will easily take the side of long-suffering Chicago, Philly or Cleveland (or even Boston) fans before rooting for a sunbelt team. Go 63 years between pennants and then tell us how disappointed Aunt Dahlia is.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Joe Maddon, by the way, is awesome. He’s like a god over at Management by Baseball (warning: bizspeak). I wish BHO would use this quote tonight from the article about Maddon in today’s NYT: “And so, while everybody else may be losing their mind, it’s becoming upon us not to lose ours.”
October 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Matt, like all New Yorkers, just considers Delaware a far flung suburb and therefore Yankee or Mets fans.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
But have you noticed how much Joe Maddon looks like Barry Goldwater?
http://www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/goldwater.jpg
October 7th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
There’s no such fish as a devil ray.
There’s no such city as “Tampa Bay,” either.
Florida: Where Legends Go To Die, But Haven’t Gotten Around To It Yet.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Since i lived in Tampa for 12 years, I went to my fair share of D-Rays games. The name and the park are both lame. When they announced the name change, I was hoping for a wholesale change, but if not then I hope for Grays, since it’s a name with baseball history, and you also get the unintentional comedy of old people rooting for a team called the Grays.
Also, the Indians should ditch Wahoo and call themselves the Tribe. The Redskins should change their logo to a red hog. The Chiefs should change their logo to a fireman’s hat. Braves seems more complicated.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
“you could at least say “well, we’re still named after a bad-ass fish.”
With all due respect to McKingford, above, there is such a thing as a devil ray: it’s another name for the manta ray, as Wikipedia will verify.
With all due respect to our host, however, the manta ray – while extremely cool – is a long, long way from being badass: it’s a filter feeder without even the poison barb in the tail that some of its taxonomical bretheren enjoy. It’s got a big brain and a great design – an oversized iPhone of a sea creature, really – but it has no capacity at all to inflict injury on anything larger than a peppercorn.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Devil rays not badass?
Tell that to Steve Irwin.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Steve Irwin was killed by a bull ray, not a manta.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Lousy facts ruining my joke.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Delaware doesn’t have any major league pro sports either. Anyone know which baseball team Biden roots for? The Phillies?
Wilmington and the rest of northern Delaware is mostly Phillies territory, so if Biden’s a baseball fan he probably roots for them. People in central and southern Delaware are more likely to follow the Orioles.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
However, there are professional sports teams that do need to change their names: “Redskins”, “Indians”, “Chiefs”, “Braves” etc.
The Indians were originally named the Spiders. They changed it to Indians in honor of Louis Sockalexis, who might have been the first Native American to play professionally. His career ended due to alchoholism, and like Bill Simmons, Clarence Thomas and Chris Matthews, he attended the College of the Holy Cross.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Devil rays do exist. They are synonymous with manta rays (Mobula spp.) but some people apply the common name “devil ray” to specific species, such as the Japanese devil ray. Look at fishbase.org for examples…
They dropped the “devil” from the team name because they thought it might be a curse. We are talking about Florida, after all…
October 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Matt,
I’m pretty sure the Devil Rays are Tampa’s hockey team. Their baseball team is the Diamondbacks, though everyone just calls them the D-backs.
I am believing in these things in protest of professional sports leagues exceeding 24 teams.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Don’t know why they didn’t just change the name to Stingrays. “Rays” is indeed a lame name. And despite being in Sunny Florida, they play indoors, because apparently folks in the Tampa Bay Metro Area refuse to sit outdoors for three hours without air conditioning or swimming pools. Just a horrible, embarrassing franchise on all counts…
But a frighteningly talented young team. It’s hard to root against those guys.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Delaware doesn’t have any major league pro sports either. Anyone know which baseball team Biden roots for? The Phillies?
I have a friend who grew up in Wilmington some decades back. Wilmington was traditionally Phillies territory. One Saturday during the Phils’ four-year cellar run from 1957 through 1961, her father, and all the other heads of household in the neighborhood, got up on their roofs and ceremoniously rotated their TV antennas to point to Baltimore.
This would suggest, given the Orioles’ recent history, that Wilmingtonians are now Phillies fans once again, and have been for some time, but I have no current data.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
The Indians were originally named the Spiders. They changed it to Indians in honor of Louis Sockalexis, who might have been the first Native American to play professionally.
Not quite right. The Cleveland Spiders were a national league team in the 1880s and 90s. Cy Young played for them. Between the 1898 and 1899 seasons, the Spiders owners also bought the St. Louis Browns (the franchise now known as the St. Louis Cardinals). They decided, apparently, that they liked St. Louis better, and sent all their good players to St. Louis. The 1899 Spiders were the worst team ever to play Major League Baseball. Their record was 20-134, and they were 84 games out of first place. The team was abolished after that season.
In 1901, when the new American League started, a new franchise was established in Cleveland. They were initially known as the Cleveland Blues, but soon changed their name to the Cleveland Naps, in honor of Nap Lajoie, their hall of fame player-manager. In the 1910s they changed their name again to the Cleveland Indians, as you say, in honor of Sockalexis.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
matt c has it right. The smart management move for small-market teams these days is to sign young players to long-term deals very early. And the Rays seem to have done a good job of that. As a Red Sox fan (living about a mile from Fenway Park), I want the Rays to lose, but kudos to them for hanging tough this season and winning the division.
The flipside of this management trend is that it’s now really really hard to find good players in the prime of their career on the free agent market. Instead you get overpriced has-beens, as on the Yankees of the last few years.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Matt, for what its worth, they’re no longer called the “devil rays” they are just called “the rays” now…
October 7th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
What team, btw, would people in Scranton root for? If I had to guess, I’d guess there would be both Phillies and Yankees supporters there, but probably more on the Phillies side of things. So Biden would hereditarily be a Phillies fan, most likely (although I suppose in his youth there were also the Athletics – they left Philly about the time he moved from Scranton to Delaware).
Of course, that means little. Dick Durbin is from East St. Louis, and supports the Cubs, so the basic fact is that we can’t trust politicians.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
People in central and southern Delaware are more likely to follow the Orioles.
People are outnumbered by chickens in central and southern Delaware, by about 100 to one. (Number totally made up.)
October 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
the St. Louis Browns (the franchise now known as the St. Louis Cardinals)
The Browns moved to Baltimore in in 1954 and became the Orioles. Long before that, the Browns were in Milwaukee and were known as the Brewers. They played one year in Milwaukee and moved to St Louis in 1902. The current Brewers were the Seattle Pilots, who played one year in Seattle and then moved to Milwaukee. And so on.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
They are new and exciting……. Rich Lowry might call the Rays the Starbursts….
October 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Background, schmackground! She’s still no Jim Rome. Who, come to think of it, would be great in a debate against her. “Classic!”
October 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Edward – the AL franchise known as the St. Louis Browns is now the Baltimore Orioles. However, the 1890s NL franchise known as the St. Louis Browns changed its nickname to the Cardinals, and still plays in St. Louis.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
As a fan, I just have to note that they haven’t completely abandoned the “devil” ray for the burst of sunshine. The front of the jersey has the sunshine burst but the sleeve still sports the manta ray and the stadium still contains a ray tank in center field where the kiddies can pet a manta ray.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Not quite right. [etc]
Thanks for that. I remembered the story from many years ago and didn’t bother looking it up for confirmation. It’s been a long time since I’ve been obsessive about baseball history and apparently forgot the particulars.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I mean, how bad ass can ANY fish (other than a shark, of course) really be?
Are you intentionally dissing Sarah Barracuda?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
However, there are professional sports teams that do need to change their names: “Redskins”, “Indians”, “Chiefs”, “Braves” etc.
And the Yankees. And there are lots of college teams that need to change, too. E.g., Fighting Irish.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Wait, I think people are missing an important point here: you really have an Aunt Dahlia? Do you read P. G. Wodehouse?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Here is a map which purports to show the geographical reach of baseball team allegiances.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
John
Thanks, obviously I didn’t go back far enough.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
As a Red Sox fan, the thing that’s most astonishing to me is how quickly the Rays have become a very confident team, a process that usually requires several seasons. They’ve got a swagger that’s quite appealing. I’ll have no problem rooting for them in the Series if they get past the Sox.
Joe Madden looks like a genius (he’s actually quite the renaissance man). Of course, going from the worst bullpen in baseball history to one of the top pens in the majors in one year doesn’t hurt.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Joe Maddon is awesome (and not just because of the specs). He was one of the first in baseball to use a computer, to use stats to argue against conventional wisdom. He preferred “supportable facts” over “gut.” And it seems to be paying off.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Latinist: “Aunt Dahlia” was tickling my subconscious, but the reason didn’t register. It seems unlikely that Matt’s aunt publishes a women’s magazine and has a rich husband who collects silver cow creamers, but isn’t it lovely to think so.
Peter: I’d like to see a map that was shorter on cool graphics and longer on documentation. But thanks.
Right-wing robot going by the name “Al”: Buzz off. I, a human, command you.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
…and the stadium still contains a ray tank in center field where the kiddies can pet a manta ray.
Those are cownose rays, Rhinoptera bonasus. Mantas are much tougher to keep in captivity. Especially in shallow touch tanks like those.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I’m not much of a baseball fan, but I follow sports in general enough that I like to think of myself as aware of all baseball traditions. For example, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are a bad team.
Oh, to be so young as to think a team formed in 1998 is somehow part of “baseball traditions”!
Matt, you such a young little cutie sometimes grandma just wants to just pinch your cheeks!
October 7th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
@tinisoli: You are my brother in marine-biology geekdom. Blessings!
October 7th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Here’s an empirically-determined map of baseball allegiances:
http://www.commoncensus.org/sports_map.php?sport=2
Why would/should anyone expect an expansion franchise to be good?
But the fact of the matter is that over their history, Tampa Bay has been resolutely awful. Before this year, they’d been in the league 10 years and finished in last place nine of those years. The year they didn’t, they were just 3 games out of last. Their previous high for wins in a season was just 70; they passed that sometime in August this year.
Compare with the Diamondbacks, who came into existence the same year. They won their division in their sophomore year and the World Series the fourth year of their existence. They have 7 winning seasons and 4 losing ones. Or the Marlins, who joined the league in 1993 and have the odd distinction of having two World Championships without ever winning their division. Even the Rockies (1993) have had 5 winning seasons and have been to the postseason twice.
Another point is that with all this stupid talk about who’s “paid their dues” or not, it’s not like the Cub players themselves have been losing for a hundred years. That’s really only a fan-based metric. You can ascribe the D-Backs’ early success to an anomaly (and a lot of deep pockets early on), but even a more conventional success strategy in baseball shouldn’t take more than about 4 or 5 years to implement.
Indeed, what has happened with the Rays is that Stuart Sternberg took over executive control of the team from Vince Naimoli after the 2005 season and actually started making intelligent baseball decisions, which finally paid off this year. Success in baseball is a combination of money, intelligence, and good fortune. You can look at the Yankees and say they bought all their championships, but at least they’ve been spending their money fairly intelligently, at least since the mid-90s when Steinbrenner stopped being so mercurial. Compare with other big-money teams like the Mets, Dodgers (my team, finally doing well this year), and Cubs. A few years ago the Orioles were spending lots of cash but had a lousy team. Teams like Kansas City and Pittsburgh can whine about their small-market status, but the fact of the matter is that other small-market teams like Oakland or Minnesota have done well by managing their team intelligently.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I would think that as long as he’s been in DC, perhaps Biden might have adopted the Nationals as his team when they moved there.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I would think that as long as he’s been in DC, perhaps Biden might have adopted the Nationals as his team when they moved there.
Biden himself, though, never moved to DC. That brings up the question, I suppose: will he still commute from Delaware as VP?
My assumption with the candidates is:
Obama – White Sox
Biden – Phillies
McCain – D-Backs
Palin – Mariners
That’s just conjecture, though.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
“Now once their good players are all poached by other, higher-payroll teams what are they going to have left? Nothing!” (MY)
By signing their young stars (Longoria) to long-term contracts -they’ve effectively put up a firewall to prevent poaching. MLB is awash in money even for the small or mid market teams. The Minnesota Twins lost Torii Hunter (best years behind him, no real loss) and Johan Santana (regrettable, he might have signed a long-term contract if they’d offered him the $20 per they did 1 year earlier) but did lock up 3 genuine elite players: Mauer, Morneau, and Nathan. Tampa Bay has the money to sign their franchise players and likely will. Dropping the “Devils” though, is lame.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
MAP TO MLB MEDIA AREAS; these correspond roughly to the marketing areas for each team.Alaska, btw, is Mariners territory.The D-Rays/Rays have not only collected fine players, but are relentless about working with them supportively and simultaneously purging the ones who undermine their teammates. Management have played their hand very intelligently, blending old techniques and new ones, embracing anything rational that might provide an edge. If Maddon, Friedman & Sternberg were running the country instead of the current crew, we’d be a lot better off. Hey, if anyone who managed a major league roster, even from the Mariners, ran the country, they’d perform a heck of a lot better than the incumbent team and better than either of the would-be’s and their Rubin/Gramm rosters.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
In think back when they sucked we called them the “Deviled Eggs.”
October 7th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I have to say the first map posted is way off- I’m from southwest Virginia and there are not many Pirates fans in those parts- Braves are probably in the lead (but that’s my team so maybe I’m just biased), and I bet the Reds, Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, and even the Nats are all more popular than the Pirates in the area.
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