Those bad-ass Rays

Matt Y on the lamer-than-lame Tampa Bay Rays:

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!


Manta rays are mostly harmless but they do have "bad-ass" look to them, I suppose.

At the moment, however, I wonder if the Rays will have more fans at the Trop than those interlopers from Boston. The Tampa Bay area is full of Northeastern transplants, thus we are inundated with tiny pizza joints, people who complain incessantly about the mild summer heat and create a host of divided loyalties when the Red Sox come to town.

I should also note here that, while I have truly fallen in love with the area, I'm not sure that I can bring myself to root for the Rays. Not only out of loyalty to the Houston Astros but because I'm very, very interested in the prospect of Manny having to play at Fenway for the Series. The drama and the prospect of the Sox going down to the Dodgers is way too tempting.