I cry "bullshit"

[yendi]

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are changing their name.

They claim that there's a "negative association" with the word "devil" in their name.

Um, yeah. 'cuz it surely hurts those Bible-belt teams in the ACC to be associated with devils and demons.

No, what's hurt the Tampa Bay baseball franchise is the enormous pile of suck that they've put on the field for their entire history. Finishing in last place every year but one (when they climbed to next-to-last) and only once winning 70 games has a lot more to do with alienating fans than a marine biology-inspired nickname.

Comments

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

Really, what new ownership is saying is "Devil Rays is an awfully sucktastic name for a professional sports team." Most Rays fans (there actually are a few) never liked the name to begin with -- my first reaction when they announced it was to try not to choke on my own vomit. Couple a terrible name with consistently terrible logo designs and color schemes and then throw in eight years of terrible on-the-field product... yeah, they needed to throw it out and start over. Won't make the team any better, of course (unless they get some sort of psychological boost out of the change), but at least it'll make 'em prettier to look at.

/me lived in the Tampa Bay area for three of those eight wretched seasons.

[yendi]

The thing is, plenty of teams with sucky names (and logos) have done well enough over the years (from the Houston Astros to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks). Even the LA Clippers, saddled with a bad name, logo, and record, have shown enough promise to keep some fans happy.

The D-Rays, given a good team, would have many fewer people bitching about the name.

[badlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

Agreed 100%. If they'd had even one .500 season, I don't think they'd be in such a big rush to change. But the only thing they're associated with right now is futility, and the name "Devil Rays" has just become too much of a joke.

Now if the team's fortunes don't change after the switch, if they continue to suck just as bad (which is exactly what will happen unless the new owners follow through with their promise to up the payroll)... will they have to change again in eight more years? :)

[sirinek.livejournal.com]

Maybe they could move to Mexico like the Expos should have. ;)

[jerel.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise there was a lot of bitching about the name. I live 70 miles from Tampa, and no one talks about the team at all--because, as you have so correctly pointed out, they suck. If most people do mention it, they refer to the team as "The Rays," because it's shorter. But in lots of places they do that: in Boston, we call the teams the Sox, the Celts, and the Pats. (The Bruins was still the Bruins, but with the accent, it comes out like one syllable anyway.)

[stevietee.livejournal.com]

I used to live in Sarasota, just south of Tampa, and Tampa always struck me as trying to be The Little City Who Could, even moreso than Atlanta -- always struggling with its identity, wanting to be more than it is ("Hey, we have pro football! And baseball!! Come on, pay attention to meeeee!!").

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

1.) Tampa Bay is a body of water. Tampa is the city.

2.) They are sucktastic and craptacular! That is all. If they *ACTUALLY* fielded a team, the name wouldn't mean squat.

3.) There was a minor league hockey team in Macon, Georgia. They were called The Whoopie! *waits for it* Anyway, the bible belt folk made them change the name to The Trax.

[texmorgan.livejournal.com]

I nominate the following names:

1)Tampa Bay Felchers
2)Tampa Bay Santorums
3)Tampa Bay Practice Dummies
4)Tampa Bay Pillow Biters
5)Tampa Bay Abyss