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

[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!!").