This 2008 Tampa Bay Rays team is doing in the American League East, what they say could not be done. How could the Rays, a team with a minuscule payroll be competing with the big boys in the AL East. The payrolls that the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox have at their disposal, we were told just don’t translate into the Rays EVER making a run in the division.
When Stuart Sternberg took over controlling interest in the Tampa franchise, he laid out his plan that the Rays would become something like the Minnesota Twins. A small market team that is in the thick of it just about every season. He did not want to be like the Florida Marlins team who make that one improbale run, and falls off for the next ten years. He wanted to build a winner for the long haul that is successful year in and year out. Teams like the Pirates should take notice. It can happen if you put aside the short term goals and stick with the plan and build it several years out. A top to bottom overhaul is what is neccesary.
The Sternberg regime have done much more than just player selection. They have reached out to the Tampa community and provided free parking a season ago. They have overhauled the existing Tropicana Field to a fan friendly enjoyable park to visit. This season they dropped the Devil from the name and are known simply as the Rays. They changed their uniforms in a similar fashion to the Tampa Bay Bucs. They picked an optimal time for the Rays to turn into winners as they push for a state of the art ballpark. One thing is certain for this franchise is that the Tampa area always supported its teams even durring the bad times. Now with the Rays in contention, the fans have come out in record numbers. In the offseason the cleansed the organization getting rid of bad boys in Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes and actually got great returns on each.
The body of work that Rays baseball executives Andrew Friedman and Gerry Hunsicker have executed has put themsleves on the map as top tier baseball men. They have made John Schuerholz like deals where they have gotten alot of somethings for nothing. Take for example the Erik Hinske and Willy Aybar acquisitions. Where would this Rays team been without these two key players. But, thats the thing anout this 2008 Rays team, its all about chemistry. They have done this all and well without sacrificing the future with any of their in season deals. They have made minor deals that just seemed to fit that perfect role. Carl Crawford going down with an injury, no problem. We’ll summon Rocoo Baldelli who has yet to really play the past three seasons. They have done it the right way and Joe Maddon has shown to be the Professor. B.J Upton not hustling, grab some bench. Just ike Maddon says, 9 players to be one of the 8 playoff teams has been the vision.
All in all, this has been a rewarding story that will be told year and year again. Lets not forget this season ever! Its a story of a team and a franchise and city all coming togther at the right time.
I love the excitement surrounding them. Especially as a part-time Yankee fan (the rest of the time I’m all about the Royals), I love the fact that if the Yanks can’t win the AL East, there’s someone there to stop the Red Sox from doing it HAHA …seriously though, I’ve always loved to see underdogs come up and play like never before.
I don’t normally like to be anti in comments, but dude you’re way off on a couple things…
from 2001-2007, the Rays attendance ranked in the bottom of the majors, how can you say the Tampa area has always supported this team even through it’s bad times? Their first season, was the only time the team drew over 2 million. Oh, and guess what… they won’t be drawing close to that in 2008, so the fans aren’t coming out in record numbers even for their own franchise (or anyone else’s) even though attendance has increased dramatically. They’re on pace for about 1.78 million, and their team record is 2.5 million. That’s about 720,000 people short. At this pace, they would actually need to play an extra 32 home games to reach that number.
And the Marlins have won 2 world series… the second being 6 years after the first. So they only “fell off” for a half decade…it might’ve felt like 10 years to Miami, but it wasn’t close to that.