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.
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