Exorcism Works!---In Baseball

In an article last year, I reported on how I began listening to a Tampa Bay Devil Rays play-by-play radio broadcast on one of my local stations. And how the team, which was playing the Boston Red Sox, played so poorly that I had to switch the station after the first inning! Well, a year has gone by and this year’s edition of the Tampa Bay franchise has changed in more than one way. They have acquired some good new players, and some of last year’s are having good seasons. But during the off-season, they also changed their nickname by dropping the “Devil” from “Devil Rays”. Now they’re just the Rays, and have transformed themselves from being baseball’s perennial doormat to having the best winning percentage in either league so far this season! The Rays just finished beating their rival Boston and have jettisoned into a small lead in their division. Now I ask myself: is it finally O.K. to root for this team? Or should I wait for them to change their name to the “Angel Rays”?!

I have felt for a while that in some circles in this country, just mentioning the word “devil” was politically incorrect with some people. Apparently, in New Jersey it’s O.K. (NHL’s New Jersey Devils) as well as in North Carolina (Duke Blue Devils). I thought “Devil Rays” was a perfectly innocent designation (since it was just the name of an animal), but it was too long. At least they didn’t call themselves some ridiculous “abstraction” name as others did with names such as “Magic“, “Heat”, “Wind”, “Storm”, etc. So I’m happy with “Rays” by itself, but I suspect that the franchise probably dropped the “Devil” because some do-gooders felt that the Numero Uno Bad Dude was getting too much free publicity with this. Now, the name “Tampa Bay Rays” just naturally rolls off the tongue, and has such a virtuous sound to it! Now that they have repented and have become a “good” team, the Rays are ready to assume their rightful seat next to the Red Sox at the top (but I'm still rooting for the Yankees, with the great Derek Jeter)!