Why I’m Rooting for The Rays

It’s not just Yankee hating, and that and the Steelers are the only things I will direct such strong feelings. There is some of that. But the Tampa Bay Rays, or as I like to call them, The St. Pete Trops, are one of the most remarkable Cinderella stories in baseball since the ’68 Mets.

In 1998 when the much-promised team finally arrived on Florida’s Sun Coast, the west coast, there was a quiet smile on the collective faces of the transients in the region. We had family there, Monika’s mom Omi, and visited often. I learned to like the little county that jutted into the bay and Gulf of Mexico like a hangnail. It was unpretentious and populated by retirees hoping to hang onto pensions and savings to the last, young families who don’t have any place else to go, a burgeoning immigrant population from Latin America and all over the world, and a long line of newly wealthy who are not quite young enough or rich enough for South Florida.

Parts of Pinellas County would remind you of Summit or Portage Counties here in Northeast Ohio, only with Palm trees, lots of sunshine and beaches; very nice beaches in some cases. We were there at least three times a year and in the decade of 2000’s quite a bit more. Omi and her very senior husband were getting weaker and needed us more. So we came to think of St. Pete and the surrounding communities as our second home.

I say the creation of a Major League franchise was not met with throngs of cheering fans, and that is true. It also is quite understandable. This area is in the heart of the Grapefruit League of baseball’s spring training. Everybody already had a favorite team, a team that plays in New York or Boston or Philadelphia or even Pittsburg or Toronto. In a short drive one could see any team east of the Mississippi play from mid February to April 1.

The Devil Rays, as they were called then, had a very tough childhood. They played on the edge of notorious south St. Pete. Like a kid from the neighborhood that surrounded the lop-sided dome, the Rays were subject to abuse at the hands of the most successful division in baseball. It wasn’t until they finally got serious about competing, sometime in 2007, that the Rays started winning.

And they won big in 2008, taking the American league pennant and if not for stepping in front of a runaway train called the Phillies Express, they might have gone all the way. Like our beloved Indians, close, but no Fuentes.

Since then the Rays have changed the shape of the AL East. They are a team to be reckoned with. Just ask the Red Sox. Having blown an eight-game lead in the Wildcard, Beantown is not only without post season play, they are without a manager and facing square one.

Now the playoffs are underway, the Rays are facing last year’s AL Champ the Texas Rangers. So far, so good. If I am to enjoy the baseball post season I have to have a rooting interest. For me, the disappointed Tribe fan, there is a Ray of hope.