Goodbye Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Posted by Andy on November 8, 2007
I don't know if you heard, but as of today the Devil Rays are no more.
They officially re-named themselves the Tampa Bay Rays, under pressure from religious groups who opposed use of the word "Devil" in their name. Yeah, no kidding. See here.
They also got new uniforms. Turns out, though, that no matter how you dress them up, this is still a franchise with huge problems. I hear they are looking to trade Scott Kazmir. WHAT?
November 9th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I didn't mind when the Washington Bullets decided to change their name because of the connotation with violence in the inner city. But this is crazy. The RAYS name change is absurd. I mean PLEASE.
For the record, the last name change was the Expos to the Nationals, when the franchise moved from Montreal to Washinton in 2005. The last name change when a franchise *didn't* move cities was (I think) in 1965 when Houston changed from the Colt .45s to the Astros.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:24 am
"A yellow sunburst that Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said was made to represent the Florida sunshine twinkles toward the top of the "R,"
Good thing, since no actual Florida sunshine makes it into their home games...
November 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am
This reminds me of two other name changes. At one point, I thought the Athletics officially changed their name to "A's" although there is no clear evidence of that.
Another one is in basketball. When Seattle was awarded an expansion franchise in the late 1960's, a poll was held in the greater Seattle area for name suggestions. At the time, Boeing was developing a supersonic jet to compete with Concorde. The name "Supersonics" was the overwhelming favorite.
Fast forward a bunch of years, and Boeing hit upon hard times, largely due to their failure to ever launch a supersonic jet product. The Supersonic idea became a symbol of unemployment and hardship around the greater Seattle area.
A movement began to change the team name, because so many people were reminded of losing their jobs every time they heard the team name. Eventually, about 10 years ago, the team did officially change its name to just Sonics. However, nobody seemed to notice this. Even NBA.com still lists the team as "Seattle SuperSonics".
November 9th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Then there are the classic examples of the New Orleans Jazz moving to Utah and the Minneapolis Lakers moving to Los Angeles. Ever see any lakes in Southern California? Ever hear of many jazz movements blossoming from Salt Lake City? For that matter, how many Grizzlies live in Tennessee? The Memphis Grizzlies is the best team name ever!
My all-time favorite MLB team names are the Cleveland Spiders, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, and the St. Louis Perfectos....and from the Federal League: the Brooklyn Tip-Tops, the Chicago Whales, the Newark Pepper, and the St. Louis Terriers.
November 9th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
In response to the first post, the last non-move name change was after the 2004 season, when the Anaheim Angels changed there name to the Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Wasn't their a brief period where the Colt 45's were simply called the Colts before becoming the Astro's B-R doesn't indicate it, but I seem to remember reading they had to make the change because Colt (the gun manufacturer) objected to their trademark being copied.