Table of Contents Page Chapter Chapter Page Meet the Rays 4 Glory Days 6 Home Turf 12 Dressed for Success 14 We Won 16 Go-To Guys 20 Calling the Shots 24 One Great Day 26 Legend Has It 28 It Really Happened 30 Team Spirit 32 Timeline 34 Fun Facts 36 Talking Baseball 38 Great Debates 40 For the Record 42 Pinpoints 44 Glossary 46 Extra Innings 47 Index 48 ABOUT OUR GLOSSARY In this book there may be several words that you are reading for the first time Some are sports words some are new vocabulary words and some are familiar words that are used in an unusual way All of these words are defined on page 46 Throughout the book sports words appear in bold type Regular vocabulary words appear in bold italic type
Meet the Rays S ometimes the difference between winning and losing a ng a baseball game is so small that fans don’t even notice it t Is the same true when a team rises from the bottom of the standings The Tampa Bay Rays turned their luck around almost overnight At least that is the way it seemed The Rays carefully built their team one player at a time over many years Each hitter and pitcher that the team added had to learn how to work together and win together When that day finally came the Rays were the most exciting story in baseball ther This book tells the story of the Rays For many years other teams in baseball hardly paid attention to Tampa Bay Today everyone keeps an eye on them As the Rays have proven with a little patience it’s possible to create a team that wins year after year after year Evan Longoria returns to the dugout after a home run He is one of the players that has helped the Rays become a winning team 5
