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
Glory Days I n the spring of 1998 two new teams played their first season in the big leagues The Arizona Diamondbacks became part of the National League NL and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined the American League AL Tampa Bay is a large body of water on the west coast of Florida Two of the cities nearby are Tampa and St Petersburg The Devil Rays played their games in a domed stadium in St Petersburg They shortened their name to Rays in 2008 The Rays started with players chosen from other teams in a special draft Over the next few years they added more veterans Some such as Fred McGriff and Wade Boggs had grown up in this part of Florida 6
LEFT Tampa players are introduced to the crowd on Opening Day in 1998 RIGHT Carl Crawford heads for first base They wanted to finish their careers where they started The Rays also signed Rolando Arrojo and Jose Canseco Their roots were in Cuba a country with many connections to Florida Arrojo became the first Tampa Bay player to be picked for the All-Star Game At the same time the Rays were busy training young players in the minor leagues Julio Lugo Aubrey Huff Toby Hall Randy Winn Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford all played their way into the Tampa Bay lineup In 2004 the team began to show signs of improvement The Rays won 12 games in a row during the season and finished in fourth place in the AL East 7
