Quick Question, When did the Devil Rays becomes the Rays?

[InsomniacInkRoss]

Was there a reason?

 

Are they more "sunshine" rays that animal themed now?

 

should an indoor team be allowed to be named after sunshine?

[TooLiveBrew]

this past offseason, with new unis, too. A quick google search should get your answers

[InsomniacInkRoss]

Brewerfan.net is my google search, haha

[craigharmann]

Apparently, if you shorten your name, you do good.....next year, your Milwaukee Brew.

[Blindcheck]

I believe there was a lawsuit pending that caused the name change....Lucifer, himself was disgusted being associated with a franchise without a winning record and demanded the name change.

 

I do believe that Satan is regretting this move at this point, though.

[wisconsinfan47]

I think the Devil Rays changing to the Rays was the worst thing to happen to sports in the past 25 years.

[mastershake76]

I think the Devil Rays changing to the Rays was the worst thing to happen to sports in the past 25 years.

Safe to assume this is sarcastic?

 

[razzzorsharp]

They saw the popularity of The Los Angelos Angels of Anaheim and their name change and decided to change as well.

[brewers19]

mastershake76 wrote:

Safe to assume this is sarcastic?

 

 

Or he's the most placid person to ever walk this earth.

[wisconsinfan47]

mastershake76 wrote:

Safe to assume this is sarcastic?

 

Or he's the most placid person to ever walk this earth.

Nope. Sarcasm. Forgot the blue.

But come on, Devil Rays sounded so much better.

 

[ELCABALLO45]

When the new owner bought the team, he figured everyone thought Devil Rays meant losers, so he wanted something differnt so they took out the word Devil. Changed the Uniforms, and the 1st couple years Season ticket holders got parking for free.

[Schlitz001]

Don't forget that it saves the franchise money on uniform fabric.

[SeriesFinale]

They should've stuck with their initial instinct to name them the "Rays" from day one: adding the "Devil" always struck me as odd...as a cheesehead who spent his formative years down there, I can tell you that the first time I ever really heard about a "Devil Ray" was the day they named the team. Everyone called them rays or stringrays.

 

At any rate, talk about a team that needed a makeover. It was a relatively simple thing, but important, I feel. I would put changing the name up there with getting rid of Chuck "Hedy" LaMar and the short-sighted, overbearing (but necessary) ownership of Vince Naimoli as three of the four steps required to make the Rays a feasible franchise. Last and biggest is moving out of the Trop.

[COOOOP]

This is a team trying to forget its Devil-Ray past. After what had happened to Steve Irwin, the franchise didn't want to have any association with rays that aren't coming directly from the sun, hence the name change. They also did something that nobody ever thought would happen, they worked on not sucking!

[TooLiveBrew]

After what had happened to Steve Irwin, the franchise didn't want to have any association with rays that aren't coming directly from the sun, hence the name change.

Not true. I don't recall hearing anything about wanting to move away from the animal.

 

http://sportswrap.berecruited.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/rays.jpg

[tristarscoop]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3101213

 

I also read somewhere that they started fining people in their own offices for using Devil once the name change took effect.

[lcbj68c]

They should've stuck with their initial instinct to name them the "Rays" from day one: adding the "Devil" always struck me as odd...as a cheesehead who spent his formative years down there, I can tell you that the first time I ever really heard about a "Devil Ray" was the day they named the team. Everyone called them rays or stringrays.

Not sure if we discussed this between us before or not, but where were you? I was in Sarasota/Bradenton from 1998 to 2007.

[SeriesFinale]

I lived in Sarasota from 1984 to 1996, St. Pete from 1996 to 1997, and then came back for a year after finishing college in Beloit, living in St. Pete again from 1999 to 2000. I grew up watching ST down there (White Sox) and was really excited when the Rays first started playing and got bitter pretty quickly. I went all the time in the '99 and '00 ("Hit Show") seasons since it was a 20 min. walk from my apartment and cost $5 to get in the place.

[SteveAA]

I miss the green they had in the old unis. The new ones are boring. IMO a one syllable name is clumsy & awkward sounding. Rays doesn't really fit on a uniform front very well unless you have a chest like Wally Cox.

I miss the green in the Brewers unis as well.

The Tampa franchise should have embraced their past instead of what they did. Hiding it in the closet is whimpy.