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Rays deliver a season that changes everything

By John Romano, Times Sports Columnist
In print: Saturday, September 27, 2008

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DETROIT — Seven months ago, they were just another group of ballplayers.

Maybe a little better than we were used to seeing, maybe carrying a little more hope than we had known before. A handful of familiar names that might provide a moment or two of entertainment in the days ahead.

Back then, they were the lowly Tampa Bay Rays.

Today, they are forever's team.

Kaz and Aki. B.J. and Longo. Joe Maddon pushing buttons, and Carl Crawford running bases. Andrew Friedman calling the shots, and Carlos Pena hitting the bombs.

The Tampa Bay Rays — the sorriest group of ballplayers on the planet a year ago — are the 2008 American League East champions. They are just the second team in history to go from the worst record in baseball to a division championship in back-to-back years.

"This is ours, and we earned it," pitcher Scott Kazmir said. "No one can ever take it away."

This is also for the civic leaders — some still here, and some who have passed — who spent years chasing a Major League Baseball franchise for a growing market. This is for the folks who spent a lifetime cruising spring training fields and watching the big leagues from afar.

This is for those who have been there from the beginning, and yes, this is for Vince Naimoli, too.

"What makes it special is the sheer improbability of it all from an outsider's perspective," team president Matt Silverman said. "The odds were so long, some casinos probably didn't even have it on the board."

Maybe you thought you would never live to see it. And if you weren't willing to stay up beyond midnight Friday, you obviously didn't. But that's okay, because this wasn't about a single moment of exhilaration, or a video clip of players spraying champagne around some anonymous banquet room.

It is not just the division championship or the 90-something victories. A half-dozen teams win division titles every year and are dutifully saluted as part of the game's history.

This is something different. This is a once-in-a-generation bit of lore. A team that went from ridicule to respect in one stunning summer, never pondering the possibility it did not belong.

The Rays have a fraction of the payroll of New York and Boston. They have no one who can truly be called a superstar. They have no reason to be where they are today, except for their collective talent and indomitable will.

Other cities have had curses, goats and ghosts. Their losers were lovable. Or they were bums. Their fans were die-hard, or they were long-suffering. In Tampa Bay, there was nothing romantic about the past 10 years. The baseball was abysmal, and the fans were indifferent.

Think of it this way:

How do you measure a baseball fan's disappointment?

On the north side of Chicago, they measure it in the number of decades between World Series titles. For the longest time in Boston, they measured it by the collection of heartbreaks.

Our disappointment has always been measured in a complete and utter lack of faith. Tampa Bay has not had fans as much as it has had witnesses. There has never been a reason to give yourself over to this franchise. The team would begin April with very little hope, and it always went downhill from there.

And now, just like that, a legacy changes. Maybe not completely, but just enough.

Tampa Bay will always be the franchise that gave us a hideous color scheme, a goofy stadium and a dysfunctional ownership group, but now there is something more.

For one unforgettable summer, the Rays also have given us a touch of magic. For the first time, the Rays have been deserving of your love and devotion.

From the time Jonny Gomes stood up to the Yankees in spring training to the moment Dan Johnson got out of a cab and hit a tying home run in the ninth inning at Fenway Park in September, there has been something captivating about this team. Something utterly charming.

It shortchanges the Rays' accomplishment to say this was destiny, but there have been times when it had that feel. When it seemed nothing would get in the way of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays and their vision of glory.

"Joe Maddon recognized the opportunity they had, and he was not going to allow it to pass by," Silverman said. "That was the message coming out of the All-Star break. That we have this opportunity, and it may not present itself again for a very long time, so we have to go out and take it."

The final month has been a struggle. The Red Sox cut into their lead, the Rays have lost more than they've won, and the players have been walking in and out of doctor's offices daily.

Sometimes, it's seemed like this season would never end.

And now, it never will.

John Romano can be reached at romano@sptimes.com.