The Devil might make them do it

Major League Baseball folks are deliberating a name change for Tampa Bay's franchise, cutting it from "Devil Rays" to "Rays."

[Team president Matt] Silverman said [that] meetings with focus groups revealed a negative association with the with word "devil," the Tribune reported.

"When they liked something we did, they would refer to us as the Rays. If they were discussing a complaint or gripe, we were the Devil Rays," Silverman told the paper.

Are people so paranoid about sin that they fear the moniker of a franchise, named after a sea creature, will damn them and their hardly beloved baseball team to continued ineptitude? Last I checked, the New Jersey Devils have won three titles since the Devil Rays were founded in 1995. And Duke's Blue Devils have won three titles and are perennial powerhouses.

It's not like the Angels have been a dynasty since their 1961 inception. I'm sure all of those titles the Angels racked up in 45 years (one) have made those Tampa Bay fans crazy since the Devil Rays took the field for the first time eight years ago. You can't even say that the frustration has been passed on from generation to generation, because it hasn't been a generation.

I blame the Feng Shui of the Devil Rays' ugly stadium more than anything else.

The lesson here: The Devil Rays are awful no matter what you call them. Move them to Vegas already, name them something far less appropriate and let's move on.

UPDATE! Related. Also related.