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This Year's Rays? Maybe The Rays

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 21, 2009

PORT CHARLOTTE - They have come to Joe Maddon all spring seeking the key, the secret - maybe even his blessing.

Not managers or officials from other teams, but reporters. Particularly those tasked with covering the perennially downtrodden. They have come to Maddon to ask what exactly it took to rise from the worst record in the majors to the World Series, their motive implied if not stated outright:

Who will be this year's Rays?

Maddon invariably does his best to answer - or at least provide enough copy to fill a story - but he's not in the business of specific predictions.

"I just don't know what it's like in other people's camps," Maddon said a few days ago when the topic came up again. "You read these different things and you hear about the comparisons, but unless we get a chance to see their players on a daily basis and understand the vibe within the group, it's hard to make that comparison or just make that leap based on the fact that you're young and you think you're a little bit better."

That's the short-hand version of what the Rays were at this time last year - expected to improve, certainly, but not by nearly as much as they did. Still, there was hope, and it came in the form of what had been accomplished by out-of-nowhere underdogs the previous two seasons.

Colorado had just gone 90-73 and reached the World Series after averaging 92 losses during the previous three seasons. And the year before that Detroit won 95 games and the AL pennant with the memory of its 119-loss 2003 campaign still fresh in everyone's memory.

To teams that had long been on the outside (and by extension, their fans), those accomplishments served as tangible proof that it could be done. That all that optimism emanating from 30 camps in Florida and Arizona each spring really had a chance to evolve into meaningful achievement.

So it's only a "natural reaction," as Maddon put it, that the Rays are now seen to hold the blueprint.

"I think any time a group does what we did last year - you can look at the Rockies prior to that, you can look at the Tigers a couple years prior to that - you're always looking for that kind of hope if you've never been to that particular level before," Maddon said. "So I'm sure that we're this year's poster child in regard to going from nothing to something pretty good."

While the flattery that has come Tampa Bay's way as a result is welcome, particularly for an organization that had earned little respect around the game throughout most of its first decade of existence, the Rockies and Tigers now provide a different sort of inspiration to the Rays.

Colorado disappeared from the radar last season as quickly as it had arrived the year before, dropping 88 games in an eminently winnable division. And Detroit slipped back to second place and missed the playoffs in 2007 and also lost 88 games last year as its high-priced roster fell apart.

Even as they rocketed to the forefront of the game's consciousness last year, the Rays continually hammered home the point that they were focused on success for the long haul, not just a one-and-done burst. As Maddon put it this week, he hopes the Rays' organization is being discussed in such complimentary terms "in 2019 and 2040."

He noted that for years - decades, even - the Cardinals and the Dodgers weren't looked upon in very favorable terms by others in the sport. Now, both are considered model franchises. So maybe the Rays could be this year's Rays - and perpetuate it for many years to come.

"At the end of the century - none of us are going to be here to hear about it, but I want us to be considered one of the best organizations in baseball by that time," Maddon said. "It has to start somewhere."

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