The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have announced that the awkward nickname they had for their first ten years of existence is gone. From now on they'll be known as simply the Tampa Bay Rays (no relation, I assume, to Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray). Apparently this news has been around for a few days, but somehow I missed it. Like their expansion predecessors, the Houston Colt .45's, the Rays recognized that baseball nicknames with two words and more than two syllables just don't work (a message the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim still haven't gotten).

It is now certain that the name "Devil Rays" will never be associated with winning. In their 10-year history the Devil Rays never lost fewer than 91 games, and there was even talk of contracting them at one point. Only once did they only avoid last place (2004). They came into the Majors at the same time as the Arizona Diamondbacks, who've made four postseason appearances and even won a World Series during that same span. There's no doubt that the Devil Rays were the poor cousin in the 1998 expansion.

Perhaps this name change represents a new start of sorts for the franchise. If the Rays become a good team someday (which I'm sure will happen eventually), the Devil Ray era will be seen as the "dark days." There might be some fans who affectionately remember those Devil Ray teams and take pride in the fact that they stuck it out during the lean years. There haven't been many highlights, but the diehards will have plenty of memories. They'll remember the attempt to build a team of sluggers in 2000 that looked hopeful at first but didn't quite work out. They'll remember June 2004 when they had a winning record and were one of the hottest teams in baseball before they came back down to earth and settled for what was then a franchise record 70 wins. They'll remember Rocco Baldelli wearing a jersey with his first name on the back. There wasn't much to cheer about, but it will always be a unique chapter in team history.

I wish the Rays the best of luck. I hope they find more success than the Devil Rays ever did. I hope someday they challenge the Yankees and Red Sox for the division title rather than attempting to play spoiler late in the season. I hope they can develop a strong local fanbase who'll appreciate a winning team. Most of all though, I hope the Devil Rays aren't forgotten. They may not have won much, but they represent a decade's worth of growing pains. Hopefully the franchise will have something to show for it in the not-too-distant future.