When Tampa Bay was awarded a franchise in 1995 by Major League Baseball, more than 7,000 potential teams names were discussed among management and the public. Though they would not play their first big league game until 1998, plans began immediately to make Florida’s second expansion team a viable success.

According to Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon’s “Haunted Baseball”, some of the club’s potential monikers were the “Fruit Blossoms, Pterodactyls, Bigfeet, Backcrackers, Snowbirds, and Toads.” Eventually, fans wound up with the choice between either the “Manta Rays” or the “Devil Rays.” After more than 70,000 telephone votes, the matter was decided. The Devils would come down to Tampa. ‘

If you know anything about the history of this franchise, you’ll realize that this may have been a poor choice. Through the first decade of their existence, the team was considered one of the worst in Major League Baseball. Their poor personnel decisions, managerial gaffes, and horrendous luck seemed to confirm what many fans of the newborn franchise may have suspected – the Devil Rays suffered under a naming curse.

These concerns were further exacerbated by rumors that Tropicana Field, the team’s home park, was built on top of an old Indian burial ground. While not wholly accurate, this suspicion isn’t too far from the mark. The stadium, formerly known as the Florida Suncoast Dome, was built atop what used to be a low-income housing project known as the Gas Plant, because of the two gigantic natural gas cylinders which occupied the center of the neighborhood. It housed a large community which, while some would consider it rather slum-ish, was home to many hard working families.

But beyond the Gas Plant, there were three other plots of land which were perhaps more troubling – Moffet, Evergreen, and Oaklawn cemeteries. These resting places were paved and built over to create the structures which would become the Trop and its parking lot. While many of the coffins and graves (which once held Civil War veterans and some of the city’s founding leaders) were relocated to other cemeteries during previous construction work, the pace of progress did not necessarily allow for a thorough search of the ground. This means that the Tropicana Field could very well be sitting atop remains of the forgotten dead.

If you’re given to superstition, combine restless soles with a devilish name could be considered a source for the franchises woeful first years. Indeed, consider what has happened since they changed their name to the much sunnier, more friendly “Rays” – perennial contending clubs and media adulation.

Coincidence? Probably. But it sure is fun to speculate.

- Taylor Maxwell

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Tags | Baseball, Dan Gordon, Haunted Baseball, Manta Rays, Mickey Bradley, MLB, Tampa Bay