Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay Rays — page 1 — www abdopublishing com Published by Abdo Publishing a division of ABDO PO Box 398166 Minneapolis Minnesota 55439 Copyright 2015 by Abdo Consulting Group Inc International copyrights reserved in all countries No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher SportsZone is a trademark and logo of Abdo Publishing Printed in the United States of America North Mankato Minnesota 052014 092014 Editor Chrös McDougall Copy Editor Nicholas Cafarelli Interior Design and Production Craig Hinton Cover Design Craig Hinton Photo Credits Rob Carr AP Images cover Chris O’Meara AP Images 1 39 47 Wilfredo Lee AP Images 4 43 middle Julie Jacobson AP Images 7 Mike Carlson AP Images 8 11 Scott Audette AP Images 12 42 top Robert Azmitia AP Images 15 Steve Nesius AP Images 16 19 30 35 36 40 43 top and bottom Jim Rogash AP Images 20 Eric Gay AP Images 23 42 middle John Dunn AP Images 24 Elise Amendola AP Images 26 32 42 bottom Katsumi Kasahara AP Images 29 Kathy Willens AP Images 44 Library of Congress Control Number 2014933062 Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bowker Paul 1954 Tampa Bay Rays by Paul Bowker p cm Inside MLB Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-62403-486-2 1 Tampa Bay Rays Baseball team History Juvenile literature I Title GV875 T26B69 2015 796 357'640975965 dc23 2014933062

Tampa Bay Rays — page 2 — TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Worst to First 4 Chapter 2 Baseball Comes to Tampa Bay 12 Chapter 3 Devilish Beginnings 20 Chapter 4 Rays on the Rise 26 Chapter 5 Making Strides 32 Chapter 6 The New-Look Rays 36 Timeline 42 Quick Stats 44 Quotes and Anecdotes 45 Glossary 46 For More Information 47 Index 48 About the Author 48

Tampa Bay Rays — page 3 — CHAPTER 1 WORST TO FIRST

Tampa Bay Rays — page 4 — T he Tampa Bay Devil Rays hardly had a storied history going into the 2008 sea son The team had joined the American League AL in 1998 Yet the Rays had finished last in the powerful AL East Division in all but one season After 10 years of baseball they had yet to finish a season with a winning record The team had tried to attract fans over the years by signing big stars such as Wade Boggs and Jose Canseco How ever both players were near the end of their careers by the time they arrived in Tampa The team hired Joe Maddon as manager in 2006 But they still lost 197 games over the next two seasons As a result attendance had plummeted at the team’s home ballpark Tropicana Field The team attracted only 1 3 mil lion fans in 2007 That was less than 14,000 per game No team in the AL had fewer fans that Carl Crawford’s potent bat helped the Rays make their first playoff Carl Crawford’s potent bat helped the Rays make their first playoff appearance in 2008 appearance in 2008 WORST TO FIRST 5

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