Tampa Bay Rays have gone from doing the impossible to the incredible

St. Petersburg and Tampa were rivals in the manner of St. Paul and Minneapolis after World War II, although the bridges connecting those Florida cities were considerably longer than ours.

The competition there included the St. Petersburg Times vs. the Tampa Tribune.

The NFL brought true major league sports to the Tampa Bay area with the expansion Buccaneers in 1976. The stadium was located in Tampa.

Jack Lake had considerable influence as the Times publisher. Lake and Jim Healey, chairman of the Pinellas County Sports Authority, started pushing the idea of landing a major league baseball team — and placing it in a new stadium in St. Pete.

The Tampa Bay Baseball Group was formed. Vince Naimoli emerged as the main force among those baseball people.

The first true attempt came in trying to attract the Twins in 1984. Gabe Murphy, a 42% owner of the franchise, made a deal to sell his minority share to the Tampa people. Calvin Griffith wound up selling the club to Carl Pohlad that summer.

Following that, the group had a deal with the White Sox in 1988 to move to St. Pete to play in a new dome stadium under construction, and then in 1992 to buy the Giants from Bob Lurie for $110 million.

At the last minute, the White Sox got their new ballpark and Lurie's sale didn't get approved (as required) by other major league owners.

Finally, on March 20, 1995, the American League added the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the National League added the Arizona Diamondbacks as expansion teams.

Naimoli's humble quote was: "If there's a greater day in the history of Tampa Bay, I don't know what it is."

Too bad Vince died at 81 in August 2019, or he might agree with me on this:

The greater day was Thursday.

That was when the Rays went into the bottom of the fifth trailing Boston 3-1, promptly scored seven and won 9-3, becoming the third big-league team since 1900 to start a season 13-0.

The Rays, 28th among 30 in payroll at $74 million, always near the bottom in attendance, still stuck in that unappealing dome due to the 30-year lease signed by Naimoli, have gone from doing the impossible to the incredible.

The impossible is competing squarely (if not fairly in resources) in an AL East featuring the high-spending Yankees, Red Sox and now Blue Jays.

The incredible is this: Going into this weekend on the road in Toronto, the Rays through 13 games had hit more home runs (32) than the opponents had scored runs (30).

Paul Driscoll is the digital audience manager for the Tampa Bay Times, the remaining daily in Tampa and St. Pete. That's an important duty for Driscoll, a 2010 University of Minnesota graduate, as the Times now is publishing a print edition only twice a week.

"I've been going to Rays games since they came here," Driscoll said Friday. "I was a 10-year-old kid from Tampa and incredibly excited we were getting our own baseball team. They were my first love in sports here.

"Now, my wife [Blair] and I have season tickets for the Lightning — back-to-back Stanley Cups and we love hockey. And Tom Brady came in and won a Super Bowl with the Bucs.

"The playoffs are starting for the Lightning, and the Bucs are huge year-round, but the Rays … this start has definitely created a buzz."

That was demonstrated by a crowd of 21,000, huge for the Rays, showing up Thursday afternoon.

"We scored almost 200 fewer runs than in '21 last season, and then looked so bad hitting [one run] in the two wild-card games in Cleveland …" Driscoll said. "We all said, 'Any money the Rays spend will have to be for a lefthanded hitter.' And then they spent $40 million to sign [Zach] Eflin a starting pitcher.

"Most of the time we ask, 'What are the Rays doing?' they turn out to be right. So far, everyone's hitting."

Including Wander Franco, shortstop, middle of the order, just turned 22 and signed to an 11-year, $182 million contract after his rookie season in 2021.

When the Rays see utterly sensational, they don't blink. They act.

Considering the odds against them, the Rays have been the most-amazing franchise in American professional sports since they excised the Devil from the name in 2008 and went to the World Series.