Veteran journalist J. Scott Butherus, who was part of the press corps during the Rays’ crazy 2008 season, gets nostalgic about his first experience covering a World Series as the Rays welcomed former members of the AL championship team for this weekend’s 10-year anniversary celebration.
ST. PETERSBURG — There was a time — just a decade ago to be exact — when Tampa Bay was baseball crazy.
At the time, the Buccaneers were in yet another of their prolonged periods of playing futile football. The Lightning were still a novelty despite their recent success. The Rays — who had exorcized the Devil from their name in the offseason — easily became the biggest game in town in 2008.
Although it fell short of a World Series title, it was one of the most improbable seasons in baseball history. The Rays paid homage to that miracle season over the weekend, bringing back several of the familiar faces that led the team to its only league championship.
“We had swagger,” James Shields, the then-26-year-old ace, said of the season.
That 2008 team had an underdog mentality and a punk rock ethos about it. They weren’t afraid to throw down with any team, sometimes quite literally, including heated brawls with the Red Sox and Yankees. Inspired by the Rays players themselves, everyone, from little, old ladies to toddlers in strollers, rocked blue mohawks. Manager Joe Maddon, in his first stint as big league skipper, made sure his players had fun every night. The players’ enthusiasm spilled over into the stands of Tropicana Field where the Rays went 56-24.
“It was great for the fans, great for the organization, great for the city,” Maddon’s former bench coach and current Nationals manager Davey Martinez said.
On paper, the team wasn’t much different from the Devil Rays of just a season earlier in which they finished in last place, 30 games under .500. The team returned solid but unspectacular veterans like Carlos Perez and Akinora Iwamura. The offseason additions weren’t exactly the types of deals that rebuild franchises. Shortstop Jason Bartlett was among them. So were journeymen like Eric Hinske and Gabe Gross. Outfielder Carl Crawford, a two-time All-Star heading into that season, was the only true star on the roster to start the season.
What they did have was a group of young offensive players, accumulated through years of Top 5 draft picks, break out at the same time. Evan Longoria, a gangly, gap-toothed 22-year-old would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award after batting .272 with 27 home runs and 85 driven in in just 122 games. BJ Upton, who had a breakout season in 2017 in which he hit .300 with 24 home runs, would have his first of three straight seasons with 40+ stolen bases while playing a Gold Glove-caliber centerfield. David Price, even though he pitched in just five regular season games that season, was part of that group as well.
“Honestly, we were just kids playing the game,” Upton said. “We kept that attitude all year. Joe kept pounding on us to keep that attitude. We kept that the entire season.”
The Rays also had a young group of starting pitching, led by Shields (14-8), that all made at least 27 starts and reached double-digit wins that season. The 25-year-old Andy Sonnanstine (13-9) and 24-year-olds Scott Kazmir (12-8), Matt Garza (11-9) and Edwin Jackson (14-11) gave the team a chance to win on any given night.
“That was a good group,” Kazmir said. “We had a lot of fun.”
Magical Moments
Of course there was something about that club that went beyond the young talent. For those watching it unfold, it almost defied logic.
The Rays had 11 walk-off wins that season. After each one, the dog pile celebrations at the plate got more rambunctious. The Rays spent 113 days in first place in the hyper competitive American League East. Any thing seemed possible. The players believed. So did the fans. By the time the Rays clinched their first postseason in franchise history, Raysmania had taken over the Bay area. Tampa Bay breezed through the White Sox 3-1 in the divisional series.
The Rays faced off against their AL East rival Red Sox in the League Championship series. The entire nation was taking notice. The once-sparsely populated press box swelled to the point of needing an auxiliary press box set up in the upper deck of the outfield.
Of course, Game 7 of that series became forever part of Tampa Bay sports lore and is probably the greatest moment in franchise history. Shields called it the loudest, craziest game he had ever been a part of. Current Rays manager Kevin Cash was part of the Boston team that lost that series.
“They shocked baseball,” Cash said. “They shocked the world, just with how they performed, how they got to the World Series.”
The party finally ended when they ran out of steam against the Philadelphia Philles in the World Series, losing in five games. And although the season ended in disappointment, it proved that Tampa Bay can be a great baseball town.
Maybe someday it will be again.
