What are they saying now? Tampa Bay Rays in the News

I often spend time on teh weekends surfing around other AL East newspapers to see what the competition is saying about the Tampa Bay Rays. So, I thought I might share some of what is out there on our team. The articles below are all within the last few weeks and give you an interesting look into how other sports writers view our team and its prospects for 2009. If you come upon any other interesting original articles from major newspapers about our boys, don't hesitate to email it to me. Enjoy!

Finally a winner, Rays work to fill more seats – Associated Press 3/12/2009
“Clearly, we are being throttled somewhat by the economy,” Stuart “Stu” Sternberg said. “We're still going to be next-to-last in season-ticket sales. I'm pleased with the growth, but we have a ways to go yet.”

Without providing specifics, Sternberg says ticket sales are up over last year. "We're right at expectations," is how he puts it.

Tampa Bay Rays encore: they believe in the best is yet to come – Sun Sentinel 3/11/2009
"They are no longer the "upstart Rays" or the "Amazing Rays."

Rays are Big Fish Now – Boston Globe 2/28/2009
"The Yankees have the money and the new stadium. The Red Sox have the MVP, the Nation, and newfound stability. But going into 2009, the Tampa Bay Rays are the defending league champs and the team to beat in the American League East."

Tampa Bay aims to improve amazing turnaround of 2008 – Seattle Times 2/22/2009
"Every downtrodden team in baseball harbors secret — or not-so-secret — hopes of being the Tampa Bay Rays of 2009."

It’s the No-Longer-Surprising Rays – New York Times 2/13/2009
"Mostly, though, Maddon believes that the Rays, who rocketed from a decade of oblivion into the World Series last October, can be even better."

Confident Joba: We’re Top Dogs in East – New York Post 2/12/2009
"We're always the team to beat, and we have that in our minds from the get-go, "Chamberlain said yesterday. "With the year the Rays had, people are going to look at it that they're the team to beat. But . . . we're always going to be the hunted just because of who we are and . . . we always go with the mindset that we are the best and that's the way you have to play."

2009 AL East Preview – RBI Magazine 2/21/2009
"The American League East landscape changed dramatically last season as the Tampa Bay Rays finally wrestled the AL East Crown out of the hands of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees."

9=8 (yes, 9 does still equal 8 for the Rays) - Joe Maddon announces 2009 slogan "9 > 8"

As all readers of this blog know, Joe Maddon launched 2008 with the seemingly strange motto of 9=8. That is to say (just as a reminder) 9 players, playing hard as a team for 9 innings equals 1 of the 8 spots in the postseason. That great slogan was the genesis of this Rays blog.

So, how would Joe Maddon inspire his team this year? Last week the skipper announced that the slogan for 2009 is "'09 > '08" (or, 2009 is greater than 2008). Maddon specifically said he preferred not to use the word "greater" but that there is no symbol for "better," so he went with greater and the associated symbol ">".

Joe Maddon did go on to say, "Of course I wanted to re-emphasize that 9 will always equal 8 in our math, but furthermore, this year, '09 is going the be greater than '08." Yeah, we here at 9=8.com do believe this is the core of the franchise's philosophy, so we're glad to hear Joe reiterate this point. Below are some additional comments on the new slogan from Maddon (per the St. Pete Times' Heater Blog).

"Of course I wanted to re-emphasize that 9 will always equal 8 in our math, but furthermore, this year, '09 is going the be greater than '08,'' he said. "And we want it to be hopefully better by at least three games, which we missed last year. Of course we did wonderfully last year and of course it was all good, but I keep talking about building this new road and you just can't rely on 9 = 8 all the time. You have to better than we were in some areas last year.

"I'm not talking about being great. Although that phrase is greater than, and you look at the greater than sign, I'd prefer it equalled "better than" as opposed to "greater than." ... I just want us to understand that in order to build this new road we have to be better than we were last year. I did say “greater than,” but then I reduced it to “better than, and eventually I would just like to get that (the > symbol) working for us, just the symbol, "better than." There’s no “better than” symbol. I was thinking of creating my own symbol with the “greater than” sign maybe with a circle around it, equaling better than. Just a new Rays culture kind of symbol , but I didn’t want to get too nuts, so I just chose to go this way.’’