A couple of years ago, I had a sports discussion with some friends of mine, and we tried to rank the major league baseball teams based on how "high-profile" they were. It was somewhat of a vague description, but we tried to take into account the organization's history, national appeal, current place in the baseball world, etc. Anyway, just to give you an idea, some of the top teams were obviously the Yankees, the Cubs and the Red Sox. The consensus on the bottom team was Tampa Bay. Until this season, there was not a more non-descript franchise in MLB. They had nothing going for them - ugly uniforms, terrible stadium, and a short history of signing washed-up hall-of-famers and nearly-so's in an attempt to grasp at credibility (guys like Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco come to mind).

It's amazing how quickly things can change. Tampa Bay is winning, and they're doing it with exciting young players. I actually looked forward to watching the Rangers play the Rays last night and this week; last year, Tampa was the last team I was interested in seeing play Texas. It just goes to show that no matter how bad a franchise looks, a little winning goes a long way. Also, they're working on a deal to begin construction on a new stadium with a retractable roof, one they hope to open in 2012. And they got rid of that terrible green in their uniforms; that helped too.

So where do they rank right now, at this moment? On the national scope (and a good way to get a sense of this is how many times they're on national TV), they're probably still in the bottom third. But so were the Cleveland Cavaliers before they got LeBron, and look how quickly things changed for them. Winning takes care of everything.

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.