FanHouse Rays

From guest writer Mike Westfall of Progressive Boink:

This is my first spring living in Florida, and accepting the Rays as my new home team would be a lot easier if the local news didn't report so rosily about it. I'm used to the gloom and doom of Philadelphia, so I'm still trying to figure out whether they mean it in a sarcastic, "Aw, that's so cute," way or not, because it sounds like some of them really, genuinely think that this could be the Rays' year for - you know what? I don't even know what for. It's like the sports reporters are live from Bizarro World.

And the more I think about it, that would explain the Rays' excellent spring performance a lot, by actually treating March like it counts.

The boys from the Bay get ready for RAYPRIL®, after the jump.

To this point in franchise history, most of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' playoff aspirations have been the stuff of imagination. So I guess it makes sense that the team has landed Kevin Costner, who built a career out of suspension of disbelief and playing fake baseball players, to help launch its new uniforms, team colors and logos.

Costner -- AKA Crash Davis, AKA Ray Kinsella, AKA Billy Chapel -- will be on hand with his band, Modern West, when the Rays kick off their two-day unveiling celebration at St. Petersburg's Straub Park on November 8.

It all makes perfect sense to Costner, who claimed a special kinship with Rays manager Joe Maddon.

"[Maddon] didn't make it into the bigs as a player, and ... I kind of dig that," Costner said. "That's kind of who Crash Davis was."

The extravaganza will also include a fashion show, with Maddon, Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff modelling the Rays' new look uniforms. And if that doesn't scream "something I need to see before I die," I just don't know what would.