The joke is no longer on the Rays

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In one corner of the Tampa Bay clubhouse Monday afternoon, workers busily affixed World Series patches to Rays caps. In another corner, Rays President Matt Silverman held court with the media.

These used to be the Devil Rays. The club changed ‘from the fish to sunshine,’ as Silverman put it, last winter, dropping ‘Devil’ from its name and replacing the devil ray in the logo with a sunburst. There were some folks resistant to the allegedly Satanic reference, but mostly the Devil Rays name had been associated with losing.

‘We had become the butt of jokes nationally,’ Silverman said. ‘You couldn’t count on your fingers and toes how many times we’d been made fun of by (David) Letterman and (Jay) Leno.’

How would Letterman know about the losing ways of the Devil Rays?

Well, his sister Gretchen works at the St. Petersburg Times -- one of the Rays’ primary corporate sponsors.

-- Bill Shaikin