Devil ... be gone!
-
(Photo: AP Images / Charles Krupa)Tampa Bay Rays' Carlos Pena, left to right, Rocco Baldelli, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Akinori Iwamura celebrate after the ninth inning of Game 2 of the baseball World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies in St. Petersburg, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008. The Rays won the game 4-2 to tie the series 1-1.
For 10 years, they were a lousy team with a fiendish nickname: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Then the club exorcised the "Devil" from its name, and suddenly Tampa Bay is in the World Series.
Was it the hitting, the pitching, the coaching — or the hand of God?
"I told my wife before the season started, 'Whoever is in that organization made, to me, a very interesting decision,'" said Les Steckel, a former NFL coach and head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an evangelical ministry. "Six months later, look what happens."
Belief that dark forces are at work in all facets of life runs throughout many religions. And even though theologians universally will tell you that God takes no rooting interest in sports, fans often manage to find signs of damnation and redemption everywhere — particularly in baseball.
Until their 2004 World Series win, the Red Sox were operating under the so-called Curse of the Bambino, denied a Word Series win for trading Babe Ruth to New York in 1918.
The Billy Goat curse still haunts the Chicago Cubs. In 1945, the Greek immigrant owner of the Billy Goat Tavern damned the team when he was kept out of a World Series game because he wanted to bring a goat to Wrigley Field. Chicago, of course, hasn't been back to the series since.
How seriously does Chicago take it? Earlier this month, the Cubs had a Greek Orthodox priest bless the home dugout and spread holy water before their first-round playoff series with the Dodgers. Chicago got swept.
Still, when the suffering does end for some teams, fans insist it's divine intervention lifting players beyond their limits.
Think Boston's Curt Schilling in 2004 and his bloody sock, a miracle on the mound.
Fast-forward to Tampa's Game 7 American League Championship Series win Sunday night over the Red Sox to advance to the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Rays won the pennant less than a year after they put the Devil behind them. Many fans in Tampa Bay still call the team by its old name, which refers to a kind of manta ray — a fish with fins that look like horns on a demon.
Until this season, the Rays hadn't even had a winning season.
"You take the 'Devil' out of the Devil Rays," said Boston shortstop Alex Cora, pointing to the sky, "and Jesus helps them out."
Casual use of "devil" in team names and elsewhere troubles Christians who literally interpret Old Testament passages against witchcraft and the occult, said Larry Eskridge of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Yet there is little outcry for change.
In college sports, Duke's teams have been called the Blue Devils since the 1920s — a monicker that seems to have originated with a heroic French regiment in World War I, according to school archives. The name caused remarkably little stir at the school, despite its Methodist roots, and hasn't stopped Duke from winning ACC and national titles.
Eskridge says he occasionally hears a story of protests by parents of young athletes. Steckel says ministries like his still support players and coaches no matter what their team's nickname.
The thornier religious question behind Tampa's nickname is this: Does God care about the name or the fate of a team?
The NHL's New Jersey Devils haven't been cursed, winning the Stanley Cup three times — although the Buffalo Sabres lost the 1999 finals with star Miroslav Satan (pronounced shuh-TAN) on their roster.
And a team with a nickname God might favor — the Los Angeles Angels — lost to the Red Sox in the American League first-round series.
Christopher Evans, a professor of church history at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y., said most sports fans mistake superstition for religion.
A Red Sox fan, Evans said that in the 2004 World Series he feared that if he watched the game on TV, he'd jinx them. And he said he knows other Boston fans who believed that they had to watch every minute for the team to win.
"The rational part of our brain sort of recognizes that a lot of the curse stuff is silly," said Evans, co-author of "The Faith of 50 Million: Baseball, Religion and American Culture."
"The reason that Tampa Bay has done well is that they have a great team. They have a great manager."
RSS
Then they lost to the Phillies. Does that mean that God is incompetent, or just that Rachel Zoll has a goofy, completely impervious correlation-meaning-causation childish game here?
PhatDajuan: Did you read the story? The writer mentioned that. We in the Tampa Bay area know what the name refers to, but many did not like it anyway.
As for God showing favor on a team for His reasons, I believe it is possible. However, it would not be for the sake of the team so much as in order to work something out in the loves of His children related to the team. Such as perservance for a player, dealing with adversity- or, conversely, a team losing to teach one of His children to deal with disappointment or pride. I am not saying this as a 100% thing, just as it is POSSIBLE that God can have an interest in the result of a game. Just like He might have an interest in the result of a business venture or a small town election. God is infinite enough to work in seemingly meaningless situations.
chicago, I love competitive sports but I do agree sometimes I think we tend to put a spiritual spin on it that it doesn't deserve, it's like the boxer who after he beats the fire out of his opponent thanks God for it.
Oh, BROTHER.
I don't suppose it occurred to anyone that the "Devil Ray," contrary to being something Satanic, is actually a cartilaginous fish common to the coastal waters off Florida. That's where the team got its original name.
But YOU think the reason the team is in the World Series now is because they "exorcised" the "Devil" from their name?
Again: Oh, BROTHER.
Competitive sports. I just don't "get it."
So what if a team wins or loses? What intrinsical "good" is actually achieved by getting a ball to do something more than the opposing team?
Does anyone actually believe that God has a role to play in such nonsense?