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Tampa Bay Rays Catch All Sorts of Grief After Embarrassing Banner Raising

The Tampa Bay Rays, who are supposed to be a World Series contender, caught all sorts of grief on Thursday for the questionable raising of a 2023 Wild Card banner at Tropicana Field.

Brady Farkas

Mar 28, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash looks on against the
Mar 28, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash looks on against the / Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports
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The Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Toronto Blue Jays on Opening Day, 8-2, but even worse was the grief that the Rays took on social media because of an event that occurred before the game even started.

See, the Rays elected to raise a banner at Tropicana Field commemorating the team's appearance in the wild card round of the playoffs in 2023. You can see it below from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times:

"Unveiling of #Rays 2023 AL wild card banner"

The Rays won 99 games a season ago, which was the second-most wins in the American League. However, they were swept in that wild card round by the Texas Rangers, who eventually went onto win the World Series.

The users on "X" were merciless towards Tampa for trying to celebrate a season that saw them get swept on their home field in the playoffs. Furthermore, the Rays are widely regarded as a World Series contender with one of the best-run organizations in the sport, they shouldn't need to celebrate simply making the playoffs. That should be an expectation.

From @DavidFletch9

Can we stop with the wild card banners

From @xMike87

Why do teams do this? Like I get division, league champs, and WS champs but wild card? Nah.

The Rays have advanced to the World Series in both 2008 and 2020 but have yet to win the title. In Thursday's opener, the Jays utilized a five-run sixth inning and a two-run seventh to earn the victory.

Game 2 of the series is Friday at 6:50 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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