Making a Deal Without the Devil

It's official: The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are now simply the Rays:

rying to reinvent itself, the perennial last-place team officially shortened its nickname to simply "Rays" during a celebration that brought a crowd of about 7,000 to a downtown park Thursday night.
New team colors and uniforms also were unveiled during a fashion show featuring current players, as well as manager Joe Maddon, senior advisor Don Zimmer and former Tampa Bay stars Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff as models.

Navy blue and light blue have replaced green and black as the primary colors. The club's new logo, as well as the home and road uniforms for next season, feature the word "Rays" in navy blue lettering with a light blue shadow.

Team officials and local fans have routinely referred to the club as "Rays" for much of the expansion team's existence, however it wasn't until Stuart Sternberg took over as principal owner two years ago that consideration as given an actual name change.

Ever since the team made its debut, I always thought that the name was pretty weird; why couldn't it have been the Stingrays or something? Shortening it to Rays makes the most sense to me, and it's way better than the other names in contention: Cannons? (No, but it would be fun to see the mascot.) Stars? (Let's keep that exclusive to our hockey team here in Dallas; there are too many duplicate team names between leagues as it is.) Wave? (Sorry, but to me, singular team names are just silly.) Dukes? (No, but it would be fun when people confused them with the great college basketball team from Durham and called them the Duke Blue Devil Rays.)

Now, if they can just work on winning a few games here and there...

It must be true that pot kills brain cells, part 1: A Connecticut man is facing drug charges after walking into a police station puffing on a joint.

It must be true that pot kills brain cells, part 2: A man in McAllen also faces charges after he called the cops to report his weed stolen.

Another really stupid criminal of the week: Not only did a homeless man break into a church in New York state, but he also used their phone to call a sex hotline.