So.. has it been worth it?

1998 was insane. Monica Lewinsky learned the value of a good dry cleaner, Viagra hit the open market with a bang (pun intended), and Godzilla managed to gross $136 million despite its nonsensical plot and Matthew Broderick leading the cast.

Oh, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays came into existence, delighting dozens of baseball fanatics across the globe.

"Finally," one anonymous Marlins fan proclaimed, "I'm no longer shackled to the restraints of moderately supporting only one baseball team!"

And so it began. Tampa Bay came screaming out of the gate, pulling off an astonishing 38 victories through only 100 regular season tilts. Boy, did they spoil us. With Bob Smith (I know, I couldn't believe the name either) manning the hot corner at the tender age of 24, as well as Fred McGriff and Paul Sorrento combining for an unprecedented 36 long balls, certainly Tampa was on the fast track to division titles and championship banners.

Right? Wrong. Despite game changing talents such as Toby Hall, Tanyon Sturtze and clubhouse leadership presented by Jose Canseco, the boys of summer just never found their groove. The 100 loss seasons became too much of a norm, Lou Piniella's childish antics were a sad display of emotion, and Tropicana Field was as dreary as Orpheus' venture down the River Hades. Through ten years of suffrage, the D-Rays awarded faithful Floridians with a whopping 645 wins, averaging 64.5 per season. Worst in baseball, as you probably guessed. Attendance took a B-52 nosedive after the '98 campaign, barely managing to get 13,000 butts in the seats throughout their first disastrous decade.

Luckily, Joe Maddon came to the aid of Tampa natives, bringing his quirky style and outdated portholes to the Devil Ray, "we don't need no renovation," clubhouse. Aided by the suddenly decent Carlos Peña, and a young Evan Longoria, the Marlins American League counterparts made a mad dash towards glory, garnering a pennant and a pair of first place finishes. The upstart franchise was relevant again. Well, not again. Just relevant. For once. And finally, an updated uniform and club nickname.

"What a relief," I thought, breathing easily for the first time since their expansion year. "D-Rays is just far too cumbersome to annunciate."

Alas, their success was short lived. Five seasons averaging 91 victories, and Maddon decided his talents were being wasted. The Pennsylvania native brought his illustrious resume to the Cubs organization, where the 3x manager of the year continues his reign.

The Rays certainly aren't in turmoil as they were heading into 2008, but back to their losing ways they are. Kevin Cash and the boys are on pace for their third consecutive season of 82+ losses, and the only relief in sight are handful of top 90 prospects; none of which will ever be picking up a Rosen bag. The Cobb's and LoMo's of the world are good, contributing pieces, but as constituted, the lineup currently features six players who will reach triple digits in strikeouts in 2017, rank 13th out of 15 in batting average, and are middle of the pack when it comes to pitching: an ERA over 4, zero complete games, and a WHIP approaching 1.3. This is not a recipe for success, rather a sign of struggles to come.

20 years, 1 pennant. So how does Tampa Bay turn it around? Well, let's start by taking the Longoria contract off the books, as he's owed 93 million dollars over the next six years, and look to go the way of the Boston Celtics: show players around the league that you're a team they want to sign with. Take the dome off the field, market out of state, call up the big league ready prospects and DFA the negative clubhouse entities.

Ah, 1998. It was a fond revisit. However, twenty years later, the only insanity that lingers is poignant: the idea that the Bay of Tampa was in need of a baseball franchise.