The Tampa Bay Rays have retired the numbers of two players in franchise history: Jackie Robinson and Wade Boggs. The former never even knew about the Toronto Blue Jays, much less the Rays, and the latter had absolutely nothing to do with the second franchise in the state of Florida.
Dan Johnson And The Rays Part Ways: Why This Is The Saddest Thing In Baseball History
Dan Johnson refused an assignment to triple-A, and he’s now a free agent. Here’s why it’s kind of sad.
If you want to be a lawyer about it, technically Boggs did play for the Rays, getting his 3,000th hit while wearing the Tampa Bay purple, purple 2, blue, blue 2, light blue, green, yellow, black, and white. But with the benefit of hindsight, we can all agree that he has absolutely nothing to do with the Rays.
The co-opting of Boggs was an attempt to duct-tape some history to the walls of Tropicana Field -- a tacit acknowledgment that the Rays didn't have any history of their own. That's changing. Right now, Evan Longoria is the face of the franchise. In ten years, he'll be the face on every promotional giveaway the team can offer.
The Rays are building a mighty fine history of their own, and one day we'll all look back at David Price, Longoria, and Ben Zobrist, and remark about what an unlikely, thrilling ride it was. But until then, let's have a moment of appreciation for the ultimate Tampa Bay Ray, the man who perfectly links the past with the present, Dan Johnson:
Dan Johnson (outrighted to Triple-A) can elect to become a free agent.The star-crossed player and franchise will now go their separate ways.
Johnson was old-school Moneyball, a player who was better at talking a walk than doing anything else especially well, and whose shiny Pacific Coast League numbers made a lot of folks get their hopes up when that probably wasn’t a good idea. He was claimed on waivers from the Oakland A’s in 2008, and he picked up a couple dozen at-bats for the first good Rays team in history.
Along the way, he led a ninth-inning comeback against Jonathan Papelbon and the Boston Red Sox, who were fighting for the AL East title with the Rays.
Just doing his job. Which was apparently hosing the Red Sox at every turn. He was later sold to the Yokohama Bay Stars because that’s what happens to players like Dan Johnson, who are always just good enough to be intriguing to someone, somewhere.
He came back to the Rays, though. He had no problem sticking around in Durham in case the Rays needed him, and the Rays had no problem keeping him in a glass case. Johnson was the perfect emergency plan for the Rays -- he was cheap, and as far as AAA first basemen went, he was overqualified.
In 2010, he demolished the International League. But when he received major-league time, he hit a comically imbalanced .198/.343/.414. Juan Rivera just turned two-thirds of that line into $4 million. Johnson started the year as the Rays’ starting first baseman, but after a month, he hit his way back to AAA, and he didn’t do quite as well there this time. He managed a .382 OBP, but as a 31-year-old in AAA, that’s not as impressive as it might otherwise be. Other than a brief call-up in May, he languished in the minors. It looked like his career with the Rays was done. And for the most part, it was.
He got a couple more at-bats with them in September, though. And in his final at-bat of the year, he became the symbol of the weird and unpredictable last month of the 2011 season. He also became the ultimate Tampa Bay Ray, the guy they’ll still talk about when fans of 29 other teams haven’t heard of him.
If he had struck out, no one would remember who made the last out of the season. It was a two-strike count. No one would have blamed him. Instead, he became one of the players responsible for one of the greatest regular-season days in baseball history. He had the most important swing in franchise history. He’ll never have to buy his own Davis Islands Mana-Tea in Tampa ever again. He’s the first legend in Tampa Bay Rays history.
Others will surpass him. Longoria isn’t going anywhere, and he’s kind of good. He’ll get his number retired, and this time it will make sense. But Dan Johnson and the Rays parting ways is still a little sad. He was a main character in the first two chapters of the Rays’ history that the team could be proud of.
He’ll latch on somewhere, and he will probably find his way to the majors again. But he’ll always be a Ray. Maybe the first one. And if they quietly slapped his number over Wade Boggs’ on the outfield display, no one would say a word.
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