No Wade Boggs.
No Fred McGriff.
Especially, no Carl Crawford.
When Fox-TV announced its “Franchise Four” list Tuesday night, they didn’t spend a lot of time looking through the history of the Tampa Bay Rays, or the Devil of the franchise that came before them. The best Rays of the Rays have come in the last decade, and Fox concentrated on those years.
The picks: Former pitcher James Shields, former pitcher David Price, former second-baseman Ben Zobrist and current third baseman Evan Longoria.
It’s a solid list that is responsible for most of the Rays’ winning. And when a network can only select four, someone has to be left out. This time, those included Carlos Pena and Scott Kazmir (who made the all-star game twice).
It does seem a bit of an oversight that Crawford was omitted. He was selected as an all-star four times, the same as Price, and was the MVP in 2009.
Crawford is the Rays’ all-time leader in hits, average, at bats and stolen bases.
