The Rays Have Officially Arrived: A Celebrity Was Sighted at the Trop

Boy the Tampa Bay Rays have done a complete 180 this season, not only in their record, but now in their coolness factor. You would never think of the Rays as being a team to attract the celebrities before this season, and that's probably still the case, but they did have a celebrity in the owner's box on Thursday.

Comedian Chris Rock, who had a show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center on Thursday, sat in the owner's box as a guest of the Rays.

"He was the first guy in line greeting us coming in," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "You go, 'Hey Chris,' bang," Maddon added, illustrating a fist-bump, "and move to the next guy."

Cliff Floyd said having celebrities visit the clubhouse is a byproduct of winning.

"I mean, if we were losing, he'd have come into town and his show would have been half about us last night," Floyd said.

And he probably would have made the mistake of calling them the "Devil" Rays too. Instead, Rock stuck to picking on rap music, Jude Law, and Chris Simms. But seriously, if it ever gets to the point where the real bandwagon jumping celebrities like Sylvester Stallone show up, then you'll know the Rays will have made it into the celebrity stratosphere.