Former Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon celebrated this week with his new team, the Chicago Cubs, because they won their division series. Before this year, the Cubs hadn’t made the playoffs since 2008 and hadn’t won a postseason game since 2003. In the National League Championship Series, they will go up against the New York Mets, who are back in the postseason for the first time since 2006 and just the second time since their World Series appearance in 2000.
Those statistics may help put the Rays’ disappointing year in perspective. Since the franchise changed its official name to the Rays in 2008, the team make one appearance in the World Series in 2008 and has made the playoffs three other times.