Tampa Bay Rays open at full gallop, but MLB history says hold your horses | KEN WILLIS

The Tampa Bay Rays are a fine ballclub, predicted by many to not only reach the postseason, but challenge once there.

If the Rays own an American League pennant or maybe even the World Series trophy at season’s end, however, it won’t likely be due to their season-opening 13-game win streak.

Who says?

History says.

And there’s no history like baseball history, which is evident here because we get to time-travel back to the President Chester Arthur administration, which preceded the first term of Grover Cleveland, who was the namesake for Grover Cleveland Alexander but not related to the legendary pitcher.

In fact, Grover Cleveland the pitcher was known by all, including every bartender along the trail, as "Pete."

Where were we?

Ah, the 1884 St. Louis Maroons, who continue to hold the major league record with 20 wins to open the season.

Maybe we should say “major league.” Either that, or find the world’s fattest asterisk. The Maroons were part of the start-up Union Association, which sought to join the National League and American Association as a third professional circuit given big-league status.

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History was somewhat kind to the Union Association — an officially recognized group of baseball-stat nerds granted the UA big-league status in the subsequent century, but way back in the 1880s, the UA didn’t even see a subsequent season.

But oh what a season it was for the Maroons, who opened with 20 wins and didn’t exactly let off the gas — they finished the lone UA season with a record of 94-19-1. As you might imagine, there were some gaudy stats.

Fred Dunlap, a lifetime .277 hitter in 10 National League seasons, basically treated the Union league like it was slowpitch softball — in 101 games, he led the league in hits (185), homers (13) and runs scored (160), while also batting a league-high .412, a full 52 points higher than the team’s next best hitter, George W. “Orator” Shafer.

Orator, it goes without saying, didn’t just talk a good game.

Well, it could go without saying, but not here.

The Maroons were owned by St. Louis native Henry Lucas, who, by the way, also started the whole Union Association and, call it a hunch, made the rules. It was supposed to be a 12-team league, but a few clubs didn’t make it — the Wilmington Quicksteps among them — and when just one other team owner joined Lucas at the postseason meeting of clubs, well, it was time to pull up the tarp and settle into baseball’s footnotes.

“Ancient history,” you rightly say. No correlation whatsoever for these 2023 Rays. OK, if the 1880s are too tiny in the mirror, how about the 1980s?

Before Tampa Bay’s streak out of the '23 gate, the modern big-league record of 13 straight was shared by the 1982 Atlanta Braves and ’87 Milwaukee Brewers. Neither team put a trophy in the case following that season. In fact, the Brewers, who’d win 17 of their first 18 games, finished third in the AL East.

Didn’t help that they had a 2-18 streak in May.

Those ’82 Braves, however, had a shot. Fate, unfortunately, interfered to doom a franchise that had been a doormat for most of the previous 12 seasons.

The first fateful incident, the Braves brought on themselves. Get a grip on your modern sensibilities and let this one soak in.

The Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966 and for their first 20 seasons, Levi Walker Jr. spent game days in the left field bleachers.

In a teepee.

While wearing full Native American garb.

And answering to the name Chief Noc-A-Homa.

Try pitching that promotional idea at a 21st century board meeting.

For a brief period in the ’80s, the Braves introduced a female companion to the Chief and called her Princess Win-A-Lotta. True story. Far as I can tell, nobody got fired.

Anyway, in late July of ’82, the Braves wanted to cash in a tad more on their newfound baseball efficiency and decided to remove the teepee to make room for more seats.

After losing 19 of the next 21 games, the Chief’s “home” was returned to its position.

The Braves tried to give away the NL West but squeaked into the playoffs when the second-place Dodgers lost in the final inning of the final day, thanks to a Joe Morgan homer that gave the Giants a win over their L.A. rivals.

On deck: Fate.

Knuckleballer Phil Niekro, the beloved Braves legend, had a 17-4 record that year at age 43. He pitched back-to-back shutouts and hit a homer during his final two starts of the season, and led the Cardinals 1-0 through 4⅓ innings in the opener of the best-of-five NL Championship Series.

While two outs away from making it an official game, a steady sprinkle turned into a shower, which turned into a long rain delay and eventual full postponement of Game 1. They’d have to start over the next day, without Niekro on the mound.

The Cardinals swept that series in three games, Niekro was unceremoniously dumped after the following year, and it would be nearly another decade before the Braves again played important games in October.

The Cardinals would beat the Brewers in the World Series, and that remains the only World Series appearance for Milwaukee, regardless of any win streak along the way.

So, Rays fans, ride this early-season success with due respect to history’s treatment of such things.

Buckle up, catch some scenery along the way to October, and never forget an iron-clad baseball truism: Even the worst teams win a third of their games, and even the best teams lose a third of their games.

Well, after the Maroons disbanded, anyway.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Maroons, and the history of MLB streaks