Welcome Yahoo! Sports Readers; A New Partnership Announcement

I am proud to announce that DRayBay as well as the entire Sports Blog Nation have entered into a new partnership with Yahoo! Sports.

Official Statement

Today we want to welcome some new members to our flourishing communities. SB Nation and our friends at Yahoo are partnering to give Yahoo Sports audiences one click access to our sites and content.  In addition to being the largest sport property on the web, Yahoo Sports is known for some of the best general sports blogs including: Ball Don’t Lie, Puck Daddy, Dr. Saturday, Big League Stew and others.

Relevant pages of Yahoo Sports will now feature contextual links to specific SB Nation communities.  Many other pages of Yahoo Sports will feature SB Nation content and links. The great news is that more sports fans will be introduced to SB Nation sites.

There are now close to 200 different sports communities for Yahoo users to discover. Each is led by bloggers who are first and foremost passionate fans.  Part of what makes our network so special is that each SB Nation site has its own URL, name and colors as well as its own community guidelines and expectations.  Some are more serious, some more irreverent, but they all share a common goal of nurturing strong and focused conversations around a common interest.

You will notice our own space located on the Rays team page over on Yahoo! Sports.

And now for our new readers, a brief history.

Welcome to DRaysBay. Founded in 2005, we at DRaysBay are proud to say we are one of the original sites of Sports Blog Nation. Here is a quick break down of the staff. I am Tommy Rancel, site owner and editor and chief. At my side are three very wise men; Senior Editors/Writers Erik Hahmann, R.J. Anderson, and columnist Ryan Glass, rounding out the best quartet of Rays writers in the land.

At DRB we pride ourselves on covering every aspect of the Tampa Bay Rays with an emphasis on "providing progressive statistical analysis and reasoned argument." Along with the latest breaking news, we will provide you with well thought analysis on players, transactions, and basically everything else related to the organization. Check out our 2009 DRaysBay Season Preview guide to give you a full spectrum view of what you can expect on a daily basis.

We also feature the occasional exclusive player interviews such as B.J. Upton, Dioner Navarro and David Price. In addition to players we have chatted with team executives like Principal Owner Stuart Sternberg and VP of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman.

Before getting started in community activities I advise you to check out some reference materials to help you get more acquainted with the atmosphere. Such as the DRB Guidelines, Memes guide, and Stats guide. Basically as SBN's motto says: DRB is run by the fans for the fans. We are all Tampa Bay Rays fans/enthusiasts and are all looking to have fun following our favorite team.

Some interactive features include:

FanPosts (a blog entry of your very own) or FanShots (a quick micro-post of a thought, link or photo.)  Before you post though, please remember, you are entering an established and ongoing community.  Your voice and opinions are encouraged (that’s what being a fan is all about after all), but as in any productive conversation, they should be presented in a manner that is courteous, civil and respectful of the culture that you are entering.

Another great feature we offer at DRB are our game day threads. On a daily or nightly basis you can join a few thousand fellow Rays fans and ride the emotional roller coaster from first pitch to out number 27. Please join us for the first Game Day Thread of the season tomorrow as the Rays kick off spring training against the Cincinnati Reds.

I'm sure there is plenty of stuff I've left out, but there's only so much an introduction can say. Please take a look around for yourself at the many different features of our community. If you like what you see or have any questions, please sign up for an account or use your Yahoo! or OpenID credentials to register. Once you've done that you can leave us a comment below where you can start interacting with the staff as well as established members of the community.

And finally to all the new friends who do join us, on behalf of the DRaysBay staff and community, let me be the first to say welcome and we are glad to have you as we continue to enjoy and watch the team known as your 2008 American League Champions, the Tampa Bay Rays

Oh, and if you're on Twitter....