Rays Turn To Seminole Medicine Man To Help Reverse Their Losing Ways

Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon has been known to do whatever it takes to help his team bust out of a slump.

The 60-year-old Maddon has organized themed road trips and surprised his players with exotic animals inside the clubhouse.

And his latest stunt may be the most bizarre.

With the Rays having lost 12 of their past 13 games, Maddon called on Bobby Henry, a medicine man with the Seminole Tribe. Before Sunday's game, Henry walked around Tropicana Field and spent time in the Rays' dugout.

Maddon had high hopes for Henry, 77, who has supposedly performed miracles in the past.

"I guess this guy made it rain in Tampa in the mid ‘80s at some point, so he's got some supernatural powers," Maddon told reporters. "If it rains in the Trop, I'll be really impressed."

The Rays have the worst home record in the American League (13-18), but Henry found no problem with Tropicana Field.

"That field, not so bad," Henry said. "I walked around. ... I don't think it's real bad, you know? We just have to believe in the Seminole way."

Henry's techniques are unconventional, to put it mildly. Fox Sports Florida's Andrew Astleford dug up this 2012 anecdote about Henry's methods:

"When Seminole medicine man Bobby Henry has to make it rain, he tosses a live gopher tortoise into the air. That angers the gods because 'turtles not s'posed to fly,' he said. When the gods get sufficiently angry, they roar with thunder and hurl spears of lighting. If Bobby keeps throwing that turtle up, or if he adds a frog, as he did when he ended the drought in Tampa several years ago, the furious gods will send down torrents of angry rain."

While Maddon's madness has paid off in the past, it doesn't seem like Henry had much of an effect on the Rays. Tampa Bay got blanked by Seattle, 5-0, and dropped to a MLB-worst 24-40 on the season.

Interestingly, however, it did start to rain in Tampa: