The Rays made it to the World Series but didn’t win. I do think baseball lost a really good team name in the process.
No fans insisted. There’s a rumor that it was due to pressure from religious conservatives but Stuart Sternberg wanted to change the name as soon as he took over. For what it’s worth, the team has been leaps and bounds better since the name change (winning record every season since and three ALDS appearances; they had no winning seasons in their first eight years.)
One of my colleagues that used to work in Houston told me that the prefix numbers in the office phones were 666. It does not look to be the case now, so I am sure someone complained and had it removed.