Back تامبا باي رايز Arabic Тампа Бей Рейс Bulgarian Tampa Bay Rays Catalan Tampa Bay Rays Czech Tampa Bay Rays Danish Tampa Bay Rays German Tampa Bay Rays Spanish Tampa Bay Rays Basque Tampa Bay Rays Finnish Rays de Tampa Bay French
| Tampa Bay Rays | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 2024 Tampa Bay Rays season | |||||
| |||||
| |||||
| Major league affiliations | |||||
| |||||
| Current uniform | |||||
 | |||||
| Retired numbers | |||||
| Colors | |||||
| Name | |||||
| Ballpark | |||||
| |||||
| Major league titles | |||||
| World Series titles (0) | None | ||||
| AL Pennants (2) | |||||
| AL East Division titles (4) | |||||
| Wild card berths (5) | |||||
| Front office | |||||
| Principal owner(s) | Stuart Sternberg | ||||
| President | Brian Auld Matt Silverman | ||||
| President of baseball operations | Erik Neander | ||||
| General manager | N/A | ||||
| Manager | Kevin Cash | ||||
| Website | mlb.com/rays | ||||
The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. The Rays are one of two major league clubs based in Florida, alongside the National League (NL)’s Miami Marlins. Since its inception, the team's home ballpark has been Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Following nearly three decades of unsuccessfully trying to gain an expansion franchise or enticing existing teams to relocate to the Tampa Bay area, an ownership group led by Vince Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995. The team began play as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1998 Major League Baseball season.
The team's first decade of play was marked by futility; they finished in last place in the AL East in all but the 2004 season, when they finished second to last.[4] Following the 2007 season, Stuart Sternberg, who had purchased controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli two years earlier,[5] changed the team's name from "Devil Rays" to "Rays", now meaning both manta rays and rays of sunshine;[1][6] a manta ray logo appears on the uniform sleeves while a sunburst appears on the uniform front. The 2008 season saw the Rays post their first winning season, their first AL East championship, and their first American League pennant (defeating the rival Boston Red Sox in the ALCS), though they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in that year's World Series. Since then, the Rays have played in the postseason eight more times, winning the American League pennant again in 2020 and losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in that year's World Series. The Rays are one of five MLB teams to not have a World Series title yet, the others being the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, and Seattle Mariners.
The Tampa Bay Rays' chief rivals are the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, which also play in the AL East. Regarding the former, there have been several notable on-field incidents.[7] The Rays also have an in-state interleague rivalry with the National League (NL)'s Miami Marlins (originally the Florida Marlins).
Through 2024, the Rays' all-time record is 2,091–2,179 (.490).[8]
- ^ a b "Time to shine: Rays introduce new name, new icon, new team colors and new uniforms". RaysBaseball.com (Press release). MLB Advanced Media. November 8, 2007. Archived from the original on August 13, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
- ^ Chastain, Bill (February 7, 2018). "Rays set to celebrate 20th anniversary in '18". RaysBaseball.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
Prominent among those items was the 20th anniversary logo that will appear on the left sleeve of all Rays 2018 regular-season jerseys and caps. The home-plate shaped patch features the number 20, a sunburst and a variation of the original fish – all in the Rays' modern colors.
- ^ "Rays All-Time Uniforms and Logos". RaysBaseball.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
- ^ "Tampa Bay Rays Team History & Encyclopedia". Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ "Devil Rays' ownership transfer approved". ESPN. Associated Press. November 17, 2005. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ Toribio, Juan (December 1, 2021). "Here's the history of the Rays' team name". RaysBaseball.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
- ^ Reuter, Joel (June 11, 2013). "Is Red Sox-Rays the Most Underrated Heated Rivalry in Baseball?". Bleacher Report. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ "Tampa Bay Rays Team History & Encyclopedia". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 30, 2024.