Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays are one of the teams competing in Major League Baseball (MLB). This team is known for participating in the East Division in the American League.

The team started its MLB journey in 1998 as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Since then, this team has been a consistent presence in the MLB. Despite not winning any World Series Championships yet, they have gained other achievements in the MLB. This includes winning the AL East Division titles four times and AL Pennants one time. Furthermore, they have also appeared in the postseason of the league seven times.

In the present times, the Tampa Bay Rays have gained a dedicated fan base for themselves. They keep supporting the team through all its games.

Tampa Bay Rays History

The Tampa Bay area of Florida, United States had been trying to get a baseball team for themselves for about three decades. They successfully got an expansion team in the MLB called Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The team started playing in the 1998 season of the MLB. The initial years of the Tampa Ray Devil Rays were full of struggles as the team failed to properly win games despite having talented players on their roster.

However, during the 2004 season, the team impressed everyone by winning 70 games which resulted in the team ranking fourth in the AL East Division. This was the first time the team did not rank last in the division.

Following this, the team got a new owner in Stuart Sternberg and had a good performance in the 2005 season. They followed that up with another good season in the 2006 season. During the 2007 season, the team recorded one of the worst seasons.

After this in the 2008 season, the team revamped itself. The first thing they did was renaming the team to Tampa Bay Rays and getting new jerseys. This resulted in better fortunes for the team mostly due to improvement in pitching and defense. This resulted in the team recording much better stats in the 2008 season. They even won the AL East Division title for the first time. They also made their first World Series appearance in that season but lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. This was followed by the team failing to defend their AL crown in the 2009 and produced a poor performance throughout the season. The year 2010 proved to be a much better season for the Tampa Bay Rays because the team won its second AL East Division title.

Despite the team appearing in the Wild Card for the first time in the 2011 and 2013 seasons, the team was faced with injuries. They managed to appear in the playoff berth in the 2013 season. During the 2015 and 2016 seasons, the team failed to make any significant impact in the league.

In 2020, the season was cut short due to Covid-19 but the team managed to appear in the World Series for the second time. They followed this up with another brilliant performance in the 2021 season where they won 100 games. They managed to appear again in the Wild Card during the 2022 season but were eliminated by the Cleveland Guardians.

Tampa Bay Rays Owner

The Tampa Bay Rays are owned by Stuart Sternberg, an investor of Wall Street in America. Born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, he started his career by being a part-timer in trading equity options at the American Stock Exchange while attending St. John’s University, thereby gaining a degree in finance.

He purchased the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2004 and became the managing general partner in 2005. However, he had expressed his displeasure and frustration with the team. In 2011, he was of the opinion the team had the second lowest payroll in the league back then and they were not able to manage the team in St.Petersburg, Florida, United States. Resultantly, he vouched back then for a relocation after the team was eliminated in that season. That being said, he also stated that they were not going anywhere soon.

Stuart Sternberg had also expressed his frustrations with building a new stadium for the team in Tampa Bay in 2014. He wanted to relocate the team to Montreal, Canada after having discussions with his Wall Street allies. Nevertheless, the team has remained in Tampa Bay to the present day and Stuart Sternberg continues his role as the owner of the team.

Besides being the owner of the team, there was also a speculation in 2011 that Stuart Sternberg was interested in buying the New York Mets in 2011. However, he proved that speculation wrong by stating he was happy with his team and is not going to purchase another MLB team.

Tampa Bay Rays Jersey and Logo

The Tampa Bay Rays have designed their own home and road jerseys to make them recognizable in their games. Their current home jersey consists of white buttoned shirts and pants. There are two dark blue stripes running down the shirt around the neck and on both sides of the buttons. There is also a dark blue Nike logo on the upper left side of the shirt. Below this, the team’s name and logo “Rays” appears in dark blue and white with a sunburst of yellow color in the middle of the “R” across the chest of the shirt. The sleeves of the shirt have dark blue stripes around the cuffs. The jersey number is placed white, blue and the yellow sunburst on one of the sleeves. The back of the jersey has the player’s name with the jersey name below it in dark blue. The pants have a dark blue stripe running down on either side. The caps and helmets are dark blue with a white “TB” in front of them.

The current road jersey of the Tampa Bay Rays is a dark blue buttoned shirt with gray pants. There are white stripes running down around the neck on both sides of the buttons of the shirt. The shirt has a powder blue Nike logo on the upper left side of the shirt. Below this logo the name and logo of the team “Rays” appear in the same way as in the home jersey. It is dark blue and white with a yellow sunburst in the middle of the “R.” The sleeves of the shirt have white stripes around the cuffs. The jersey number is also placed in dark blue, white and yellow sunburst on one of the sleeves. The back of the shirt has the player’s name in the shirt with the jersey number below it in dark blue and white. The pants also have dark blue stripes on both sides. The caps and helmets are also dark blue in color with the same white “TB” in front of them.

Besides these two jerseys, the Tampa Bay Rays also use another white and powder blue jerseys which they use on special occasions.

Tampa Bay Rays Nicknames

It is common for baseball fans to give nicknames to their favorite teams. Regarding this, the Tampa Bay Rays are also no exception. These are the nicknames that the team has obtained over the years:

• The Rays - This nickname is a shorter version of the present “Tampa Bay Rays” and the previous “Tampa Bay Devil Rays” team names.

• The D-Rays - This was a shorter version of the team’s previous name “Devil Rays.”

• The Manta Rays, The Mantas and The Eagle Rays - The first and second nickname was used to refer to the previous logo of the team. The third nickname is used to refer to the fact that manta rays belong to the family of the eagle rays.

Tampa Bay Rays Retired Jerseys

Unlike the other MLB teams, the Tampa Bay Rays have retired only three jerseys of its former personnel. These personnel are as follows.

Source:- mlb.com

Tampa Bay Rays Home Stadium

The Tropicana Field has been the home stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays ever since the team started playing in 1998. It is located on Tropicana Drive, Tampa Bay, Florida, United States. The stadium can support 42,735 spectators during a baseball game. The left field is 315 feet while the left center field is 370 feet. The right field is 322 feet and the right center field is 370 feet. The center field is 404 feet and the backstop is 50 feet. The field surface has been made by Shaw Sports Turf.

One of the main features and signatures of the stadium is the slanted roof. This helps to protect the stadium from hurricanes. The stadium also has seven entrance and exit gates. Out of these, only VIPs can use Gate 4 while the team personnel use Gate 7. Among other features of the stadium are the Grand Slam Alley, an arcade style arena free on Sundays. There is also an interactive playground that allows fans to play various interactive games. There is also The Rays Touch Tank containing three different rays species especially the cownose rays. This tank is managed by the Florida Aquarium. There are also different concession stands and Ted Williams Museum/Hitters Hall of Fame which contains relics from the Negro Leaghues till the present times.

Apart from baseball, the stadium has also been used for football, basketball, hockey, Motorsports and musical concerts and pro wrestling (WWE Raw, Smackdown,Main Event episodes and pay-per-views).

Tampa Bay Rays Tickets and Broadcasting Details

SeatGeek as usual remains the ideal place to get the tickets for games of the Tampa Bay Rays. The price starts as low as $61 and goes up higher from there depending on the game and choice of the spectator.

Bally Sports Sun is the official television broadcaster for the games of the Tampa Bay Rays. The broadcasters include Dewayne Staats, Brian Anderson, Rich Hollenberg, Tricia Whitaker, Doug Waechter, Matt Joyce, Denard Span and Ryan Bass.

For radio, all the actions of the Tampa Bay Rays can be heard on the Rays Radio Network. The broadcasters are Andy Freed and Nel Solondz. The Spanish broadcasting is done by Enrique Oliu and Ricardo Taveras.

MLB.TV as usual will be streaming the game for all out of market areas. The fans need to get a Tampa Bay Rays single team subscription for $19.99 per month.

Tampa Bay Rays Rivalries

The main rivals for the Tampa Bay Rays are the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and the Miami Marlins.

Rivalry of the Rays and the Red Sox

The rivalry between these two teams started when Gerald Williams of the Devil Rays was struck with a pitch by Pedro Martinez from the Red Sox. This resulted in brawls and ejections in both the teams. There have been several violent incidents and brawls between the members of both teams whenever they played against each other. Till now, both these teams have played a total of 466 games against each other. Unfortunately, the Rays are presently at a disadvantage with a record of 216-250 combining both the regular season and the postseason.

Rivalry of the Rays and the Yankees

These two teams have always had a rivalry between each other because the Yankees have their spring training facility in Tampa and also has a minor league team in the Tampa Tarpons. Just like that of the Red Sox, there is an intense rivalry between these two teams. There have been violent confrontations between the teams. The players of both the teams also have a kind of enmity with each other. The teams have encountered each other for 455 times. Unfortunately, the Rays are once again with a record of 197- 258 in both regular season and postseason combined.

Rivalry between the Rays and the Marlins

The rivalry between these two teams is called Citrus Series. They are called rivals because both of them represent the state of Florida and are from different leagues. These teams have been rivals since they played their first game on June 22, 1998 at Tropicana Field. They have played a total of 137 games till now and the Rays are currently leading with a record of 78-59.

Tampa Bay Rays MLB Records and Stats

These are all the all-time records and stats obtained by the Tampa Bay Rays as a team over the years.

• All-time high record in scoring home runs - 228 (2017 season)

• All-time high record in runs scored - 857 (2021 season)

• All-time high record in scoring doubles - 311 (2001 season)

• All-time high record in scoring triples - 46 (2004 season)

• All-time high record in stolen bases - 194 (2009 season)

• All-time high record in scoring strikeouts - 1621 (2019 season)

• All-time high record in scoring shutouts - 22 (2014 season)

• All-time high record in batting average - .325 (2012 season)

• All-time high record in RBI - 121 (2007 season)

• All-time high record in ERA - 1.89 (2018 season)

• All-time high record in winning games - 21 (2018 season)

• All-time high record in losing games - 19 (2016 season)

Tampa Bay Rays World Series Championships

The Tampa Bay Rays have not managed to win any World Series Championships yet. They played in the World Series twice in 2008 and 2020 but lost to their opponents both times.

Tampa Bay Ray Other MLB Titles

Despite not winning the World Series Championships, the Tampa Bay Rays have won other titles in the MLB. These are all of their achievements till now.

Tampa Bay Rays Hall of Famers

As compared to the rest of the MLB teams, the Tampa Bay Rays only introduced their Hall of Fame in 2023. These are the personnel inducted in the Hall of Fame by the team.

Source:- mlb.com

Current Tampa Bay Rays Roster MLB 2023

These are all the active players currently present in the Tampa Bay Rays roster.

Source:- mlb.com

Tampa Bay Rays Schedule

The season for the Tampa Bay Rays is gradually coming to an end. These are the last couple of opponents that they have to face:

Source:- mlb.com