Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays are a professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1998 to the present, the Rays have played in Tropicana Field.
From their inception up until November 2007, the organization's name was the "Devil Rays," after the common nickname for the manta ray. They were nicknamed "The D-Rays", a shortened version of the Devil Rays name. The new name "Rays" is described by principal owner Stuart Sternberg as the team representing, "A beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida," although they still have the original manta ray logo in the new colors as an alternate logo.
An expansion franchise, the club was founded in St. Petersburg in 1998. They are one of four teams never to have played in a World Series, the others being the Texas Rangers, the Washington Nationals, and the Seattle Mariners. They are the only team to have never made it to the playoffs, having finished in last place in every season of their existence, with the exception of 2004, when they finished fourth in their division.

Although the Rays are one of baseball's youngest franchises, the Tampa Bay area has had a long history in professional baseball dating back to 1913. It was then that the Chicago Cubs moved their spring training site to the city of Tampa. St. Petersburg became a spring training host for the first time in 1922 when the Boston Braves came to town. Since that time, more major league spring training games have been played in St. Petersburg than any other city.
St. Petersburg has been the spring training home for nine teams: the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Braves, New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Browns, St. Louis Cardinals, and currently the Rays. Tampa has hosted spring training for seven teams: the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, and the New York Yankees, who currently call Tampa their spring training home.
The area also has been the home to many minor league franchises since 1919 when Tampa entered the Class D Florida State League (FSL). St. Petersburg also fielded a team in the league in 1920. Both cities were mainstays in the FSL, which is now a Class A league, throughout the 20th century. Past local minor league teams included the Tampa Tarpons, Tampa Smokers, and St. Pete Saints.
Today, the Tampa Yankees still play in the FSL. Other cities in the Tampa Bay region, including Clearwater, Dunedin, and Lakeland have also had long histories in the league and still have teams. In addition, several past and present teams in the Rookie level Gulf Coast League have called the Tampa Bay region home.
St. Petersburg was the home of the St. Petersburg Pelicans in the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989-1990. The league featured former major league players who were age 35 or older. The Pelicans won the only league championship.
Amateur baseball also has a long tradition in the Tampa area. This tradition began in the ballfields of Ybor City, a community of mainly Latin immigrants in Tampa. Ybor was home to many social clubs, each of which sponsored highly competitive teams. Al Lopez, the first area resident to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, came out of this environment.
Since then, many current and former major league players and managers such as Mike Shenk, Louis DeRosa, Gary Sheffield, Tino Martinez, Luis Gonzalez, Dwight Gooden, Brad Radke, Tony LaRussa and Hall of Famer Wade Boggs (among many others) have gotten their start in the Little League, PONY League Baseball, and high school baseball programs of greater Tampa.
With its rich baseball tradition and growing population, a major league team to call its own seemed the next logical step for Tampa Bay. However, this remained an unfulfilled dream for many years.
Local leaders made many unsuccessful attempts to acquire a major league baseball team in the 1980s and 1990s. The Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, and Seattle Mariners all considered moving to either Tampa or St. Petersburg before deciding to remain in their current locations. The Florida Suncoast Dome (now named Tropicana Field) was built in St. Petersburg in 1990 with the purpose of luring a major league team. When Major League Baseball announced that it would add two expansion teams for the 1993 season, it was widely assumed that one of the teams would be placed in St. Petersburg. However, the teams were rewarded to Denver and Miami instead.
In 1992, San Francisco Giants owner Bob Lurie agreed in principle to sell his team to a Tampa Bay-based group of investors led by Vince Naimoli, who would then move the team to St. Petersburg. However, at the 11th hour, MLB owners nixed the move under pressure from San Francisco officials and the Giants were sold to a group that kept them in San Francisco.
It was civic leader and St. Petersburg Times publisher Jack Lake who first suggested St. Petersburg pursue a Major League baseball team. The notable influences Lake held in the sport are what led to the serious discussions that took the city of St. Petersburg from being the legendary home of Spring Training to the Major League city it is today.
Finally, on March 9, 1995, new expansion franchises were awarded to Naimoli's Tampa Bay group and a group from Phoenix (the Arizona Diamondbacks). The new franchises were scheduled to begin play in 1998.
The Tampa Bay area finally had a team, but the stadium in St. Petersburg was already in need of an upgrade. In 1993, the stadium was renamed the Thunderdome and became the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team and the Tampa Bay Storm Arena Football League team. After the birth of Rays, the naming rights were sold to Tropicana Products and $70 million was spent on renovations.

New uniforms for the 2008 season were officially revealed on November 8, 2007.The unveiling coincides with a name change for the team, as the team is now officially called the "Tampa Bay Rays". The TV and radio game broadcasters already referred to the team as the "Rays" more often than "Devil Rays". The new team colors are "navy, Columbia blue and a touch of gold". The new team logo features a bright yellow sunburst that represents the Sunshine State of Florida. In the original press release, principal owner Stuart Sternberg said "We are now the 'Rays' - a beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida." With the Rays change of colors from primarily green to blue, only five teams in MLB do not feature shades of red or blue on their uniforms. They are San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox, the Baltimore Orioles and the Colorado Rockies.

**WIKIPEDIA.ORG