The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team that compete in MLB's American League East division. The club play their home games at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, around 36 km southwest of the City of Tampa.
📜 Tampa Bay Rays History
Established as an MLB expansion team in 1998, the Tampa Bay Rays' entry into the league was a long time coming and followed nearly 3 decades of unsuccessful attempts by the city to gain a franchise. Originally known as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the ball club dropped the "Devil" from their name in 2007 and have been known as the "Rays" ever since. The nickname references both the manta rays that swim in the tropical waters off the Florida coast, and the rays of sunshine for which the state is famous.
Members of the AL East division, the Rays enjoyed their first winning season in 2008, earning their inaugural division title in the process. The team would go on to make the World Series of that year, eventually losing to the Philadelphia Phillies at the final hurdle. Since then, the Rays have played in the postseason seven more times, but remain one of 6 teams never to have won a World Series.
