The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League East division. In 1998, the franchise were scheduled to begin play in 1998 but were approved on March 9, 1995, and began play the following year. The franchise has a record of 2,722-2,896, with the most recent victory coming in the 2010 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
About Tampa Bay Rays in brief
The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League East division. 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. The 2008 season saw the Rays post their first winning season, their first AL East championship, and their first American League Pennant, though they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in that year’s World Series. Since then, the Rays have played in the postseason five more times, winning the AL pennant again in 2020, where they would go on to lose in the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their all-time record is 1,726-1,896 through 2020. The Florida Suncoast Dome was built in 1990 with the purpose of luring a major league team. The Tampa group even registered the name \”Florida Panthers\”, after a local feline – a trademark that ended up being purchased by entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga one year later, and used by him to name an NHL ice hockey team. In 1993, the stadium was renamed the Thunderdome and became the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Lightning hockey teams. The city and the team agreed that the team should be called Tampa Bay Sting, but there was a problem as the Rays already held the rights to the name.
Instead, the team opted for a local variety of the ray, the devil ray, which is meant to primarily refer to a burst of sunshine rather than a manta ray, though amanta ray logo remains on the uniform sleeves. 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. The Minnesota Twins, 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. In the 1990s, two separate groups, one in Tampa and another in Sarasota, were seeking to get an expansion team. A competing group applied to field a team in Tampa, prompting much conflict over the bid. The two National League teams were awarded to Denver and Miami instead. The Rays also have an intrastate interleague rivalry with the National League’s Miami Marlins, whom they play in the Citrus Series. In 1998, the franchise were scheduled to begin play in 1998 but were approved on March 9, 1995, and began play the following year. The franchise has a record of 2,722-2,896, with the most recent victory coming in the 2010 World Series against the Dodgers, who went on to win the series 3-1. In 2010, the club won its first World Series title, beating the New York Yankees in the final game.
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This page is based on the article Tampa Bay Rays published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 28, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
