Wilson Álvarez threw the first pitch and Wade Boggs hit the first home run in team history that day. The Devil Rays played their first game on Maagainst the Detroit Tigers at Tropicana Field before a crowd of 45,369. Before the 1998 season, veteran stars Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, and Wilson Álvarez were acquired.ġ998–2003: Early years as the Devil Rays The team also drafted future star Bobby Abreu but traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for Kevin Stocker, who had very little success for the Rays. Tony Saunders from the Florida Marlins was the first player drafted by the Devil Rays. The team acquired 35 players in the Expansion Draft on November 18, 1997. On November 7, 1997, Larry Rothschild was named the team's first manager. The franchise's first minor league games took place in the 1996 season. The Devil Rays began to build their organization shortly after the franchise was awarded in 1995 by naming former Atlanta Braves assistant general manager Chuck LaMar the senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager. The franchise reached its second World Series in 2020. Since then, the Rays have played in the postseason in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2019, and 2020. The 2008 season saw the Tampa Bay 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. Following the 2007 season, Stuart Sternberg, who had purchased controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli two years earlier, shortening the team's name from "Devil Rays" to "Rays", now meant to primarily refer to a burst of sunshine rather than a manta ray, though a manta ray logo remains on the uniform sleeves. 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 Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play in the 1998 Major League Baseball season. Since its inception, the team's home venue has been Tropicana Field.įollowing 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. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) East division. The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
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