
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball franchise based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the reigning 2008 American League Champions. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in 1998, the Rays have played in Tropicana Field and have finished out of last place only twice: once in 2004, when they finished fourth in their division, and again in 2008, when they won their first division title, entered the playoffs for the first time in team history, and qualified for the World Series. In November 2007, majority owner Stuart Sternberg decided to make drastic changes and renamed his team from the "Tampa Bay Devil Rays" to the "Tampa Bay Rays", which he described as "A beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida." |