The American League has generally chosen it's expansion cities according to one of two considerations: 1) matching a previous National League move into a previously untapped market (i.e. southern California and Canada) or 2) the need to stem real or potential legal entanglements due to having let clubs leave cities in the past (i.e. Kansas City and Seattle). With Tampa in 1998, it was the former - they were following the National League into Florida, where the Marlins had landed 5 years earlier.  Another consideration may have been the fact that the Tampa/St. Petersburg area had long desired a team, with local business interests periodically tempting established clubs to move south.  Over the years, fans of the Giants, Mariners, White Sox, Rangers and Twins all feared a possible move of their home-town team to Florida's Gulf Coast.  So it was that when expansion for 1998 was announced, Tampa finally got its own team.    

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The Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play in 1998 in Tropica Field, a domed monstrosity originally built in 1990 as part of an effort to lure some other established team south.  

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Playing it what is generally considered one of the worst stadiums in Major League Baseball, the Devil Rays shared the fate of most expansion clubs, namely an extended period of poor performance.  They didn't so much as have a winning season until 2008, the year they shortened their name to the Rays and reached the post season for the first time, going all the way to the World Series which they dropped to the Phillies 4 games to 2.  After being competitive for another several years, the team fell into a period of mediocrity, coincident with the departure of beloved manager Joe Maddon to the Cubs.  The club returned to competitiveness at the dawn of the '20s, grabbing a pennant in the rump season of 2020, but their long-term future in St. Petersburg will probably always be in doubt due to low attendance and other issues associated with being a small-market club.     

 

The main purpose of this page is to illustrate those players, managers and coaches who have been the most prominent in the franchise's history.  Links below will take you to galleries highlighting each, by position.  Generally, an individual is included if he spent at least 2 full seasons (consecutive or cumulative) as a starter, relief pitcher, closer or manager. For coaches, I've generally used 5 years of service as the bar.  None of this is scientific, though, so there are exceptions.  Where possible and practical, I used pictures of actual baseball cards because that it is the medium through which I, and I suppose many others, first discovered the game. Where necessary, I designed my own images.  Images of actual baseball cards were obtained at the Card Cyber Museum, and for my own designs I used photos found at host of different sites, but none moreso than the wonderful forum at Out of the Park Developments.  

 

I claim no rights to, or ownership of, any of the photographic images I've used on these pages.   You are welcome to use them yourself.  All I ask is that that if you use any of my personal creations, you give credit to this site.