The Tampa Bay Rays are a professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Rays have played in Tropicana Field.
From their inception up until November 2007, the organization's name was the "Devil Rays", after the common nickname for the manta ray. They were nicknamed "The D-Rays", a shortened version of the Devil Rays name. The new name "Rays" is described by principal owner Stuart Sternberg as the team representing, "A beacon that radiates throughout Tampa Bay and across the entire state of Florida," although they still have the original manta ray logo in the new colors as an alternate logo.
An expansion franchise, the club was founded in St. Petersburg in . They are one of four active teams never to have played in a World Series, the others being the Texas Rangers, the Washington Nationals, and the Seattle Mariners. They are the only team to have never made it to the playoffs, having finished in last place in every season of their existence, with the exception of 2004, when they finished fourth in their division.
