Tampa Bay Rays seasons

The Tampa Bay Rays are a professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of both the Major League Baseball’s (MLB) American League Eastern Division and the American League (AL) itself. Since the 1998 season, the Rays have played in Tropicana Field. [cite web |url= http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/ballpark/index.jsp |title= Tropicana Field |accessdate=2008-10-05 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= MLB.com] The team was originally named "The Devil Rays", which was inspired by a common nickname of the Manta ray, but in after the 2007 season, they changed their official name to "The Rays". [cite web |url= http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20071107&content_id=2295315&vkey=pr_tb&fext=.jsp&c_id=tb |title= Time to shine: Rays introduce new name, new icon, new team colors and new uniforms |accessdate=2008-10-05 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= MLB.com]

Tampa Bay made their Major League debut in the 1998 baseball season, where they were an expansion team. [cite web |url= http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/history/timeline1.jsp |title= Rays Timeline 1995-1996 |accessdate=2008-10-05 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= MLB.com] For their first ten seasons, Tampa Bay struggled, never had a winning record, and were always fifth in the American League Eastern Division, except for a fourth place finish in the 2004 Major League Baseball season. However, Tampa had their best season ever in 2008, and for the first time ever, won the American League East Division and made it into the playoffs. The Rays currently are against the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.

Regular season results

These statistics are current as of October 10, 2008. Bold denotes a playoff season, pennant or championship; "italics" denote an active season.

Footnotes

*note label|Finish|a|aThe Finish column lists regular season results and excludes postseason play.
*note label|WinLoss|b|bThe Wins and Losses columns list regular season results and exclude any postseason play. Regular and postseason records are combined only at the bottom of the list.
*note label|GamesBack|c|cThe GB column lists "Games Back" from the team that finished in first place that season. It is determined by finding the difference in wins plus the difference in losses divided by two.
*note label|ALDS|d|dALDS stands for American League Division Series.
*note label|ALCS|e|eALCS stands for American League Championship Series.
*note label|CPOY|f|fCPOY stands for Comeback Player of the Year

References

ee also

* Tampa Bay Rays team records
* List of Tampa Bay Rays Opening Day starting pitchers
* Tampa Bay Rays managers and ownership