Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay Rays is an American MLB team based in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States.
==History==
The Tampa Bay area has had a long association with amateur and professional baseball teams.
The push to Major League can be traced back to the late 1960s, when St. Petersburg Times publisher Jack Lake wrote a series of editorials saying that St. Petersburg could support a Major League team.
Many teams wanted to move to St. Petersburg. Due to this, on March 3, 1990, Tropicana Field opened.
In 1993, MLB announced two expansion teams. Due to the long history, many teams wanting to move to St. Petersburg, and Lake's editorials, many people expected there to be one in the Tampa Bay area, especially St. Petersburg. Despite the region's effort, it was split into two groups, the Tampa Bay Whitecaps, and the Florida Panthers.
Vince Naimoli, a Tampa-based investor, sued MLB after it unexpectedly closed a deal that Naimoli made to buy the San Francisco Giants and relocate them to St. Petersburg. To settle the suit, it awarded him his own expansion franchise, which he chose to base in St. Petersburg.
He initially wanted to call them the Tampa Bay Sting Rays, but the naming rights were held by the minor league Maui Stingrays. Despite the Stingrays offering Naimoli $35,000, he decided to settle for a different type of ray, the devil ray. The name was not welcomed, due to it not being common in Tampa Bay waters and the word Devil offended several Christian pastors. Naimoli told the public that he would switch their name to the alternative name, the manta ray, if the public chose it.
In 1998, they became an official team for the first time.
In 2008, they decided to change their name to simply Rays.
==Channel==
They created their channel on August 18, 2015 and uploaded their first video on May 5, 2021, titled "Top Plays of the Month: April". On May 4, 2023, they uploaded their first and only short, titled "Did he just do that?!? Yea, Wander is that guy.". The Rays uploaded their first livestream on July 29, 2023, titled "Finals Sunburst Invitational Circuit #2 | TAMPA BAY RAYS GAMING | Kriner vs Zazzi".
==Retired numbers==
As of January 30, 2023, they have retired three numbers for three individuals.
*12, Wade Boggs
*66, Don Zimmer
*42, Jackie RobinsonRobinson's number was retired all throughout MLB, but grandfathered to those who had the number at the time of retirement
==Trivia==
*They have never won a World Series title.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Sports YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2015