However, oddly enough, the nickname refers to the sun's rays in Florida (which is also known as the Sunshine State) and not just to fish. Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn more Get hyperlocal forecasts, weather and radar alerts. The St.
Petersburg City Council debated the possibility on Thursday and ultimately voted in favor of a resolution that sought options to increase the city's prominence before the MLB team, which could include a name change. Councilmember Gina Driscoll said she introduced the idea because many voters think Tampa Bay really just means the city of Tampa. However, Mayor Ken Welch agreed with the Rays. Welch, the city's first black mayor, has turned the new stadium into the cornerstone of the remodeling of the gas plant district, which housed a thriving black community before Tropicana Field and an interstate highway displaced those homes and businesses.
Driscoll suggested that it was an exaggeration to say that the entire project is threatened. for these conversations. Trying to reinvent themselves, the eternal team that came in last place officially shortened their nickname to simply Rays during a celebration that brought together some 7,000 people in a downtown park on Thursday night. Steinbrenner Field was selected as the Rays' temporary home for the regular season because it is the best-equipped facility in the Tampa Bay region to host Major League Baseball's regular season games.
Kevin Cash became the first American League coach to win the Coach of the Year award in consecutive seasons after guiding Tampa Bay through a litany of pitching injuries, the loss of three of the best starters (Charlie Morton, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow) and a mediocre start. Four Hall of Famers with ties to the Tampa Bay area, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Monte Irvin and Al Lopez, each threw a first ball on March 31. On July 20, outfielder Carl Crawford, 20, hits three three-pointers in his first week in the big leagues and becomes the first Tampa Bay player to achieve that feat. In 1992, local businessman and revolutionary artist Vince Naimoli became the leader of the Tampa Bay Baseball Group. Tampa Bay also took revenge on Houston, winning the seventh game after a stellar performance by Charlie Morton. Months before its maiden season began, Tampa Bay signed future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who grew up in Tampa and further aroused fan interest in the new team.
Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford receives the James Cool Papa Bell Legacy Award from the Negro League Baseball Museum for winning the crown of stolen bases from the American League. Rays games are frequently visited by professional wrestlers, as there are a large number of wrestlers living in the Tampa Bay area. Tampa Bay hosted the eventual world champion, the Texas Rangers, in another two-game wild card loss, in which the Rays never led at any time with only one run scored once again. But Tampa Bay needed every drop of its signature magic at the end of the season, as the club avoided elimination in the last game of the regular season, a playoff in Game 163 against Texas and the AL Wild Card Game against Cleveland.
Petersburg, in the southeastern corner, is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico and to the south and east by Tampa Bay. After nearly three decades of trying unsuccessfully to secure an expansion franchise or encouraging existing teams to move to the Tampa Bay area, a group of owners led by Vince Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995. The building soon received the nickname The Thunderdome, because its first major tenant was the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL. The campaign to bring Major League Baseball to the Tampa Bay area dates back to the late 1960s, when the civic leader of St.
