FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team’s home venue has been Tropicana Field.

Following nearly three decades of unsuccessfully trying to gain an expansion franchise or enticing existing teams to relocate to the Tampa Bay area, an ownership group led by Vince Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play in the 1998 Major League Baseball season.

The team’s first decade of play was marked by futility; they finished in last place in the AL East in all but the 2004 season, when they finished second to last. Following the 2007 season, Stuart Sternberg, who had purchased controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli two years earlier, changed the team’s name from “Devil Rays” to “Rays”, now meant to primarily refer to a burst of sunshine rather than a manta ray, though a manta ray logo remains on the uniform sleeves. The 2008 season saw the Tampa Bay Rays post their first winning season, their first AL East championship, and their first American League pennant (defeating the rival Boston Red Sox in the ALCS), though they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in that year’s World Series. Since then, the Rays have played in the postseason six more times, winning the American League pennant again in 2020 and losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in that year’s World Series.

The Tampa Bay Rays’ chief rivals are the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Regarding the former, there have been several notable on-field incidents. The Rays also have an intrastate interleague rivalry with the National League (NL)’s Miami Marlins (originally the Florida Marlins), whom they play in the Citrus Series.

Through 2021, the Rays’ all-time record is 1,826–1,958 (.483).

TODAY’S ALMANAC

1740s

• DIED 1745: JONATHAN SWIFT (AUTHOR)
• BORN 1748: MARTHA JEFFERSON (WIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON; DIED BEFORE PRESIDENCY)

1780s

• 1781: MAJOR GENERAL LORD CHARLES CORNWALLIS SURRENDERED AT YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA, EFFECTIVELY ENDING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR

1810s

• BORN 1810: CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY (ABOLITIONIST)

1850s

• BORN 1858: ALICE MCLELLAN BIRNEY (CHILD WELFARE WORKER; THE WORK BY HER AND OTHERS LED TO THE FORMATION OF THE PTA)

1860s

• 1860: PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN WROTE TO AN 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHO REQUESTED THAT HE GROW A BEARD

1870s

• 1874: FIRST WEDDING TO TAKE PLACE IN BALLOON OCCURRED, OVER CINCINNATI, OHIO

1890s

• BORN 1899: EDDIE BAUER (MERCHANT)

1910s

• 1914: GOVERNMENT AUTOS WERE FIRST USED TO DELIVER U.S. MAIL
• DIED 1916: LEO CLARKE (VICTORIA CROSS RECIPIENT)

1920s

• BORN 1922: JACK ANDERSON (JOURNALIST)

1930s

• BORN 1931: JOHN LE CARRE (AUTHOR)
• BORN 1932: ROBERT REED (ACTOR)
• 1936: WATERTOWN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, IN SOUTH DAKOTA, WAS THE FIRST SCHOOL TO FINGERPRINT STUDENTS
• BORN 1937: PETER MAX (ARTIST)

1940s

• 1943: STREPTOMYCIN, THE FIRST ANTIBIOTIC REMEDY FOR TUBERCULOSIS, WAS FIRST ISOLATED BY RESEARCHERS AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
• BORN 1945: JOHN LITHGOW (ACTOR)
• BORN 1947: GIORGIO CAVAZZANO (COMIC STRIP ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR)

1950s

• DIED 1950: EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (POET)
• 1957: QUEEN ELIZABETH II WENT TO A U.S. FOOTBALL GAME
• 1959: THE MIRACLE WORKER, A DRAMATIZATION OF HELEN KELLER’S EARLY LIFE, OPENS ON BROADWAY

1960s

• BORN 1960: JENNIFER HOLLIDAY (SINGER)
• BORN 1962: EVANDER HOLYFIELD (BOXER)
• BORN 1965: TY PENNINGTON (CARPENTER; HOST OF EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION)
• BORN 1965: BRAD DAUGHERTY (BASKETBALL PLAYER)
• BORN 1966: JON FAVREAU (ACTOR, WRITER, & DIRECTOR)

1970s

• BORN 1970: CHRIS KATTAN (ACTOR)
• BORN 1972: KEITH FOULKE (BASEBALL PLAYER)

1980s

• 1982: U.S. AUTO EXECUTIVE, JOHN DELOREAN, WAS CHARGED WITH THE CRIME OF SELLING COCAINE TO UNDERCOVER POLICE
• 1985: THE FIRST BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO STORE OPENED IN DALLAS, TEXAS
• 1987: DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE FELL BY 22% ON WHAT HAS BECOME KNOWN AS “BLACK MONDAY”

2000s

• 2003: MOTHER TERESA WAS BEATIFIED BY POPE JOHN PAUL II
• 2007: AN EARTHQUAKE MEASURING 2.5 HIT LITTLETON, MASSACHUSETTS
• 2007: IN INDIANA, A FAMILY’S PET AMAZON PARROT SAVED THEIR LIVES BY MIMICKING THE SOUND OF A FIRE ALARM TO ALERT THEM THEIR HOUSE WAS ON FIRE
• DIED 2008: RICHARD BLACKWELL (FASHION DESIGNER & CRITIC KNOWN SIMPLY AS “MR. BLACKWELL”)
• 2008: THE TAMPA BAY RAYS WON THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FRANCHISE HISTORY

2010s

• DIED 2010: TOM BOSLEY (ACTOR)
• 2017: FIRST OBJECT (‘OUMUAMUA) FROM ANOTHER SOLAR SYSTEM DETECTED IN OURS

COURTESY www.almanac.com