Following the 2007 season, Stuart Sternberg, who had purchased controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli, changed the team's name from "Devil Rays" to "Rays".

On March 31, 1998, the Devil Rays played their inaugural game against the Detroit Tigers. It was a rough start as the Tigers put up 11 unanswered runs over the first five innings of play. But in the 6th inning, Tampa native Wade Boggs gave his hometown crowd something to cheer about as he walloped a pitch into the right field bleachers for the first homer in club history.

The 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished last in the AL East division with a record of 63-99, 51 games behind the World Champion New York Yankees.

Crawford stole 480 bases in his MLB career, including 60 bases in 2009.

Peña had a slow start to the 2007 season, batting .213 with four home runs in the month of April as a backup player. But he would go on to become the Ray's starting first baseman and set numerous career highs. He finished the season with a .282 batting average, 46 home runs and 121 RBIs.

Morris was a 35-year-old baseball coach who could throw 98 mph fastballs. In the spring of 1999, Morris promised his students that he would try out for Major League Baseball if they won the District Championship. His team won the title, and Morris spent two seasons with The Devil Rays as a relief pitcher.

Raymond is a previously undiscovered species of dog known as "Canus Manta Whatthefluffalus". He is officially described as a "seadog", having been born somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

A 15-game losing streak was traced by radio broadcaster Paul Olden to horror novelist Stephen King being at Tropicana Field for the first loss. It escalated into a jinx-breaking ritual of Rays players sticking push pins into a copy of his aptly titled book, Misery. King's reply? They should have used The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which he considered his "jinx book."

After Sammy Sosa's bat was shattered by Devils Rays pitcher and former Cubs teammate Geremi González during the first inning of the Cubs' 3-2 win on June 3, 2003, catcher Toby Hall retrieved a broken piece and showed plate umpire Tim McClelland it was filled with pieces of cork. Sosa was ejected and suspended for 8 games.

The Rays and Red Sox have a long history of brawls, but nothing has matched the wild August 29, 2000 game in which eight Rays -- five players, two coaches and manager Larry Rothschild -- were ejected.