Home Run Derby

So the Tampa Bay Devil Rays dropped the Devil from their name and are now just the Tampa Bay Rays. 

That got me wondering if there have been any players named Ray to play for the (Devil) Rays in their ten forgettable years of existence (645 Wins, 972 Losses, nine last-place finishes) in the Major Leagues.

Short answer:  No.  Nobody named Ray has ever played for Tampa Bay. 

Part of that’s because there have been slim pickin’s for Rays in Major League Baseball for the past decade. 

Over the ten seasons (1998-2007) the (Devil) Rays have languished in the Majors, there have been only nine players in MLB with “Ray” as their first or last name.   

Ray Durham, Ray King, Ray Lankford, Ray Olmedo, Ray Sadler, Ray Holbert, Ray Montgomery, Christopher Ray and Kenny Ray.  That’s it.  And none of them have played for Tampa Bay.

However, the (Devil) Rays have had two players with the first name of Rey …

Shortstop Rey Ordonez (2003) and infielder Rey Sanchez (2004). 

Neither made much of an impact with the club. 

The (Devil) Rays have had two pitchers with the last name of Reyes …

Al Reyes (2007) and Carlos Reyes (2003). 

Carlos didn’t stick around long.  Al might be back in 2008.

By the way, Rey means King in Spanish.  Reyes is the plural.

Aubrey Huff (2000-2006) played in Tampa and is the Rays’ all-time Home Run leader with 128 HR.  But ”Aubrey” is a bit of a stretch from Ray - so no picture.

And the Devil Rays don’t play baseball at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Mind you – the Rays do have a mascot who’s kinda named Ray – Raymond.

And they do have some live rays in a huge tank at Tropicana Field. 

Those rays are supposedly included in the attendance figures for games at the Trop.  Isn’t that considered cruelty to animals?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Devil Rays, MLB Weirdness, Mascots, Rays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.