The Tampa Bay Rays are a professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of both the Major League Baseball's (MLB) American League Eastern Division and the American League (AL) itself. Since their inaugural season in 1998, the Rays have played their home games at Tropicana Field. The team was originally known as the "Tampa Bay Devil Rays", which was inspired by a common nickname of the manta ray, but after the 2007 season, they changed their official name to the "Tampa Bay Rays."
Tampa Bay made their Major League debut in 1998, where they were an expansion team. For their first ten seasons, Tampa Bay struggled, never had a winning record, and always finished fifth in the American League Eastern Division, except for a fourth-place finish in the 2004 season. However, Tampa Bay had their best season ever in 2008, when they won their first American League East Division title, defeated the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS, beat the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS, but lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
The following table describes the Rays' MLB win–loss record by decade.
These statistics are from Baseball-Reference.com's Tampa Bay Rays History & Encyclopedia, and are current as of October 18, 2016.