Tampa Bay Rays Snapshot
This professional ball team hopes to shine in the post-season. Tampa Bay Rays Baseball owns and operates Florida's Gulf Coast baseball franchise. Founded as the Devil Rays, the franchise was originally awarded to a group led by local businessman Vincent Naimoli and joined joined Major League Baseball in 1998 as an expansion franchise along with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Playing host at Tampa's Tropicana Field, the team earned its first ever American League Pennant in 2008. (The Rays fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, however.) CEO Stuart Sternberg leads a management group that purchased control of the team in 2004.