Welcome to the first in a series of articles examining the history of Tampa Bay Rays baseball. With 20 seasons now etched in the history books, we’ll look back at each individual year and reminisce on all the highs and lows that this franchise has brought to us over the past two decades.
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Tampa Bay has had professional baseball for decades. Major league teams, needing to escape the frigid early spring temperatures of their Northeastern and Midwestern home cities, traveled to the area for spring training.
But as soon as the northern snows melted, professional baseball would make its way north, leaving Tampa Bay residents baseball-less once more.