A brief history of the men in black.
Over the past few years, the Tamp Bay Rays have been celebrating their colorful history. Having been in existence now for over a quarter of a century, the Rays are able to look back on their atrocious, albeit formative, first years with joy and have been paying homage to their past incarnations.
Following the 2000 season, the team’s original uniforms were haphazardly stuffed in dingy boxes in the darkest corners of the confines of Tropicana Field, the Devil Rays became the Rays and went from cellar dwellers to perennial contenders (following a phase where they were really into green and vests, as we all have been from time to time).
Now those original uniforms have come back with exuberant fanfare and the Rays have been celebrating them routinely throughout the years. Prior to the 2024 season, it was announced the Rays would wear throwback Devil Rays jerseys for every Friday home game during the season. However, to date, this has only included the original home whites.
During their first few years, however, the Devil Rays also wore an alternate to their home whites, and that was their home blacks.
The last time the Rays wore black with a rainbow gradient was the Hit Show batting practice jerseys that are easily recognizable at the Trop today thanks to the popular Cooperstown Boggs jersey:
Something tells me you can expect to see a lot more black and rainbow pairings in Tampa Bay moving forward.
The colors in this new gradient fade from an Air Jordan inspired Green Glow to the seemingly Seahawks inspired Action Green, then to transitionary Neptune and Baltic Blues, before settling in the Devil Rays styled Court and Psychic Purples, the latter of which has also been seen on Nike kicks throughout the years.
All six hues of the gradient are featured across the various logos on the jersey, and are well on display inside the cap and under its brim on the grip-tape texture. The gradient also finds its home in a stripe running along one side of the jersey, and the other side of the pants.
Along with the black Devil Rays jerseys, the Rays have also neglected another aspect from their uniforms. Ever since the rebranding following the 2007 season, the Rays jerseys have been just that, the “Rays” jerseys.
Yes, it’s been seventeen seasons since the re-brand and they haven’t featured a rather important aspect of the franchise since the Devil was dropped, and that is the name of team’s home: Tampa Bay.
This injustice will be rectified on Friday, May 3, 2024 when the Tampa Bay Rays wear the name of their hometown, with the “Grit x Glow” City Connect jersey.