Tampa Bay Rays

The Rookie is a 2002 American sports drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the true story of Jim Morris who debuted in Major League Baseball at age 35. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Morris, alongside Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, and Brian Cox.

The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home venue has been Tropicana Field.

Robert Szasz, also known as The Happy Heckler, is a real estate developer and has been a well-known heckler at Tampa Bay Rays baseball games for several seasons.

Dick Crippen is a popular former sports anchor in the Tampa Bay, Florida television market. Crippen began his career at ABC affiliate WLCY-TV Channel 10 in 1965 as one of the station's first on-air personalities. In 1981, he left for rival WFLA-TV. He anchored the evening sportscasts until the late 1990s.

Defenders of the Game is an original animated family adventure series that was developed by Onesum Agency in Montreal for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays during their 2007 season, as an in-game entertainment experience. The series portrayed several key Devil Ray players as super heroes, and featured the voices and likenesses of Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, Rocco Baldelli, Coach Joe Maddon, and Special Advisor Don Zimmer. In the fictional series, the superhero Defenders had to save the game of baseball from the machinations or the evil Umperor. For the 2008 season, the renamed Tampa Bay Rays, ordered another season of entirely original animated episodes featuring the same characters as the previous season with the exception of Rocco Baldelli who was on the disabled list, as well as new players Carlos Peña, James Shields, and B. J. Upton. While the evil Umperor was mentioned during the second season, the Defenders battled new villains including the Dr. Stat and Ms. Vinta.

On August 15, 2012, Seattle Mariners pitcher Félix Hernández pitched the 23rd and most recent perfect game in Major League Baseball history and the first in Mariners' franchise history. Pitching against the Tampa Bay Rays at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington, Hernández retired all 27 batters that he faced and tallied 12 strikeouts in a 1–0 victory.

On May 9, 2010, Major League Baseball pitcher Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game. Braden, a member of the Oakland Athletics, pitched the game against the Tampa Bay Rays and retired all 27 batters. The game took place on Mother's Day in the United States and Braden's grandmother, Peggy Lindsey — who raised him after his mother died of cancer when he was in high school — was in attendance. Braden's battery mate during the game was Landon Powell, who was called up from the minor leagues 18 days before. It was the nineteenth perfect game in baseball history. Braden, who was 26 at the time, was the youngest pitcher to throw a perfect game since Mike Witt in 1984. The game was the Athletics' first no-hitter since 1990 when Dave Stewart did so on June 29, 1990, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. On Thursday, July 23, 2009 every batter Mark Buehrle faced was put out, he got 27 outs in 27 trys. This event took place in U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago in front of 28,036 fans in attendance. This game took 2:03 from 1:07 PM CT to 3:10 PM CT.

The 1998 Major League Baseball expansion resulted in the establishment of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s 29th and 30th teams beginning play for the 1998 season. After initiating an expansion committee in March 1994, 27 groups representing nine cities submitted bids for the proposed expansion teams. After a yearlong process, on March 9, 1995, the league awarded the National League franchise to Phoenix and the American League franchise to Tampa. The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (currently the Tampa Bay Rays), would subsequently begin play for the 1998 season.

Ybor Stadium was a proposed baseball park in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. If approved and constructed, it would have served as the home of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball.