Tampa Bay Rays Set Date To Unveil Their City Connect Uniforms

This season, Major League Baseball  will see nine teams sporting new special edition uniforms that showcase their home city. Earlier today, the Tampa Bay Rays City Connect uniform reveal date was announced by the team.

This coming Monday, April 29, the team will reveal the new look. They will then wear the City Connect variation for the first time on Friday, May 3. The Rays will start on the road next week and will be in Milwaukee when the uniforms are first shown to the public. However, there will be much anticipation and excitement for their return to Tropicana Field after their Midwest road trip. Not only will they be sporting the City Connect look for the first time under the Friday night lights, but this also kicks off an interleague series vs. the New York Mets.

Typically, a City Connect design is something completely unique and customized to the respective city. The only common theme, however, is that there is something (a colorway, design, or logo) that is representative of that market only. Normally this could mean a louder color pattern or a new color that has nothing to do with the team's standard set.

You may have noticed the Rays wore a yellow cap during spring training. Could this be a hint?

What we do know is that the look is significantly different from the alternate look that many teams wear. For example, in San Diego, the Padres wore a jersey that featured a pink, teal, and fluorescent color scheme. This was a big departure from their standard brown and yellow.

The Miami Marlins had a red with white stripe City Connect jersey. The Colorado Rockies jersey paid tribute to the state license plate, and the Boston Red Sox has a yellow jersey with a light blue cap.

“Introduced in the 2021 season, the Nike MLB City Connect Series celebrates each city’s deep-rooted history, culture and spirit that continues to bring the clubs and their communities together,” MLB explained. This concept has been made popular by the NBA. Their home teams will often change their court flooring to match the City Connect uniforms.

Therein lies another note on this look. They are typically only worn at home. When the Mets come into town next week, they will be fresh off of wearing their City Connect uniforms for the first time. The Mets wear theirs on Saturday home games only, starting April 27.

The other teams joining the Rays and Mets this season as the City Connect teams include Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Guardians, Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Tampa Bay Rays started in Major League Baseball in 1998. Originally called the "Devil Rays," the expansion team opened at home 25 years ago today (March 31, 1998), taking on the Detroit Tigers at Tropicana Field. Coincidentally, the Rays opened their season yesterday at home, beating the Detroit Tigers at Tropicana Field. Though the club has had numerous all-star players over the years, the Tampa Bay Rays retired numbers are slim. The group contains only one person who was a player on the team.

Over the years, Tampa has been a breeding ground of great baseball players. Rays legends such as Fred McGriff and Tino Martinez are from Tampa, as is the team's current manager, Kevin Cash.

The retired numbers are displayed inside the park on a wall that is to the left of the center field scoreboard. One of these numbers represents a manager who ended his career as an advisor with the Rays and was a Tampa, FL resident. The other two numbers reflect players, but again, only one of them actually played for the Rays. He too, called Tampa home.

The Rays will sport numerous uniform options this season. They will pay tribute to their anniversary with the throwback Devil Rays look on Friday home games (in addition to opening day). Over the course of the season, they will call up various players from their minor league system. These players, like the current roster and coaching staff, will immediately have three numbers unavailable to them regardless of the colorful uniform combination.

Here are the official Tampa Bay Rays retired numbers.