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Why the Rays are bringing back Devil Rays jerseys this season

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor

The Tampa Bay Rays celebrated their 10-year anniversary with a name and logo change. Now as they prepare to celebrate their 20-year anniversary in 2018, they’ve announced plans to bring back the discarded Devil Rays name and logo for a handful of Saturday home games.

According to a Rays announcement, they will be wearing retro Devil Rays uniforms for four home games during the upcoming season. The first time will be the third game of the season against the Boston Red Sox, which takes place on March 31. The Rays will be honoring their inaugural team from 1998 before the game.

The other three dates will be June 9th against the Seattle Mariners, June 23rd against the New York Yankees, and September 8th against the Baltimore Orioles.

Tampa Bay shortened its name from “Devil Rays” to “Rays” for the 2008 season. Along with that came major changes to the uniforms. Navy blue and light blue became their primary colors, replacing green and black, while the team’s primary logo became a ray of sunshine as opposed to a manta ray.

The Tampa Bay Rays will wear their original Devil Rays uniforms for select games to celebrate their 20th anniversary. (AP)
The Tampa Bay Rays will wear their original Devil Rays uniforms for select games to celebrate their 20th anniversary. (AP)

All Rays uniforms this season will include a 20th anniversary shoulder patch. There will also be numerous promotions honoring Rays teams of the past throughout the season.

On Aug. 4, the Rays will honor their AL-pennant winning team from 2008. Fans will receive a bobblehead of Akinori Iwamura, who recorded the final out in Game 7 of the ALCS. Even cooler, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports it will come with a recording of radio broadcaster Dave Wills making the historic call.

There will also be bobbleheads featuring Wade Boggs, Carl Crawford, home run hero Dan Johnson, Evan Longoria and a combo deal with Fred McGriff and Tino Martinez.

There’s a lot of other fun stuff planned too. You can read all about it here.

The resurrection of the Devil Rays name, logo and jersey is what everyone’s talking about though. The nostalgia will be off the charts when they take the field wearing those old school threads.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Yahoo Sports Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!