And so we, the Rays fan,  play the waiting game until spring training or the first pitch of the 2010 regular season. What are we to do? If you are RJ you will probably develop some formula to explain why a knuckle ball indeed knuckles or if you are me you will start a series poll questions to ask who was the greatest Ray or Devil Ray ever to wear that jersey number... to date. From now until Spring Training I will go from 99 until one with a series of votes to try to get the Rays fans, and trolls, opinions on who was the greatest to ever wear that particular number. Now, the only rule I have is I will not mention any number that a player wore in SPRING TRAINING, so let's not start the Roberto Alomar debates.

There are some numbers that shall be uncontested, like :

# 98- Jae Seo

# 97- Joe Beimel

# 80- Julio Santana

# 71- Damian Rolls

# 68- Ruddy Lugo

# 63- Jim "The Rookie" Morris.

#62- Jeff Sparks 

# 42- Jackie Robinson (Retired by MLB, various players have worn "42" for Jackie Robinson Day)

#12- Wade Boggs (Retired)

So today we discuss: # 61

The Candidates: Travis Phelps(2001-2002), Mickey Calloway (1999, 2001)

Travis Phelps was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 89th round in 1996 and made his debut in 2001. Phelps went on to pitch in 75 games and had 3-4 record with a 3.97 ERA.

Mickey Calloway was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 7th round in 1996 and made his debut in 1999. Calloway went on to pitch in 7 games in his days in the D-Rays and earned a ERA of 7.40. But he only wore the number 61 for his first season, 1999, where he pitched in 3 games where he accumulated a 7.45 ERA.

So, I turn to you Rays fans. Who was, to date, the greatest players to wear #61?