It has been exactly 19 years since the Tampa Bay Devil Rays took the field for their first regular season game.
On March 31st, 1998 at exactly 5:05 PM, Wilson Alvarez finished up with his warm up and Brian Hunter of the Detroit Tigers stepped into the batter’s box. Alvarez wound up and delivered the first pitch in franchise history — it was a ball.
...and with that, the Rays were officially a part of Major League Baseball.
Decades of hard work from an assortment of people had finally paid off as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were playing in a regular season game for the MLB and over 45,000 people were in attendance to see them play on that Tuesday night.
It was a rough game in terms of the actual on field action as the Rays quickly fell behind as the Tigers would put up 11 unanswered runs over the first five innings of play. Wilson Alvarez was out of the game by third inning and his replacement didn’t help matters much.
Finally in the 6th inning, Tampa native Wade Boggs gave his hometown crowd something to cheer about as he walloped a pitch into the bleachers in right field for the first homer in club history.
The Rays pitching recovered from the earlier onslaught to hold the Tigers scoreless over the final few innings, while the Rays tried to mount a rally in the final inning of play, scratching across four runs.
They’d ultimately lose the game 11-6 and en route to a 95-loss season, but it didn’t matter, Major League Baseball had finally come to Tampa Bay.