Tampa Bay Rays Wearing “O” Cap for Orlando on Tuesday

The Tampa Bay Rays will be paying tribute to their last-minute, temporary Spring Training home with a special throwback “O” cap.

For today’s exhibition contest against the New York Yankees at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in the Walt Disney World Resort, the Rays will wear a black cap bearing the logo of the Orlando Rays, a minor league club which served as the then-named Tampa Bay Devil Rays Double-A affiliate from 1997 until 2003. The Orlando Rays spent their final four seasons playing at this same complex.

The Orlando Rays played in the Double-A Southern League from 1997 to 2003

Tampa Bay has been forced into spending the first two weeks of Spring Training in Orlando due to hurricane damage sustained at their usual spring home in Port Charlotte; the Rays will shift to their regular season home of St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field for the rest of their Spring schedule following today’s game.

The cap being worn today shows the Orlando Rays logo as it appeared until the 2000 season, the blue-to-green-to-yellow gradient within an “O” with the ray swimming past, a black crown with a green visor and button.

***The Rays have been training at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex thus far in 2023***

The Tampa Bay Rays had previously donned the Orlando Rays cap for a regular season game on June 17, 2016, in honour of those many lives lost during the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting.

Game-worn caps from today’s game will be signed and authenticated before being auctioned off to support the Rays Baseball Foundation, retail versions of the caps as well as other Orlando Rays-branded merchandise, are available now at The Bay Republic.

The Tampa Bay Rays previously wore Orlando Rays caps during a regular season game on June 17, 2016, following the Pulse Nightclub shooting. pic.twitter.com/ixMykDrSMF
— SportsLogos.Net (@sportslogosnet) February 28, 2023