Tip of the Cap to Tampa Bay

From a fan's point of view, I live and die with the Phillies.

As a cap collector, Tampa Bay is the gift that keeps on giving.

They redesigned their caps before they started to play!

In 1995, three years before they began play, they rolled out these caps for retail sales:

Horrible in my opinion and look like Minor league logos.

In their first year of play in MLB  (1998)they ended up wearing these on the field:

For me, animals and nicknames do not belong on a MLB cap.

But back to the focus of this post, to document some unique caps worn by the Rays over the years.

On 6/21/08 the Rays wore caps and uniforms of the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Baseball league.  This league only existed from 1989-90.

The cap on the far left is a game worn  cap that I purchased from one of the players from the Senior league.

The cap in the middle was worn by Scott Kazmir on 6/21/08 and has the MLB hologram certification.  It also has a Cooperstown Collection tag on the inside as well.

The cap on the right was purchased from the team store at Tropicana Field and has a Genuine Merchandise tag inside.

The "Brayser" cap debuted in 2010. 

Manager Joe Maddon designed plaid sport jackets for a road trip.

Players wore the caps on 09/29/10 in a 2-0 loss to Baltimore.

On  7/2/11, the Rays paid tribute to the 1951 Tampa Smokers.

The Smokers were a "B" level Minor league team of the Florida  International League.

It was a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Earth Day Cap

Worn on 4/21/12 for batting practice only at home vs. the Minnesota Twins.

This is my favorite "Turn Back the Clock" cap of all time.

On the left is the actual model that was first worn on the field on 6/30/12, again on 7/6/13, 6/21/14, and 6/27/15.

On the right, is the retail version that New Era sold to the public.

Tampa Bay did not begin play until 1998, but why can't they have a throwback?

Introduced on 8/10/14....the road version of the "Turn Back the Clock".

It was a 3-2 loss to the Cubs for the Rays.

As far as I know, this cap has not been worn since.

To honor the victims of the shooting at Orlando's Pulse night club, the Rays wore this cap on 6/17/16.

The Orlando Rays were the AA Minor League affiliate from 1999-2003.

This cap would get my vote as "Cap of the Year" for 2016.