Before Tampa Bay was a respected small-market machine, it was a punchline. Then a rookie third baseman showed up in 2008, hit a home run in his first postseason at-bat, and the Rays went to the World Series in the same season they dropped "Devil" from the name. Evan Longoria was the hinge. A Evan Longoria jersey — Longo, #3 — is the closest thing the franchise has to a founding document.
His catalog is unusually varied, because he played through Tampa Bay's entire uniform experimentation era. Here's what's out there and how to choose.
What #3 built in Tampa Bay
Longoria arrived in April 2008 and won Rookie of the Year on a team that had never finished above fourth in the AL East. That club went to the World Series. He followed it with three All-Star selections, three Gold Gloves, and a decade as the most reliable bat in a lineup that turned over constantly around him. The walk-off on Game 162 in 2011 — the one that completed the comeback from nine games back — is still the loudest moment in franchise history.
He finished his Rays run as the club leader in games, hits, home runs, and RBI. Whatever the Rays have become since, he's the reason there was something to build on.
The Longoria jersey lineup
Tampa Bay ran through more uniform ideas than almost any club in that stretch, and Longoria wore nearly all of them.
Rays grey road. The plain one, and genuinely underrated. Road grey with #3 works with anything, doesn't shout, and is the version you'll reach for most if you buy only one.
Dark blue. The core Rays navy — the most recognizable Tampa Bay look and the safest choice for a first jersey.
Black fashion alternate. Not a game uniform, but a good one. Black reads as a shirt rather than a costume when you wear it away from Tropicana Field, which is why it moves well with fans who want something wearable year-round.
2018 Players Weekend royal and yellow. Players Weekend jerseys put nicknames on the back, and Longoria's said LONGO. Bright, odd, and very much of its moment. People either love these or don't understand them.
Tampa Bay Rays #3 Evan Longoria Longo Majestic Royal-Light Yellow 2018 Players' Weekend Team Jersey
$69.95
Shop Now →2017 Little League Classic light blue and yellow. The single strangest jersey in the group and the most collectible for exactly that reason. One game, one template, a color pairing nobody would approve today.
1970s Turn Back the Clock dark blue. A throwback to a franchise that didn't exist in the 1970s, which is either absurd or delightful depending on your tolerance for baseball's sense of humor.
Choosing between them
- One jersey, no fuss? Dark blue, true to size.
- Something you'll actually wear off the field? Black fashion or road grey.
- Building a Rays collection? The Players Weekend and Little League Classic pieces. Limited-run templates don't come back, and those two are the ones people ask about.
- Going to the Trop? Blue. It's the crowd's color and the sightlines in that building are dim enough that lighter jerseys wash out.
Longoria's era overlaps almost exactly with the AL East arms race, which is why fans building a division set usually put him next to a David Ortiz Red Sox jersey from the same window. The modern division looks different — a Aaron Judge Yankees jersey or a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Blue Jays jersey covers the current side of the same rivalry.
Sizing
Rays jerseys from Longoria's era follow standard MLB templates, so ordering is straightforward. True to size gives you the normal fan fit: sleeves at mid-bicep, hem at the belt line, room for a tee underneath.
Size down one if you want to wear it buttoned as a shirt rather than open over a tee, or if you're between sizes and prefer a trimmer shoulder. Size up only for layering, which in Florida is rarely the issue — the Trop is air-conditioned, but you're not wearing a hoodie under a jersey in August.
The specialty templates — Players Weekend and Little League Classic — occasionally run slightly trimmer than the standard home and away cuts. On a size boundary with those two, take the larger.
Care
Inside out, cold water, gentle cycle, hang dry. No dryer. Heat curls the edges of stitched twill and, on the bright yellow and royal specialty jerseys, fades the saturated colors faster than anything else you can do to them.
The light blue and yellow Little League jersey deserves extra caution specifically because those colors show wear. Wash it less often than you think you need to, spot-clean where you can, and store it out of direct sunlight — a closet, not a display shelf by a window.
Wearing it
Navy Rays jersey, white tee, dark jeans. Done. The grey road version is the most flexible thing in the group and works over almost any color. For the Players Weekend royal-and-yellow, keep everything else neutral and let the jersey be the whole outfit — competing with it never works.
Start here
Dark blue if you want the definitive Longoria jersey. Black fashion if you want the one you'll wear most. The specialty pieces if you were there for that decade and want to keep a piece of it.
See the full lineup — Longoria, Arozarena, and the current roster — in the Tampa Bay Rays jersey collection. All stitched, fully licensed, shipping from Texas.
