Rays to Honor U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 by Wearing Commemorative T-Shirts on Flight to Baltimore

by Jill Seward on Thu, May 5, 2011 at 8:24PM

Teams across the United States planned special tribute ceremonies to honor the U.S. armed forces that planned and carried out the mission that successfully tracked and killed Osama bin Laden. Now, the Tampa Bay Rays are taking their tribute to another level.

The Rays will honor the U.S. Navy Seal Team 6 by wearing commemorative T-shirts on their Thursday night flight from Tampa to Baltimore, Tampa Bay Online reports. Team 6, of course, is the special unit responsible for tracking and killing bin Laden on Sunday in Pakistan.

'[It's] a tribute to their teamwork that enabled them to carry out the mission that they did several days ago," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Teamwork being involved in what we do on a daily basis, what you see the Lightning doing right now, what you see the Bucs do and you see our military do.

"The military is such a big part of our community. It's such a tribute to them and their training and their attitude and the difficult odds they're working against all the time. And look what it's done for the country right now. It's really picked everybody up, everybody's got that good feeling about themselves right now, which is very contagious, so it's a tribute to the Navy Seal Team 6 and all the teams out there."

The Rays will also be wearing Tampa Bay Lightning hats on their trip in support of their journey to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lightning completed their sweep of the top-ranked Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

The Team 6 commemorative T-shirts were printed by Treasure Island Tees, check out the design below.