8, 2007, the club announced that they were dropping the "Devil" part in order to identify themselves primarily with the rays of the sun, Florida being the Sunshine State, and their redesigned logo reflects that theme. As noted in the MLB article the club stated that they would continue using the manta ray patch as an acknowledgment of their previous identity – a feature easily visible on their uniforms in the super-closeups used by television in the 2008 World Series, as the former league doormats turned into the American League's champion team in 2008. The club would also retain its furry mascot, called "Raymond", strictly for humorous reasons, as that name has no etymological connection to either the old or the new usage of "ray". Toronto The original minor league club in Toronto was the Toronto Maple Leafs, which operated from 1896 through 1967 in the International League. The National Hockey League club renamed itself the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927 and has been known by that name ever since. Toronto Blue Jays By the time the American League expanded to Toronto in 1977, the NHL club's strong identification as the Maple Leafs precluded any chance of reviving that name for the baseball team. The Toronto franchise was originally owned by Labatt Breweries, with Imperial Trust and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as minority owners. The name Toronto Blue Jays came about when former Ontario Premier John Robarts, a member of the team's board of directors, started talking about a morning routine: "I was shaving this morning and I saw a blue jay out my window." "Blue" was also the top-selling brand of beer sold by Labatt's, providing an on-air opportunity for TV commentators to take a microscopic pause when saying "You're watching Labatt's Blue...Jays baseball on CBC." The short form "Jays" has been used extensively for much of the team's history. Coincidentally, the nickname "Blue Jays" was used briefly by the Philadelphia Phillies (the team that Toronto beat in the 1993 World Series), from 1944 to 1945. Washington, D.C. Baseball clubs in Washington, D.C. have been known by a variety of nicknames since the first professional teams appeared in 1870. One team was called the "Olympics", another was called the "Nationals". Both of those names persisted through the 1870s. Later teams in the 19th Century were called the "Nationals" and also obvious other Capital City nicknames such as