Tampa Bay Rays fans (bandwagoners).
They exist?
Where did they come from?
Oh that's right in 2008, 10 years after the club was established, which was also the same time the Arizona Diamondbacks joined Major League Baseball to bring the total to 30 teams (14 American League, 16 National League).
Hey Rays fans your team all of a sudden became good after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007. I mean, it was only of a matter of time since you sucked for so long, having the top draft picks and choosing wisely since 1998.
But do these so called 'fans' actually know the history of their ball club?
The past few nights at the newspaper I work for, we had some interesting conversations about how pathetic Rays fans are.
The attendance at Tropicana Field is an absolute joke. Last night against the Toronto Blue Jays there was a total of 11,968 people who came out to support their first place team.
Tampa Bay is amidst a playoff race with New York for divisional bragging rights and they can't even get half of the stadium full? The capacity is 45,000 and was actually reduced from 48,000 before the Devil Rays were established according to ballparksofbaseball.com.
When the Red Sox visited this past weekend for a three-game series the highest attendance mark was 36,973 ("sellout") for game 2. The lowest was on Friday (29,461).
The only other time the stadium reached the 36,973 plateau was when the Yankees flew down from July 30-Aug. 1 and prior to that the biggest crowd was on opening day against the Baltimore Orioles.
Hey Rays fans? Just because the Red Sox and Yankees aren't in town, doesn't mean you shouldn't try to support your playoff potential team. I mean they are still currently tied for first in the AL East and have a good chance to go deep into the playoffs.
And that's the easy part, just showing up to games. Here's the more difficult, complex aspect of being a 'fan.' Knowing about your team, present and past.
I can say, that Red Sox and Yankees fans that know about the enriched history of their team. And of course there are fans that know nothing. But what's the percentage of Tampa Bay fans that can name five players from the 1998 team?
And don't even say Wade Boggs.
Ok how about just three? Give up? Using Goggle or Bing search engines don't count either.
Who was the original manager? No, it wasn't Lou Piniella.
Here's an interesting tidbit. Back to the D'backs; they have been in the league the same amount of time as the Rays and already have a World Series ring under their belt (2001 over the Yankees).
They also have a better all-time record.
Arizona: 1,023 wins, 1,053 losses, .493 winning percentage
Tampa Bay: 907 wins, 1,165 losses, .438 winning percentage
In fact, Tampa has the lowest all-time winning percentage of any of the other 29 teams.
The sad truth is, if Tampa Bay can't win it all this year, its chances will dramatically become lower with a lot of free agents and contract and payroll issues. Someone has to go and it'll either be Carlos Pena or Carl Crawford.
Pena is the highest paid player on the team at 10,125,000, followed by Crawford ($10 million) of Tampa's $72,323,471, 19th in the MLB.
This season is the best chance to win anything so why don't you show your appreciation?
Or not.
So Rays fans, before you decide to get all pissed off from this post (if there are actually any real fans readying this) think twice about all of those listed references.
Original players.
Original manager.
Selling out your ballpark five times a season out of 82 home games.
Knowing about baseball?
Get back to me if you think you are the only true Rays fan out there and why. Proof would be original Tampa Bay Devil Rays T-shirts, hats, 1998 ticket stubs, and Fred McGriff figures.
Maybe someone from DRaysBay.com - For Tampa Bay Rays Fan?
