Spring Break
Don't be That Guy Part 2: A Rays Fan
Chris Frappier
Issue date: 10/24/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
10/24/08 - This October, Americans are watching the second lowest paid team in baseball play the losingest team in MLB history. Just 10 seasons from becoming an expansion team, the Rays have actually put together a decent team. To the Phillies credit, I think they deserve to win this series just so their fans can stop whining. Personally I don't care about the Rays "fans" because to me, they don't exist.
To start off, expansion teams are the whipping boys of professional sports, they have a late start compared to other teams. What is baffling however is that people can call themselves fans of these teams. Choosing a professional team to root for is a tradition. This is something that should passed down from father to son, or at least kept in the family. The only exception to that is how in the mid '90s almost everyone was a Mariners fan just because of Ken Griffey Jr. regardless of the fact that our 8-year-old selves could not name any other players on the team. The Rays simply do not have that kind of star power, and never have had since their inception.
Another way that we can see that the Rays have no fans is the fact that their stadium almost never sells out, and only comes close to doing so when the Red Sox are visiting. Speaking of their stadium, it is the most sorry excuse for a professional arena that I have ever encountered. What baseball stadium doesn't have a separate bullpen? My little league baseball field had a bullpen, not that chintzy bench in the foul ball territory.
Another qualm with the Rays is that their stadium is domed in. The Rays play in one of the best climates that can be found in North America and they play inside like a bunch of computer nerds. Most baseball teams north of the Mason-Dixo line don't have domes and it actually gets cold up here! A little rain never hurt anyone, so just join the rest of America and wait it out.
On to the "fans," if you can even call them that. It's easy to tell a Rays "fan" because they Rays were just renamed this year. For the last nine seasons they had were the Devil Rays, and had a tropical logo with their namesake animal on it. So even though they are now selling out games in the playoffs, it's a hollow victory because these bandwagon fans will stop going to the games once the Rays fall back into a pit of mediocrity.
To the handful of people in Tampa that may actually be fans: stop with the cowbells already. Only one man can demand respect with a cowbell, and that is Christopher Walken. I promise you, he is not a Rays fan. There is also one fan that brings a horn of some sort to the games. If I meet this person, I'll have to strongly suppress the urge to forcibly plant that horn down his or her throat.
Mohawks. We get it, your team is edgy and young so you grew playoff mohawks. Real baseball players grow a beard or don't wash their jock strap until they win. So in closing, go Phillies.
To start off, expansion teams are the whipping boys of professional sports, they have a late start compared to other teams. What is baffling however is that people can call themselves fans of these teams. Choosing a professional team to root for is a tradition. This is something that should passed down from father to son, or at least kept in the family. The only exception to that is how in the mid '90s almost everyone was a Mariners fan just because of Ken Griffey Jr. regardless of the fact that our 8-year-old selves could not name any other players on the team. The Rays simply do not have that kind of star power, and never have had since their inception.
Another way that we can see that the Rays have no fans is the fact that their stadium almost never sells out, and only comes close to doing so when the Red Sox are visiting. Speaking of their stadium, it is the most sorry excuse for a professional arena that I have ever encountered. What baseball stadium doesn't have a separate bullpen? My little league baseball field had a bullpen, not that chintzy bench in the foul ball territory.
Another qualm with the Rays is that their stadium is domed in. The Rays play in one of the best climates that can be found in North America and they play inside like a bunch of computer nerds. Most baseball teams north of the Mason-Dixo line don't have domes and it actually gets cold up here! A little rain never hurt anyone, so just join the rest of America and wait it out.
On to the "fans," if you can even call them that. It's easy to tell a Rays "fan" because they Rays were just renamed this year. For the last nine seasons they had were the Devil Rays, and had a tropical logo with their namesake animal on it. So even though they are now selling out games in the playoffs, it's a hollow victory because these bandwagon fans will stop going to the games once the Rays fall back into a pit of mediocrity.
To the handful of people in Tampa that may actually be fans: stop with the cowbells already. Only one man can demand respect with a cowbell, and that is Christopher Walken. I promise you, he is not a Rays fan. There is also one fan that brings a horn of some sort to the games. If I meet this person, I'll have to strongly suppress the urge to forcibly plant that horn down his or her throat.
Mohawks. We get it, your team is edgy and young so you grew playoff mohawks. Real baseball players grow a beard or don't wash their jock strap until they win. So in closing, go Phillies.
