First off, is there a genuine Rays fan on the planet? Over the entire history of the team, I would say more than half of their yearly attendance was represented by fans of Tampa's opponents. It's well-publicized that Red Sox and Yankee fans sell out that shit stadium Tampa plays in, but, when Detroit, Toronto, Baltimore and Cleveland come to town, they may not sell out the stadium, but, the majority of fans are there not to see the Rays, but to see who they are playing against. That's true even this year until August when the bandwagon started to get going...Even then, last Friday night when Minnesota was in town, another playoff team, on a Friday night, Tampa drew 28,000 fans....In the middle of a pennant race they drew what Detroit or Cleveland (two teams who have been out of the race for months) draw on a weeknight.
I saw the Rays twice this year in person. Before the game I go and watch BP, and I'm curious to see if a team is friendly with the fans, even on the road. In 2006 when the Tigers were making a similar dream run, I saw Detroit play over 10 times, and every single time I was blown away by how much they signed autographs as a team. EVERYONE signed for the Tigers at some point when I saw them. In Pittsburgh, I swear 20 of the 25 man roster signed.
Tampa in 2008? A joke. Not only do they not sign, they are absolute assholes, every single one of them, with the exception of Evan Longoria, Scott Kazmir and Grant Balfour. Carlos Pena, B.J Upton and Carl Crawford not only didn't sign, but were arrogant and Upton did the "I'll catch ya on the way back" to a kid, and never did catch him on the way back. The kid had this amazingly hand-drawn sketch of Upton that he did himself. Upton saw it, he looked right at it, yet couldn't even sign this kid's hard work. I was at the first game of the series and the last, and the drawing went un-signed.
Anyways, who the FUCK is B.J Upton??? In Toronto earlier this year, Chipper Jones signed for a half hour. He was engaging and talked to the fans as he signed. BJ Upton will never be a tenth of the player that Chipper is...but apparently in his head, Upton is Hank fucking Aaron.
And Carlos Pena?????? There is not a more arrogant player in the league, and I'm including my boy Gary Sheffield in on this...At least Sheff has hall-of-fame numbers. YOU'RE CARLOS PENA -- THE ONLY REASON YOU ARE IN THE MAJORS IS BECAUSE YOU SIGNED WITH TAMPA. You feed on bad pitching and mistakes, and in the playoffs you're not going to see Brian Bruney or Freddy Dolsi, you're going to see great pitching and your .247 is going to be .147.
The Rays are a team of temperamental, young, arrogant assholes. I'd love to root for them, but (and this is hard to say) I am pulling for the Twins in the AL in these playoffs. The Rays fundamentally are a good story, but underneath the cute little young team that could lies a squad full of pricks. The Twins are an even better story, with players who are a lot more fun to watch and easier to root for.
Carlos Gomez is going to become a superstar if the Twins make the playoffs.
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