The attendance in the team's second year of existence was more than 30% below the league average (and almost 40% lower than it had been in the first year), and it went downhill from there. The attendance had dropped by almost 50% by the fourth year of the team's existence. Blaming poor attendance on 10+ years of bad ownership is simply untrue. Your ridiculous defensiveness doesn't strengthen your case any either.
i have lived in the tampa bay, st. pete area for about 25 years now, and while yes there are a lot of little league teams and fields, i still dont know if its a 'baseball town' [they can play all year down here, no snow] i have also been to over 20 football and baseball stadiums in my life, and the trop is by far the worst stadium i have ever been to, its just boring, no energy, a lot of old retired senoirs, the cat walk is an absolout joke, and others teams fans flood out the rays own fans
Yeah, it's not really that funny. If Sox fans can complain about ARod, I would think Crisp should be labelled a proper douchebag as well.
LOL as much as I hate Boston, this post made me LOL... Shields took a major whiff on Coco...Not even close.
I don't complain about Arod for the brawl. I thank him. That day was the turning point in the championship year. I don't like his slap, or the "I got it!". Stuff like that. Charging the mound doesn't bother me. And it's not the whole division, just the Rays and Yankees. The only problem with either of the other teams is Daniel Cabrera on the Orioles who throws 100 MPH at guys heads. Often. No brawls though because his own team says it's shitty. It all started with Bartlett being a scumbag, and then a pussy. He put his knee down on a steal attempt on Wednesday, and then refused to cover the bag and let Iwamura take his hit. It was funny, i was reading a baseball preview magazine that I leave in the bathroom for reading material and there was actually a quote from Joe Maddon about how he hated Bartlett because he always does that on steals. Then they hit Crisp even though they were even at that point, seeing as Bartlett started it and they had already hit Pedroia. Crisp shouldn't have charged the mound, but the Rays came out worse in this by far. After the normal catcher tackles the guy thing, THREE Rays players, Crawford, Iwamura, and that giant douchebag Gomes started throwing cheap shots at Crisp while he was pinned down by Navarro. Gomes also was scratching Crisp's face and Crawford was pulling his hair like little girls. This is an example of what I was talking about. Lack of experience. If you want to hit a guy, that was the totally wrong way to do it. I did gain respect for Shields for not throwing at him up, but the timing was terrible. Already down 3-0 in as close to a "must-win" game as you can have in June, your second best pitcher gets ejected? Wait until later in the game or the next series.
Okay, all fair enough. The only problem is, Crisp specifically called out to Maddon to not take it out on anyone else since he took matters into his own hands. Crisp admitted that. Given that, charging the mound was way off-base, and he deserved whatever he got after that. I don't condone fighting like a bitch, but Crisp deserved an ass-kicking. As far as ARod, I can't recall, and don't feel like going back to look, but weren't you one of the guys bitching about his slide on Pedroia last year? That was the situation I meant when comparing him to Crisp. (Maybe you weren't, but when I made the original comment I wasn't directing it specifically at you, but to all of "Sox Nation", who did generally bitch.) Don't get me wrong, I don't like the Rays, and I'm not trying to defend them. All I'm saying is that the Sox are far from innocent, and I can't exactly shed a tear when they get some backlash, and I can't forgive them for any of their douchebaggery, which they're really good at.
I only vaguely recall the Pedroia thing, but I THINK the issue was that he went in with his cleats at nutsack-level. Crisp's slide was hard but clean, like when you break up a double play. He didn't spike him or anything. And the reason he charged was that they had already hit Pedroia.
I don't have a problem with what Shields did (although the timing was stupid), nor do I have a big problem with what Coco did (although his timing was pretty stupid also). My problem is with that punk Jonny Gomes who, AGAIN, was the third man in (see Shelley Duncan brawl). Gomes sat on top of Navarro, who was holding Crisp down (properly), taking pot shots over the top. Punk. Also, Coco Crisp was an amateur boxer with 17 knockouts.
ARod didn't spike Pedroia either. He also didn't come in as high as everyone made it out to be. He curled his body into a sort of fetal position, but was on his back sliding, and his cleats came in high, more thanks to Pedroia's knees being bent. As for Crisp, I didn't see the slide, but he obviously felt guilty about it, since he specifically told Maddon not to take it out on anyone else since he did it on his own. I didn't know they had already hit Pedroia. At the same time though, the Sox like to throw at guys for no reason whatsoever, so you reap what you sow. Again, I'm not defending the Rays, since I think they're a shitty club anyway, but I can't find it in me to shed a tear for the Sox either. I'll agree with you there. Gomes is a bitchass, just like Matt Stairs.
lol, Boston Red Sox fans are trash, just like the Patriot fans, all trash. And you know what? Crisp tried to hurt Aki when he went into second base, I dont care that your a Red Sox fan, for you to actually say that was a clean slide, when the Red Sox were up by 4 or 5 runs, that shows how trashy you are, Crisp tried to hurt Aki Iwmura, no doubt about it. And Shields never threw the ball at the head of Crisp, he simply hit him with the ball, everyone knew Crisp had it coming to him, even Crisp himself, he just couldnt be a man about it and respect the game of baseball... He could of took 1st base, but instead he wanted to be a little tough guy about the whole situation. And I look @ it like this... If a player is going to charge the mound, he's asking for whatever happens. Teams play as a team and they also fight as a team, Gomes, Crawford and Navaro had every right to jump the crap outa Crisp in that situation, he deserved alot more than what he got. And how many Rays got hit by the Red Sox pitchers after the fight? 2 or 3? And one ball even went RIGHT BEHIND the back of Aybar, lmao, he was trying to hit him hard and guess what? The Sox pitcher never got thrown out, I guess thats what you can call it... "Playing in Boston"
You are so off base it's not even funny. Plus it's funny because the Rays always suck and yet the Sox and them have had such a heated rivalry. I'm not even sure where you get that Sox fans complain about A-Rod (regarding brawling seeing how this is the topic) anyway. You always reach for stuff that doesn't exist.
