Oh yeah, I been saying the Rays would be great all offseason over @ JN but I was banned from the Gang Green for a while, but Im back, I love this site. We had the best record in the Spring, not that it means much, but it does mean that this team has been hungry to win for a long time, spring training or not. This team will be serious all year for two reasons, Tough pitching and great defense. Evan Longoria is a future gold glover over @ 3rd base, he's only 22 and plays the Hot Spot like a proven veteran. Aki Iwimura was a Superstar over in Japan, before the Rays, as a kid, I was a huge fan of the Cubs while I played little league baseball because of Ryan Sandberg, I myself played 2nd base and in Tampa Bay, St.Pete, we would get the WGN Station back in the day so before the Rays came to St.Pete, we never had a team. All in all, Aki plays 2nd base a little better than Ryan Sandberg, which is simply amazing. Jason Bartlett... Man, this kid is young and can cover ALOT of range in the infield, he is by far... The best DEFENSIVE shortstop in the East, this kid can play. Carlos Pena... Hands down, other than maybe Lee from Chicago, this guy is one of the best defensive 1st basemen in the game today, NOTHING gets pase Pena, its fun to watch. In Left Field we have Carl Crawford, wow... Hes on ESPN just about every night, this guy can play the outfield with the best of em and I cant think of a left fielder who plays the position better than Carl. In Center we have B.J Upton, man... He is learning that position and playing it great. It looks like this Rays team has a center fielder for years to come. And our pitching is lights out with Kazmir Shields Garza Jackson Sonnanstine Just wait untill David Price joins the rotation by August, this kid is a baseball phenom when it comes to pitching All in all, I can go on and on, 13 games over .500, 1st place in the East, its exciting
Thats what you think because that what you hear. On saturday, over 35,000+ came to see the Rays On Sunday, over 25,000 Came to see the Rays play. These Rays fans has had an owner and a front office that was NEVER committed to winning for over 10 years, never committed to signing free agents who could help the team (Wade Boggs, Fred McGriff, Greg Vaugn, Jose Canseco) Are you kidding me? Never committed to keeping our younger players and never even committed to having the Rays play in a real ballpark! The Trop was built way before the Rays ever played baseball, it was built for hockey and the Rays were just stuck inside of the Trop. The Devil-Rays and previous owners were the laughing stock of Sports, not just baseball, the Owners never cared about the team OR the fans, they were all about the $ and believe me, they made alot of it off of us. We have had a new owner and a brand new front office for LESS THAN TWO years now, can you tell? hahah, Rays fans can. This front office is COMMITTED to winning baseball, they are committed to signing free agents who can actually help the club win ball games (Carlos Pena, Cliff Floyd, Erick Hinske, Dan Wheeler, Troy Percival and even players like Gabe Gross) THey are COMMITTED to keeping the younger players with great potential (Last year they signed Carlos Pena and James Shields long term) This year they have already signed Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Kazmir and are working on getting B.J Upton signed long term, it will happen. This Front office, in less than two years has also made some great trades, for example... Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett for Delmon Young who had a horrible attitude, on and off the field. Lets not forget that this Rays team will be leaving the Trop and playing in one of the best looking baseball fields in the game today, the new Waterfront ballpark, its amazing... This new Front Office is also Committed to having this Rays team play in a great park infront of great fans by 2012. I can go on and on, we are in 1st place and 13 games above .500 because of the new owner and front office, if not for them, the Rays would still be the laughing stock of the league. They also took the name "Devil" Out of the Rays because they wanted to erase the past from the sorry owners we as fans use to have, and they have done a great job. We as fans, cant wait for tonight, when the Rays pick #1 in the draft So dont even think about saying a "Few Dozen fans" Because even when we were losing for 10+ Seasons, the Rays fans still came out to the games 12,000 strong each and every night. Now we are getting up to 30,000. Its gonna take more than 50 good games to erase 10 years or laughing stock basball
They are averaging 18,000 a game which is good for 3rd orst in the league so rays fever isn't exactly catching on. If they remain in contention I'd expect attendance #s to go up the rest of the way but so far it hasn't been good. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
I'm happy for the rays and their fanbase, it's about time they put a decent show out on the field. Plus, I'll pull for any team Cliff Floyd's a part of, that guy is such a class act. Plus, anyone who can beat on the Yanks and Sawx is okay in my book :up:
Thanks for saving me the effort of looking this up, since I knew the numbers were something like that. The Rays want to build a new stadium at the site of Al Lang Field. If they don't do that, they will never be successful; even if they do it's still a questionable proposition.
Your first sentence I agree w/ although TB doesn't have much of a fanbase. Cliff is a class act and it's good for baseball when teams like TB finally start winning. I think they'll probably fall short this year but in the coming years if they can keep that team together watch out.
Don't get too excited about the new stadium just yet...none of the rich people in town want it...so it most likely won't happen.
18,000 is alot better than the 11-12,000 that they have averaged in years past... Thats over 6,000 more fans per game, you do the math Oh yeah... And Rays fever isnt catching on? Then what was 35,000+ on Saturday? and then 25,000+ on Sunday? It will take more than 50 good games to makeup 11 years of losing baseball by a horrible owner who never cared about the fans. Something you would know nothing about
Less than 200 people dont want it to happen in the area, those are the ones making a huge fuss about it (They also were the same people against the Trop for hockey) all none baseball fans, guess what? The Trop is here today right? Over 20,000 people are supporting this new waterfront ball park... Its gonna happen, 100%
They need the waterfront ballpark. The Marlins missed out on their waterfront stadium, settling for the old orange bowl site.
Until I see proof that this ballpark will bring money to St. Pete, I'm fully against it. Baseball sucks and the TB owners are full of shit. First they said it wasn't going to cost us any money...then they unveil the plan in which they want the tax payments extended for another 30 years. Yeah, a fine bit of double-speak...we're not raising the annual payments, they say, we just want them to be promised for an extra 30 years. If that isn't more money, than I'm a fuckin Jamaican. Wankers!
Actually, they've never averaged as few as 11,000-12,000 per year. Here are the annual per game attendance figures for 1998 through 2007: 30,942 21,601 18,008 16,026 13,158 13,070 16,139 14,052 16,901 17,148 The precipitous drop within two years can't be blamed on ownership. The attendance has gone up steadily since 2005, but it still isn't that much higher this year than it was last year, and if they drop out of contention it will no doubt drop. The St. Petersburg Times had an article in it a week ago with the headline "Rays' attendance not riding wave of euphoria just yet," so not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon just yet. By the way, everyone in this thread has been positive about the Rays' success this year - why are your reactions so defensive and hostile?
Did you forget that the Rays play at 7:00 PM? Did you forget that we are born and raised in Florida, and we dont mind a little heat, its called getting outside once in a while. Did you forget that the Bucs play at 1:00 and 4:00 on Sundays? What about the Marlins down in Miami? Or the Diamondbacks in AZ? How about the Braves in ATL? These teams play at 7:00, not noon
So you are saying that everyone who goes to Rays games were born and raised in FL? I would be willing to bet that 80% of the fans at the Trop were not born in FL
If they can keep them all signed, Kazmir-Shields-Garza-Price-Jackson/one of their other top pitching prospects like McGee is going to be an unbelievable rotation in the future.
