Are you a converted Rays fan?

Rays fans at the Trop have become accustomed to encountering fans of out-of-town teams, especially during games against the Yankees or at this week's series against the Red Sox. Even so, there's no question they're finding more Rays fans at this year's games than in the past.

Have you switched loyalties from the Red Sox — or some other team — to the Rays? Tell us why! E-mail Times staff writer John Barry with your story.

Comments

[Razzlegator]

Gee Darryl,
I thought being a REAL fan meant knowing something about the game itself. I guess blind loyalty is the true test.

[Darryl]

Just remember, Rays fan, just like everything else, baseball goes in cycles. So, when they start stinking again in a few years (because everybody does!) we'll see who the REAL Rays fans are.

[Don]

"Lifelong Rays fan"? How can a 40 yr old be a "lifelong Rays fan"???? You people crack me up.

[Darryl]

See, that's the difference between REAL fans and all of you johnny-come-lately fans - REAL fans NEVER give up their hometown teams, or the teams you grew up cheering for. I have been and always will be a Yankee fan - being from NYC, but I can certainly appreciate what the Rays are doing and commend them for it. What makes it hard to even appreciate the Rays is all the haters out there - many of whom probably never went to a Rays game before this year. Wonder how quickly the Trop will empty out if they have a 3 or 4 game losing streak! All of a sudden this year EVERYONE has been a "season-ticket holder since they started." Yeah, right. Whatever.

[~G~]

I am from New England and have been coming to St Pete on vacation every year since 2000. I moved to St Pete in 2005. I will be a Sox fan for life but I do enjoy watching the Rays and how far they have come along. As far as who I cheer for, the Sox first and then the Rays. All you Rays fans should take all this talk you are getting from the Sox fans as a compliment....they only waste their time talking about the teams that they feel threatened by! I just do everyone a favor and not "trash talk". I just love baseball and enjoy a great game! I was at the Trop last night cheering on my Sox but I sure didn't leave there disappointed....the Rays played amazing and the Sox made a great effort in the 9th. What a game! Can't wait for the next two!! To all the Rays fans....be proud....you have an awesome team!

[Mark]

I've been here all my life and I've always followed the rays! I watch around 80% of their games every year! they've always been my team through all the bad and good this year! I go to lots of games and I'll be there tonight for game 2!!!

GO RAYS!!!!!!!!!!

[MammaRays]

I've been a Rays fan and keeping up with them since they started. I live here, so they get my support. Actually, I live in Charlotte County, but that's okay too. We've been season ticket holders for 4 years now. To all the sox fans that make comments about your "winning" team, just remember...It won't take us as many years to win a World Series as it did the Red Sox. GO RAYS!!!

[Rob]

soxfan4life @ 12:34, You showed the typical Red Sox fan arrogance in your post. Thanks, it's fun to read. As for me, I grew up in St. Pete and liked the Reds (Pete Rose), then the Cubs (WGN-TV) but when we FINALLY got our own team, I got totally behind it and came to several games a year, driving 300 miles round trip from Gainesville. Go RAYS!

[Bodog]

Born in Norwalk, Conn., despised the Stankees and thought the diry Sox were despicable. Giants were my team until I moved to St. Petersburg a number of years ago. The Rays became my team in 1998. Go Rays!

[James]

I grew up in KY so I didn't have a major league team close. I was a huge Don Mattingly fan so I became a Yankees fan. I have been a Yankees fan for over 20 years. I moved to Florida last year and went to a couple of Yankees/Rays games. I saw how hard the Rays played and I started following them last year. I moved to St. Pete in January and I bought Rays season tickets. After the first few games I fell in love with this team and the way they played. They have heart and they play like they want to win. The Yankees haven't done that in a long time. I am not ashamed to say I converted to a Rays fan and it feels great to see them having success. Thanks to the owners for putting money back in this team and keeping the talent in Tampa Bay. GO RAYS!!!

[Razzlegator]

Sox
I'll work on the sensitivity thing.
There's no chance on the growing up thing.

[Neil]

The Rays winning could be a bad thing. I enjoyed going to the games and sitting wherever I wanted to sit at low ticket prices. Winning is going to mean more crowds, more traffic, and higher ticket prices. I want the Rays to lose again so I can enjoy a major league game with minor league prices.

[RaysFan202]

Been a Rays fan since 2004. Left the Yankees to follow Tino Martinez to the Rays. Stayed with the Rays! Originally from Massachusetts, we moved here over the winter to be closer to OUR RAYS! Want to see GOOD baseball, come to the Trop - THIS IS OUR HOUSE!!!

[Claudette]

This is to Rickey: Awesome comment..... The best it could possibly be. GO RAYS !!!

[sb]

i think the term "bandwagon fan" can be overused at times. many people have said that tampa bay sports fans are bandwagoners and only support the local teams when they win. when you look at teams like the red sox, yankees and cubs you first have to realise that these teams have been in existence for over a hundred years playing in cities that have very few transplanted residents. most people who live in boston are from boston. lets face it folks, native floridians like me are very rare, the majority of sports fans who live in the tampa bay area moved here from somewhere else and brought their alegences with them. when the bucs and lighting started winning, the crowds started growing, but i think they started growing not with bandwagon tampa bay natives, but with people from other cities who made the conversion to the home team.

[Sox]

Hey Razzlegator, don't be so sensitive. If you're going to call us Sox fans "bandwagoners," we're going to respond. If you make unprovoked attacks, you should expect retaliation. Grow up.

[Razzlegator]

Hey Sox,
Thank you for letting breath the same air as your exalted "Nation"

[Sox]

"The Red Sox bandwagon only started in late 90s, early 2000s. When they made the playoffs in '98, they were 9th in attendance.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/attend.shtml"

MLM, if you look at the big picture, you get a better sense of reality.

9th is their lowest attendance rank in franchise history, which dates back to 1901. And that's happened only twice. Granted, they were last in attendance when the AL had only 8 teams, but do you know when that was? 1921-1925!!! So it appears the Sox "bandwagon" started in about 1926.

In the last seven seasons in which the Sox had LOSING records (1997, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1987, 1983, 1981), they AVERAGED 27,000 fans per game.

Also, in the last 34 YEARS, they've averaged fewer than 20,000 fans per game ONLY ONCE.

How do you explain those numbers? It's simple really: Historically, Sox fans are among the most passionate and supportive fanbases in sports.

There's no bandwagoning. We've always been there.

[Hit Man]

Don Mattingly was my hero in the 80's and I suffered through many a losing season as a yanks fan. It wasn't until the Ray's inaugural season that I was able to see a big league game. Naturally, my first game was a yankee game. I was so disgusted by the attitude of the other yankee fans around me that I was ashamed to be seen in any type of yankee gear ever sense. I can understand having allegiance to your former home team, but to disrespect our home team in our stadium is inexcusable. The Rays stepping up this year is a wonderful thing. Those of us who have supported them along the way enjoy each sweet victory more than any fair weather fan could ever understand.

[Sabine Raanes]

I am so happy for the Rays. All the
time that I have been here since 1997
the Rays have been in the basement. I
think Joe Maddon is good for the Rays and I hope they win the championship.
Lets go Rays

[Brian]

I am a sort-of convert. I grew up watching the Cubs because they were nationally televised, then came the '94 strike. I boycotted MLB entirely, I compared it to feeling like a spouse cheating. When Tampa Bay got their team, I watched with one eye closed. I went to a game about six years ago, and became a moderate fan. Five years ago I moved to Maine, and the Red Sox fans were beyond obnoxious, embarrassingly so, which revived my old love for MLB (I decided to forgive them) and have been an ardent (Devil)Rays fan since, flying down for several games each year, and fighting "Red Sox Nation" daily. I will catch two series this year, plus hopefully a playoff game.

The saddest fact is the revisionist history of Sox fans. 1. They have, and I think always will have Yankee envy. 2. Like any other team, there was a small group die-hards, but the vast majority today are recent fans.

As a die-hard Tampa Bay fan (of all teams) I was glad when the bandwagoners came to the Bucs games (I remember when the tide turned and WE outnumbered Green Bay and Chicago fans) and will feel the same with the Rays. It is a perk of winning! It's what we want, it's electric when it happens, no need to complain.

[Heckler]

my wife has worked for the rays since the job fair they held at the bayfront center where she was hired so, we've been fans since then. i grew up in philly and a die hard phillies fan. but i've made the rays my AL team for obvious reasons. my son, however, is a die hard rays fan. grew up with them. he still has his canseco and boggs shirts. always hated to see sox and yanks fans cheering at the trop. so good not to see so many these days.

[Heckler]

my wife has worked for the rays since the job fair they held at the bayfront center where she was hired so, we've been fans since then. i grew up in philly and a die hard phillies fan. but i've made the rays my AL team for obvious reasons. my son, however, is a die hard rays fan. grew up with them. he still has his canseco and boggs shirts. always hated to see sox and yanks fans cheering at the trop. so good not to see so many these days.

[Razzlegator]

I was born at Mass. General (Cambridge, MA) in 1949. My parents were born and raised in New England, so I naturally and painfully followed the Red Sox like everyone else in my family. There’s no need to list all of the great collapses I witnessed through the years, as that is common knowledge to anyone who has even the slightest inkling of whom the Red Sox are. My epiphany came in 2004 when the Sox overcame the hated team from NY after being down 0-3. The World Series was anticlimactic for me. After that, the Sox fans at the Trop came to act more and more like the fans of that hated team from NY. Slowly but surely I came to hate going to Rays/Sox games as much as I hated going to Rays/Yankees games. That’s when I quit wearing my hat with the old English B and bought a Rays hat. This year I look forward to going to those games, for obvious reasons. Go Rays!!!

[mike from St. Louis]

I am not a bandwagon fan at all, but just the opposite. I was born and raised in Largo, grew up a die hard Orioles fan, but turned in my Oriole cap for a rays cap in 98'. I now live in St. Louis, but follow the Rays' every move. I have adopted the cardinals as somewhat of my national league favorite team, but there is no doubt I blead purple, then green, and Now its totally blue! Go rays!

[Rickey]

I bought a new Rays hat. My former favorite team was the Devil Rays

[mlm]

The Red Sox bandwagon only started in late 90s, early 2000s. When they made the playoffs in '98, they were 9th in attendance.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/attend.shtml
And Sawx fans, don't give me crap about your precious Fenway being small. There were still 5000 tickes left open per game.

[Joe]

St Pete Newbie...speak for yourself. I've been a Rays fan since 2003. I saw Josh Hamilton's last spring training at bat with the Rays before he went AWOL. Not everyone just recently jumped on the bandwagon.

[Joe]

I think it's funny that there are so many die hard fans of other teams living here in the Tampa area who have to begin to realize that their little Johnny is going to pick his own team and it probably won't be his dad's team. So even if your grandfather, your dad, and you are a Sox or Yankees fan, it's a good probability that Johnny is going to root for the Rays.

[St Pete Newbie]

Bill/sb

Totally agree. These people need to be brought up on child abuse charges.

[St Pete Newbie]

Hey Sox Fans,

I hate to break it to all of you, but many who claim to have been there through the bad times...simple weren't. You are currently riding the biggest bandwagon in MLB (if the Cubs win the series this year you will be the second biggest bandwagon).

[sb]

i totally agree with bill!! it's bad enough that someone chooses to move here and not support the home team, but it is even sadder still that this same person raises his child, who will probably grow up in this area, to root for a team that is hundreds or thousands of miles away. when the bucs and bolts won their respective championships, the bay area was electric with enthusiasm. i think that every child who lives in this region should be able to experience that for themselves.
as the late great chris thomas used to say,,, "there still is no unity in the community"

[Simon]

Definitely a Rays fan. Unless they are playing the Twins. Bucs come before anyone, including my alma mater and political party.

[Lisa]

I've liked the Rays since I moved here 3 years ago. I was a life long Yankees fan but it's important to root for the home team. Initially I liked the Rays because they were the underdogs. Now I like them because they're the underdogs at the top of their division and the best in baseball.

1,000+ miles from NY and I see the Yanks for what they are - overpaid, under performing, arrogant ball players when our guys are out there to be a team and accomplish a mission.

[Cubfan4life]

I will always be a Cub fan first and a supporter of the Rays second. No question about it. I am a fan through good times and bad unlike a lot of "bandwagoneers" out there. Its the same with the Bucs. When they were losing they could not fill the stadium with local fans but now that they are decent, the stadium is full. Fickle fans. Go Cubs! Go Bears!

[Rays fan from VA]

Hey Soxfan4life, why don't you go back to Boston if it's such a wonderful place? We don't need or want you here if you aren't going to support the area you live in. Of course there are new Rays fans, the team has only been around for a decade.

[Pete]

Its alot easier to be a sox fan for life since they have had teams that contended. Rays fans have never even known what its like to have a successful team so I can't blame people for just now starting to support them.

[Rob]

The reason the Sox have a fan base no matter how they are playing is because they have been playing for over a 100 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ryan Roark]

I was born & raised in the Tampa Bay area. I've been a fervent Rays fan from the beginning. Now, I'm proudly wearing my Rays cap in my new home of Richmond, Virginia. I'm sure people here think I'm a front-runner.

However, my strategy of keeping my old "Devil" Rays hats (both the rainbow one and the green / black one) have paid off. Very few front-runners would have the caps from when they were the worst club in baseball. So I proudly wear my old Rays caps around to show I'm a lifelong fan.

[Neil]

I am from Chicago, and I have been a life long Cubs and White Sox fan. Yes, I like both teams. I lived in Orlando a couple of years ago. I went to about 3 games. The drive from Orlando was sort of far to go to games on a regular basis. I really liked the cheap prices and free parking they had. I remember I had a coupon and my ticket was about eight dollars. My only complaint was the stadium sort of reminded me of a big wharehouse that happened to have a baseball field in the middle of it. I really think the new stadium is a great idea. But I am definitely a Rays fan, and I am happy to see them do well, I unfortunately will have to root for the White Sox if they play in the playoffs.

[flsportsfan83]

If you are a real fan of a team, you cant just switch because you moved to Tampa. Go Marlins.

[Bill]

I moved here in 1999 from St. Louis. It took about 3 years to slowly convert to the Rays 100%. I don't see how people that move to an area can't adopt that team......going to the games, reading the articles, seeing the players, etc. What bothers me the most is people who live her and make their kids be fans of another team.........how many times can little johnny red sox fans see the sox? Take your pride out of it if you want but don't force an out of town team on your kid......that's just wrong.

[Soxfan4life]

No way! I was born a Sox fan and I'll die a Sox fan. There are a lot of new Rays fans jumping on the wagon, but lets see if they're still there when the team isn't winning. That is the difference with the Sox...they've always had a huge fan base...no matter how they were playing. It is a special club to be a part of...but, unless you are a part of it, you really wouldn't understand.

[Mikey]

Converted Yanks fan here. Hate to be a bandwagoneer but I moved down here last summer, went to about 5 Rays games in August and September, and have been to about a half dozen this year. I just love the fire the team plays with and the team mentality. Reminds me of the '96 Yankees.

I live 10 minutes from the Trop in Gulfport. How can I not root for the home team?

[Mikey]

Converted Yanks fan here. Hate to be a bandwagoneer but I moved down here last summer, went to about 5 Rays games in August and September, and have been to about a half dozen this year. I just love the fire the team plays with and the team mentality. Reminds me of the '96 Yankees.

I live 10 minutes from the Trop in Gulfport. How can I not root for the home team?

[sevenyearhawk]

Actually I'm the opposite ...

I grew up in Kansas, so I was a Royals fan, though my interested in all of pro baseball waned after the strike.

I became a Rays fan when I moved to St Pete in 2001, then remained one after I moved back to KC in 2004.

I've already got my tickets for the series here at Kauffman Stadium.

GO RAYS!

[Dan]

I have also been a Mets fan my entire life growing up in the New England area. Since moving here in '94, I still root for the Mets but have also been a huge Rays fan. Since I live in the Tampa area, if it were to come down to a Rays/Mets series, I'd root, root, root for the home team.

[Rich]

I've been a Met's fan since I was a little kid and I'm still a huge Met's fan. Since the Rays have been around, they have always been my American League favorite. If it comes down to a Mets/Rays world series, I will have a problem then. I'll look at it as a good problem to have.

[Rich]

I've been a Met's fan since I was a little kid and I'm still a huge Met's fan. Since the Rays have been around, they have always been my American League favorite. If it comes down to a Mets/Rays world series, I will have a problem then. I'll look at it as a good problem to have.