Tampa Bay Rays fan represents the team Down Under

Tampabay.com reader Don Reed seemed to be the lone Tampa Bay Rays fan while living in Sydney, Australia with his girlfriend (now wife) Jodie. It was 2002, he says, "well before it was 'cool' to be a Rays fan," he says.

"I even played a bit of baseball in Australia (non-professionally of course) and I found myself having to explain very often to my teammates what the TB stood for as most had never heard of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Mostly on TV there, they would only see the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc. "

Read shares his tale of playing baseball in Australia: "What I was surprised to learn while in Australia is that they play organized baseball much like we play organized softball. In the city of Sydney, I played for a single club that had 7 different baseball teams, each playing varying degrees of competitive baseball. Within Sydney, there must have been at least 10 or so clubs with a number of teams each with players from all backgrounds and cultures. A few English, a few Aussies, a few Japanese players, Korean players. Our team even had a fellow from Venezuela.

"The highlight for me was that I hadn't played baseball in 20 some years and that I was so excited to play that I would play pretty much any position. I even introduced stats to the team (The North Sydney Bears) and through keeping stats, I believe it really motivated the team and we ended up going on to win the championship for our division. It was truly one of the best experiences in my life."

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