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[usfmattb]

Wow, there are a lot of haters on this board....Go Rays and Go Bulls!!! Like someone said previously, the Angels will probably decide to play on Thursday anyways because it benefits them with their deep rotation. This will probably be a non issue. Now if thats the case, I need to somehow take my Wednesday night test on a different day!

[jd77]

Jd,

I am going to rag them, because when the day coms that the Rays have a tough year again, they'll be jumping ship.

I'm a huge Rays fan, however, now that they're winning,. I'm not gonna front like I'm superfan whose been on the edge of my seat since 98.

I +")'4?lt be so pissed about this if we had over 20000 for a big game against the Twins lst tuesday, but we didn't.

People are now wanting to be a part of a sepecial team because now it seems important to them...

I could go on. However, it sickens me that people are throwing their Bulls fandom to the rear simply to be at the first Rays playoff game. Not because they wanna see the Rays win, but because it's he first game.

There are 6 home games, 6, a loss that night could mean the Big East, a loss to the Rays will mean they will have to bounce back Friday.

The Yankees only averaged 26K fans per game as recently as 1996. So the Rays averaging just under 23K when you compare the market sizes and the age of the teams, means we outdrew the Yankees on a per capita basis in our first year of being competetive vs the Yankees first year back from the abyss.

The Red Sox were barely drawing 8K fans in the 60's and the ownere was considering moving the team due to lack of support. 

When you put a poor product on the field for a prolonged period of time in any market, people won't go.

The Rays had 30K plus at virtually every weekend game since May.  That same Twins series you are talking abuot was completely sold out on Saturday and Sunday. 

I haven't been on the edge of my seat since 1998, because I didn't live here yet. But I moved here in 2001 and in 2002 when we bought a house and decided this was our home, I have been on the edge of my seat for every Rays, Lightning, and Bucs game since.  I have been on the edge of my seat for USF games since 2001 because that is when I started taking classes there.  I became a Bulls fan right away because that was my school.  The pro teams took me a year to convert.

[BULL-UT]

The Rays are a great embassador fro the Tampa Bay community.  They have put this area in the national spotlight on a nightly basis for almost 6 months now.  If you live here and still aren't on board with them, then you don't deserve to live here.  Move back to whatever town you feel is so far superior.  I am a transplant myself, and people with that attitude drive me insane. 

I don't see why people feel the need to tell others who to root for.  If you want to be a Rays fan, go ahead.  But just because people live here does not mean they have to give up being a true fan to support the home town team.  Tell me, if you move out of Tampa, will you stop supporting the Rays?

That's exactly the point.  I would NEVER leave Tampa.  I moved here by choice, why would I move?  For a job?  No thanks.  You could offer me 2x my salary and it would not be worth leaving for me.

Keith Primeau of the Flyers illustrated it perfectly during the Lightning/Flyers Eastern Conference Finals a few years back.  It was the afternoon before one of the games and people were already outside the Forum trying to get autographs, etc.  Primeau was out there signing for Bolts fans. Then this guy decked out in Flyers gear comes running up screaming "Lightning Suck!" and basically pushing his way to the front of the line.  Primeau called the guy out and was like have some respect man.  What part of the Philly area do you live in anyway? The guy was like I actually live here in Tampa, have for 10 years or so.  And Primeau jumped all over him.  He said that he needed to respect this team and the fans of this team and that the Lightning players are in this building busting their butts 41 nights a year for the people of this city.  He told him the Flyers have plenty of fans in Philadelphia thank you very much and refused to sign his stuff.   It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen and wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

If you live in Tampa and the Yankees or Red Sox win the World Series, what does that do for you? Nothing. The city the team plays in gets all the publicity, not the city you live in.  There is a parade there, not here.  It has nothing to do with you and benefits you in no way.  Its basically like watching a game show and getting excited because someone on TV just won $1 million.

If the local teams do well, it brings the community together. For a market like Tampa it gives us much needed national and world wide exposure.  The players are actually a part of the community and share their success with you.  They live here. They are your neighbors. Their kids go to school with your kids, etc.

You can root for who you want to, but just realize you look like an idiot with your Florida license plate and NY Yankees license cover.  You are an embarrassment to this community.  You basically are sticking your middle finger up to the entire Tampa Bay area and saying I am not a part of this community, I am better than you because 30 years ago I was born somewhere else.  Its assinine. Just ask the actual players on the teams how they feel about it.

not unless its spring training then the yanks do  >

[GoBulls84]

The Rays are a great embassador fro the Tampa Bay community.  They have put this area in the national spotlight on a nightly basis for almost 6 months now.  If you live here and still aren't on board with them, then you don't deserve to live here.  Move back to whatever town you feel is so far superior.  I am a transplant myself, and people with that attitude drive me insane. 

I don't see why people feel the need to tell others who to root for.  If you want to be a Rays fan, go ahead.  But just because people live here does not mean they have to give up being a true fan to support the home town team.  Tell me, if you move out of Tampa, will you stop supporting the Rays?

If you live in Tampa and the Yankees or Red Sox win the World Series, what does that do for you? Nothing. The city the team plays in gets all the publicity, not the city you live in.  There is a parade there, not here.  It has nothing to do with you and benefits you in no way.  Its basically like watching a game show and getting excited because someone on TV just won $1 million.

This is ****** stupid. So I'm only supposed to root for a team so I have the chance to go to the parade? I've been a Sox fan since the day I was born. The Sox have been in my family since at least my grandfather was born in the 30's. And I'm not supposed to get anything out of them winning the series in 04 because it's Boston that gets the publicity and parade. Absolutely not. I was overjoyed because for the first time in my grandfather's life, he got to see the Sox win the title (mind you just 2 years before he passed on). I was happy for him, and the rest of my family that has been rooting for the Sox for their entire lives and never got to see a title. You don't just get joy out of being in the city the team who won plays in. You get joy out of the entire season long journey. You get joy out of all the ups and downs over the years. I may not be from Boston, but the Sox title in '04 brought me more happiness than anything any of my other teams had done to that point (although being @ Auburn last year gave it a run). So it benefitted me plenty.

[whiskeyboarder]

That's exactly the point.  I would NEVER leave Tampa.  I moved here by choice, why would I move?  For a job?  No thanks.  You could offer me 2x my salary and it would not be worth leaving for me.

Keith Primeau of the Flyers illustrated it perfectly during the Lightning/Flyers Eastern Conference Finals a few years back.  It was the afternoon before one of the games and people were already outside the Forum trying to get autographs, etc.  Primeau was out there signing for Bolts fans. Then this guy decked out in Flyers gear comes running up screaming "Lightning Suck!" and basically pushing his way to the front of the line.  Primeau called the guy out and was like have some respect man.  What part of the Philly area do you live in anyway? The guy was like I actually live here in Tampa, have for 10 years or so.  And Primeau jumped all over him.  He said that he needed to respect this team and the fans of this team and that the Lightning players are in this building busting their butts 41 nights a year for the people of this city.  He told him the Flyers have plenty of fans in Philadelphia thank you very much and refused to sign his stuff.   It was one of the craziest things I have ever seen and wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

If you live in Tampa and the Yankees or Red Sox win the World Series, what does that do for you? Nothing. The city the team plays in gets all the publicity, not the city you live in.  There is a parade there, not here.  It has nothing to do with you and benefits you in no way.  Its basically like watching a game show and getting excited because someone on TV just won $1 million.

If the local teams do well, it brings the community together. For a market like Tampa it gives us much needed national and world wide exposure.  The players are actually a part of the community and share their success with you.  They live here. They are your neighbors. Their kids go to school with your kids, etc.

You can root for who you want to, but just realize you look like an idiot with your Florida license plate and NY Yankees license cover.  You are an embarrassment to this community.  You basically are sticking your middle finger up to the entire Tampa Bay area and saying I am not a part of this community, I am better than you because 30 years ago I was born somewhere else.  Its assinine. Just ask the actual players on the teams how they feel about it.

While your points are well taken, they would hold much more water had you thought them all the way through before posting.

Consider, for example, that you are posting on a college message board.  By the very nature of this being a college forum, there are going to be contributors whom live in the area because of the school and not because they are particularly fond of Tampa Bay.  While you would never choose to leave Tampa Bay, some of us would.  And while I, for example, am enjoying my time here (more because of my university experience and much less because of what greater Tampa Bay has to offer), I look forward to graduating in the spring and returning north.  I moved here after being in the military to take care of disabled parents in retirement.  I had never even been in Tampa before relocating here, so it hardly makes sense for me to switch my allegiances just because I temporarily find my residence in a city other than the home of my favorite teams.

In any case, I respected your opinion until you called me, and those like me, an "embarrassment to the community".  And, for what its worth, the sense of community in urban areas in the south, from my experience, tends to pale in comparison to cities in the north that offer predominately family-owned establishments (as opposed to chain restaurants and cookie-cutter grocery stores) and worthwhile public transportation feasible for bringing people together.

And, by the way, will I be an "embarrassment to my community" when my Pennsylvania or D.C. license plates sport USF covers?  Because they will.

Thank you.

GO BULLS!!! 

But, also: Go Phillies! Go Eagles! and MOST DEFINITELY GO FLYERS!!!!

[Mag Pie]

Whiskeyboarder, you made your post look like I wrote that and it was jd77.

I still don't see how I'm an embarassment to this community.  Or how I'm sticking my middle finger at Tampa Bay.  Ironically, I was flipped off by a Rays because I had a Yankees sticker on the back of my car, and I was just driving with 3 small cousins in the back of the car.  Classy.

To be honest it was not my decision to move here, I was underage when my mom decided to move to FL and I'm finally used to FL now.  I have nothing against the Rays, but at the same time I will not pretend I'm a fan because I am not.  What you're saying is that I and everyone else that grew up somewhere else should turn into a bandwagon fan.  No thanks, I think I'll pass.  I rather root for my Yankees, whom I knew were not going to make the playoffs since before the season started.  I rather keep my memories of driving around banging pots and pans along with all of NYC when the Yankees won their WS during the Golden Years.  And I'd rather go ahead and support the team that I have been a fan of for 15+ years now.  I'd rather be a true fan supporting my team through think and thin no matter where from then pretend to be the fan of the current hot team.

[jd77]

If you are just here temporarily for school or something of that nature, that is a completely different scenario.

I am talking about the majority of the people who moved here like me by choice and are not going back.  Have no intention of going back.

They live off of these nostalgic memories.  Stop living in the past.  Respect your past, but respect your present and future more. 

I was at 3 Redskins Super Bowl parades as a kid in DC.  I went to Redskins training camp in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with my father every year as a kid.  I was a HUGE Orioles fan.  I remember being 5 years old when the Orioles won the World Series and being at my grandparents house the place erupted with the final out.  I was 5 and I remember that like it was yesterday.  I remember Dale Hunter beating Ron Hextall on a breakaway in double OT in game 7 of the 1st round of the NHL playoffs to advance the Caps past teh 1st round for the 1st time in team history. I stayed up all night with my uncle watching a replay of that goal on HTS over and over. They replayed that goal for like 10 striaght hours on HTS.

I have tons of memories.  But, I also have tons of memories and lots to look forward to with the Tampa Bay teams now that I live here.

My Dad always raised me to support the home team. So when I told him and the rest of my family that I wasn't coming back, it was almost like it was expected that I would become a Tampa sports fan. I was just up there this past weekend and was hanging out with my old buddies and they were all like I bet you are loving those Rays this year.  The Bucs look good this year. , etc.   It was like 2nd nature to just assume that I would be supporting the home teams.  That is just what you do.  Its about civic pride.

Its the same reason you see **** Vitale with his season tickets to the Rays and talking them up on college basketball broadcasts all year.  He is not originally from here, but he has civic pride.  Mike Alstott has season tickets and is always seen at Rays games. He is from Illinois, but he is a part of this community and gets it.  He supports the other local athletes.  Joey Galloway is not from here, but the other day on his radio show he said he is really behind the Rays and when he retires he wants to stay in the area and just be a Rays fan and not worry about football.  Its because he wants to be a part of the community.  The same way Jon Gruden and Joey Galloway announced the starting line ups for the ESPN broadcast of the USF/WVU game. Neither went to USF, but were showing their support to the local team.  If you don't get that, and can't get caught up in the sense of community that all these teams bring and feel for one another, then you just don't get it.  You obviously don't like living here and really should move.  Move to wherever it is you feel a part of.  Or at least stop raining on this community's parade.   

[Joe]

I live in Cincitucky, but am a Rays fan.

I must have no civic pride.

Your argument might be the most retarded thing I've ever heard.

[mulheap]

Tell me, if you move out of Tampa, will you stop supporting the Rays?

when the rays play my new local team....yes.

no surrender - bruce springsteen

[Mag Pie]

I'm not raining on the community parade.  I just don't care to join the "parade" or to pretend to join it.  I'm not a bandwagon fan.

Let's just say you have your opinion that I don't understand and I have my opinion that you will not understand.  You root for the Rays; your new favorite team, and I'll continue to support the Yankees; my first and always favorite team.  We're both dedicated fans and that's all that matters.