What the Cellar Smells Like: A Retrospective

645 – 972 (.399) is the all-time record for the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, not including the start of the '08 season.The highest win tally that the Rays have managed in a season is 70. The franchise's all-time leader in home runs, RBI, and XBH is the "great" Aubrey Huff. Every opening day starter in franchise history: James Shields, Scott Kazmir… Dewon Brazelton, Victor Zambrano, Joe Kennedy, Tanyon Sturtze, Albie Lopez, Steve Trachsel, and Wilson Alvarez. They have ranked 14th (last) in the AL in attendance every year since 2001. The Rays not only fell into the cellar, but they made sure to buy a tent, sleeping bags, and enough rations beforehand to live down there indefinitely. The franchise has been very, very, very, very bad in every aspect of baseball from the bottom up. They are an amazing testament to the evolution of baseball in the free agent era and how a badly managed franchise can fall behind so far that being called "mediocre" would be considered an angelic blessing. The Rays have been Major League Baseball's whipping boy for the past decade now, but they still have fans lying around here and there. Why? Well you could say that it is just the spirit of sport… one of the few things in the world that has the potential for unwavering loyalty in the face of extreme adversity. Yes… partially. However, Rays fans have been misunderstood throughout the duration of the franchise, so I am here to set the record straight. Why would you be a Rays fan? Why would you be a fan of a team whose single most important moment of the franchise's history occurred when a visiting Luis Gonzalez smacked a dinger into the stingray tank in Tropicana Field for the first (and as it stands, only) time ever? The best way to understand it outside of living the part is to listen to someone that has lived it. So let me tell you a story… a story of being a Rays fan. Growing up as a kid in Michigan the Detroit Tigers were the baseball team thrust into my lap. However, an eventual move to Clearwater, Florida gave me some food for thought. Feeling no real affinity for the then-seemingly perpetually horrendous Tigers and their then-old battered stadium, the Tampa area and their exciting brand new expansion team gave me a chance to start my life as a baseball fan anew. A fresh start… … which led to 9 last place finishes and 1 run to 4th in the AL East. Throughout the years there has been some clear patterns that have become apparent living life as a Rays fan, mostly involving the ways that we are treated. All sports fans are treated in certain ways depending on the person they come in contact with. The most obvious example is the blind hatred evident between Yankees and Red Sox fans. Generally, you know what you are going to get as a fan of most teams. Your rivals are going to hate you. Your region is going to love you. If you are winning, everyone that isn't one of your fans is going to hate you. But as a Rays fan… things aren't so clear cut. Now, living in the heart of the Yanks-Sox rivalry (Connecticut), a place that breathes baseball, I have been fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to experience some of these things. Let me break it down for you. Essentially, there are three types of people that I have encountered. The Empathetic – Sympathy is a powerful emotion. These are the types of people that donate to charity for reasons other than a tax write-off. Of course it doesn't always feel too great to be treated like a charity case, but it comes with the deal of being a Rays fan. Even fans of other teams in the AL East sometimes tend to cheer for the Rays because they don't perceive them to be anything remotely close to a threat. Also, in the modern era of 8-digit monster contracts that small market teams have no chance of matching, fans of other small market teams tend to sympathize with the plight of other small market teams. And when they realize that the Rays have one of the smallest markets in MLB and play in a division where a $15 million a year contract is knocked around like a tennis ball at Wimbledon, they end up pitying Rays fans as if they were all victims of child abuse. The Confused – These people, mostly through ignorance, have no idea what to do when they encounter a Rays fan. It is probably attributed to the fact that outside of the Tampa Bay area there are less Rays fans than flying rhinoceroses. Here's an example. I'm on the Bridgeport to Port Jefferson ferry, which traverses the Long Island Sound, connecting Connecticut to Long Island. Needless to say, this is Yankee-infested water. While sitting quietly at the little bar on the ferry watching the Yankees and Orioles knock each other around I notice a pair of Yankee fans at the end of the bar whispering to each other. Eventually, one shuffles over and asks why I am wearing this hat with a sting ray and a "TB" on it. Finally, after some explanation from me, he realizes that I was actually a fan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and goes back to his seat to excitedly explain to his pal that I was the first Devil Rays fan he has ever met, to which his friend responded by yelping "A D-RAYS FAN!?" loud enough to send the bartender scampering back to the end of the bar to see if everything was alright. The commotion prompted a half hour discussion between me and everyone in the bar about how a Rays fan ended up in New York as if I was a hopelessly lost 7 yr old orphan kid. The Spiteful – Ah yes, now these people I still do not fully understand. What is there to hate about the Tampa Bay Rays? Well, some of our compatriots in the AL East have reason to dislike the Rays merely because they are in the division. But I have experienced some interesting sources of spite against the Rays. One popular one is the group of people that believe that recent worse-than-bad teams like the Rays, Pirates, and Royals bring down the quality of MLB as a whole and are detrimental to the league. Last year I got into a spirited conversation with a friend of mine who is a Cleveland Indians fan. We were comparing the farm systems of the Rays and the Indians, but during my dissection of the Rays Single-A Vero Beach affiliate he cut me off by exclaiming, "Well it doesn't matter anyway because the Rays will always suck #@$". A few years ago I even had a college professor from Massachusetts criticize my Rays cap and I because my support of "a Double-A quality team was ruining the division" after the Rays got swept by the Yankees. So the Rays strive on, and so do I. Admittedly I have questioned my Rays fan-hood many times, as recently as last year when I posted an unpleasant tirade about wanting to quit on the franchise on one of the sports forums that I frequent. I'm certain that Pirates fans have questioned themselves over the past 16 years and Cubs fans for the past century. It has certainly been a struggle to endure a decade of Rays fandom… but hey, I've waited a decade now for something to happen, so what's another year? Maybe a winning season will cast a different aura around the Rays franchise, and people won't look at me awkwardly anymore when they notice the logo on my cap. Maybe when I mention names like Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton they will begin to turn heads. Maybe if the media realizes the franchise still exists they may be able to make it on to national television a few times a year. Hmm… is some of this already happening? But I never answered the original question… why be a Rays fan? Well, it's far simpler than it seems. Because of The Empathetic, The Confused, and The Spiteful. When they come and see me over the next few years to discuss the AL East pennant race and see my smug little grin, it will all be worth it.