On The Same Day The Rays Clinched The Division They Slapped Their Fans Right In The Face With Some Ridiculous Montreal News
Congrats to the Rays for having yet another fantastic regular season. AL East champs and they're easily the best team in the AL. They're gearing up for another deep run into October and my guess is anything less than another World Series appearance is a failure. They were lucky enough to clinch the division at home on Saturday night in front of a crowd of over 23,000. A pretty damn good crowd for the Rays and that ballpark. You already know the story of the Rays, every year no matter who they trade, who they play, who they bring up, they're in the conversation for the playoffs. They have it, I don't know what it is, but they have it. The conversation is always about the attendance, they average 9,370 fans per game this season, about a 1,000 less than the Orioles. So naturally with them clinching the AL East yesterday they decided to drop some more news.
The team announced that they will be adding signage in foul ground behind right field that will promote the Rays plan to do a split schedule while they play games in Tampa and Montreal. It will be a nice Tampa Bay - Montreal graphic. What the hell kind of dumb idea is that? Who thought this was a good idea? World Series team last year, AL East champion this year, and while they're celebrating that they're just going to sneak up a sign that is telling the fans and team they want to play half their games in another country? Doesn't really send a good message at all if you ask me.
The sign will be officially unveiled at the first playoff game. I'll say this, nothing gets me more fired up for game 1 of the playoffs than upper management shoving it right in our face that they don't really want to be playing ballgames here anymore. This is like your parents telling you they want to get a divorce and bang other people during their speech at your wedding. Way to suck all the air out of the place, Tampa. Officials say it's the best and only way to keep a team in Tampa and I don't think that is actually the case? How about building a much improved stadium in, I don't know, maybe Tampa Bay instead of St. Petersburg? Maybe that would work? Plans could be solidified by mid November and it seems like an direct slap in the face to the Rays and their fans.
What a weird and strange plan to unveil this during the playoffs too. The time when you want your fans and crowd the loudest and to bring it all, you're going to shove a sign in their face that says it's basically a split-custody relationship now and you only get weekends.