but Wow, jut Wow! I was rockin the Longo Durham Bulls t-shirt jersey at the gym today. Very nice win!

...but I am a little surprised by the amount of Cubs fans. Am I alone in thinking that it looked worse than a Red Sox or Yanks game There was one shot on the ION broadcast where out of the 30-40 fans in the frame I didn’t see one Rays jersey!!!

Also funny hearing Joe Magrane bust out the ‘dreaded upper decker’ line again. Classic.

A ton of Cubs fans there, but nobody acted like a Red Sox or Yanks fan where I was sitting. Three should share the MVP for tonight: Ruggiano, Longoria, and Aybar. The each made exceptional plays in the 9th. Without those three Percy would have blown the save.

The game was absolutely electric. It was a shame to have Kaz not go very deep in the game, but the team as whole did a great job of grinding out a win when two of our best pitchers (Kaz and Percy) didn’t have their best stuff.

..On the Cubs fans note, I was also surprised a little by the sheer mass of the Cubs fans. I don’t know if that was just because it was their first game ever in the area or not, but it will be interesting to see if they are out in equally large numbers tomorrow. Overall, the Cubs fans weren’t a-holes like our AL East rivals, but it was difficult to drown out their “Let’s go Cubbies” chants. I’m not sure if it was just the couple sections around me or not, but they were extremely loud (and beer sales had to be through the roof). There were a couple of jerks (but they merely matched the amount of drunken idiots also there in Rays gear). I can’t wait to make it back out again tomorrow! Go Rays!

As USFraysfan said it was electric. The crowd was intense as the game was. Evan Longoria is god. Balfour pitched amazing. It has been said. This team is showing they can overcome some troubles and still pull out a win.

Hopefully we can notch another win today. I’ll actually be there today! :)

I lived in NY/NJ area for first 25 years of my life and was a diehard Yank-Mees fan, moved down here 8 years ago and only took me a year or two to shed my previous allegiance…and that was when the Yanks were winning all those World Series and the Rays hadn’t even won 70 games yet! You don’t live in Chicago anymore, get it? Home team people!!!

Great, the game is on ESPN tonight. Now the whole country can witness the embarrassment of the opposing teams’ fans drowning out the home team with their chants. I may get flak for this, but I’d rather the stadium be half-empty with mostly Rays fans that to put up with the ‘big-market takeover’.

Am I overreacting?

or “they Rays have played SO MANY games at home, I say lies! Half of the games at home where basically like being on the road!

Go Rays! Cubs fans can get the hell out.

I too saw the game on WGN as a kid. I grew up as a military brat with no home team really. But, when my pops moved to Tampa, I knew what a gift it was to have a home team. For once I had guys wearing my hometown’s name on their chest. For that, the Rays get my undying loyalty.

Greetings, Rays fans! I have a question for you. The Rays are winning now with a lot of homegrown talent. Obviously, the team’s record in past seasons relieved some of the pressure on these youngsters to perform, but even today Evan’s numbers aren’t quite what you’d expect from him once he comes into his own. How patient are you guys as fans, and the team’s front office, with these players? Over in Cubs land it seems CF Felix Pie, SS Ronny Cedeno, and others can’t go 9 ABs without people lamenting their utter failure and destruction as prospects. Some of us are more patient, but it seems they don’t get much of a chance to get enough ABs at the major-league level to get a fair assessment. Your thoughts?

...see how the Yanks fans/writers have all but thrown in the towel on Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes. If they don’t come up and dominate like Joba they’re a failure. Probably the same atmosphere in Chi-town.

for the ‘Stine!