I just typed up these numbers in response to one of my friends (who happens to be a Phillie's fan) making a comment about how the Rays' fans are bandwagoners.  I know I shouldn't get annoyed after hearing this all year, but I can't help but still get annoyed.  Anyway, I found some interesting things...

To find this last metric, I simply divided each year's attend/game numbers by the metropolitan area population for each city and then multiplied by 100.  Obviously it's not a perfect metric, but it's kinda interesting at the same time.

Also, I just find it really funny that while Philly fans are uber loyal, they also didn't draw that many fans when they stunk.  Their turnaround from a 65-97 record in 2000 to a 86-76 record in 2001 is comparable to our turnaround this year, but their attendance increased much less between those two years than our's did this year.  But anyway, I think this pretty much proves that "fan loyalty" (as presented by the media and opposing fans) is not tied to attendance figures, but to length of a team's existence.

In one of the threads this morning, I saw a couple people expressing the opinion that if the Rays don't win tonight, all that this team has accomplished this year will mean nothing.  On one hand, I can understand where that person is coming from.  If we don't win, ten years from now people probably won't remember a whole lot about this team.  That's just how it works in baseball...if you come up short of the World Series, no one remembers you.  History loves the winners.

However, think of how absurd that is.  If we make it to the World Series, we'd be one of the greatest worst-to-first stories of all time, if not the best.  But if we come up one win short of making it to the series, well, whatever.  One win.  It's ridiculous the sort of difference that one win (out of over 170 games that we've played this season so far) can make.  Regardless of what the history books may remember, I refuse to judge our entire season on one lousy win.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm defeatist and already giving the Red Sox game 7...that couldn't be further from the truth.  All I'm saying, though, is that the Rays' season is more than just this one game.  If you lead yourself to believe that if we don't win tonight, this entire season was a waste, you're disrespecting this team and all that they've accomplished so far. 

The media has talked us down this entire season, waiting for us to fall apart.  Nobody believed in our team...except for us.  Nobody else was following this team every day and saw how we kept bouncing back no matter what.  We know how special and awesome this team is because we've been there the whole damn time!  The perception that our season hinges on this one game - that if we lose, our season was a waste - is a creation of our "winners-first" culture.  But in my mind, at least, the Rays have already won this series.

Look at this series in the big picture.  We, the Tampa Bay Rays, one season removed from winning under 70 games, has made it to the American League Championship Series and we're one win away from going to the World Series.  Holy crap!  It's simply incredible when you look at it that way.  And not only that, we've taken it to Boston for this entire series.  We've made their team look weak, drained, and pathetic.  We've out-homered them, we've out-run them, our starting pitching has out-pitched their starting pitching.  And, most importantly, we've done this in front of the entire national media.  Nobody - mark my words - nobody is going to go into next season thinking the Rays are still pushovers.

And yes, we blew Game 5, but we knew we were having things too easy, right?  The Red Sox are a great team and we've had to fight them tooth and nail this entire season.  it was a fluke that we had been destroying them by that much at home, just like it was a fluke that our bullpen imploded that much in Game 5.  Things have evened out.  Now, it comes down to one last game.  It's going to be tough, but hey, we've had our back to the wall before this season.  We can win this game.  But if we don't, I certainly don't want to hear people saying that this season was a waste.  If that's what you think, go to hell.  You're disrespecting this team just as much as the media has this entire season long. 

So no matter what, hold your head high!  Even if Red Sox fans try to hold this over your head, ask them what they were saying about our team in June.  Are the Rays still a joke to them anymore?  I don't think so.  And in that sense, we've already won.

To help distract us from more pointless Sonnanstine/Jackson debates, I figured I'd post something that's been on my mind for a little bit.  After watching Kazmir pitch last night and seeing how well Shields has been pitching this year, I couldn't but think that we've got one of, if not the best, 1-2 punch in all of the AL East.  Let's think about this...

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Okay...people have been speculating like crazy on this issue recently and I figured I'd throw out an idea.  As much as I would love to sign Bonds or trade for a big name outfielder, I think that's dangerously approaching the Yankee philosophy - go for the biggest name out there for short-term success.  Granted while signing Bonds wouldn't cost us prospects or anything, that would leave Cliff Floyd as a bench player and I dunno...it doesn't make the most sense in that regard.

Anyway, my point is that if we want to make a move at the break, I don't think we should pursue any big name offensive talent.  Our offensive is currently under performing (or at least Upton, Pena, Longoria, and Crawford are) and so I see no reason to believe they won't eventually kick it into gear. 

In terms of dealing for a front of the rotation starter, we have so much starting pitching depth in the minors coming up, I don't see the need to go for a big name pitcher that would clog our rotation in the long run.

However, you can never have too much bullpen depth.  I know they've been awesome so far, but Wheeler and JP Howell have been relied upon a lot to this point.  I don't want to risk them getting overworked early on in the season and then fizzling out down the home stretch.  Especially if we're thinking p******s, a strong bullpen that isn't overworked is uber important.  That said, there should be a decent amount of relievers available at the break...George Sherril and Huston Street jump to mind.  Thoughts?

Anyone else see this article?  How ironic is it that the Yanks are now saying they want to play like the Rays, after complaining so loud about us playing hard in spring training?  Also, where did the Steinbrenners ever get the idea that complaining about the team through the press helped their team play better?

On another subject, here's a really interesting read about how the Rays (and A's) have been playing so far this year.  I'm a big fan of stats, especially when someone uses them to show that the Rays are playing sustainable baseball (oops, gave away the punchline).  And because I'm superstitious when it comes to baseball, knock-on-wood.

To finish off the randomness of this post, does anyone have any idea where I can get new Rays gear online?  Someone brought this up in a string of comments recently, but I figured I'd just reiterate it.  I'm looking to get a t-shirt jersey for a couple players, plus I'd love to get one of their batting practice hats, but I can't find either anywhere.  Mlb.com is especially frustrating, since they have barely any new Ray gear available for purchase.  You'd think by this point they'd have more available.  I mean, it's not like these new uniforms just came out last month....