I have a confession to make. I haven’t watched a lot of Rays baseball over the last two weeks.
That is partly because professional obligations (I have a profession aside from this blog) have occupied portions of my evenings. But, that is just a convenient excuse.
I have been following the games. I know the outcomes. I read the papers. I even listen to most of the games on the radio. But, the truth is, I just can’t watch.
I think there are a lot of reasons I can’t watch. It’s hard to watch when you know we aren’t likely to win. It just is. Even the most die-hard fan has to admit that. But that isn’t it. I have literally watched (heck, worked) thousands of Devil Rays games they had no chance of winning. I am not watching because I don’t want to spend my evenings watching bad baseball. And that is exactly what we are playing right now. Bad baseball.
Excuses can be made. (We’re hurt. We’ve had bad luck. We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel just to fill the clubhouse — see Conrad, Brooks). Those excuses just explain why the on-field product is bad. So I’m not really watching.
Sometimes I turn it on for an inning or two. Sometimes I watch something else and check in on the game. I really prefer listening to the game on the radio while reading in my living room. Hearing Andy and Dave describe the gang-that-can’t-shoot-straight is somehow easier to take than seeing it live. I’m not sure why.
So here is the question I pose to you, readers of The Ray Area. Does that make me a bandwagon fan?
Do I have some kind of fan obligation to watch the Rays even when the product isn’t entertaining? It’s not like I have put the season to the side. I’m not writing them off because they are losing. I am still following them closely. I just don’t want to sit through their current ineptitude.
So, what say you, does my waning desire to watch put me in camp with the Johnny-Come-Latelys?
Touche….who can stand to watch such bad baseball. It’s gut wrenching given the standard this organization has set for the past five years. And no one can tell me there isn’t a better option in Durham than Matsui…except that the up and down for whomever is not an option for the business side of this deal…time spent at the show is time the team looses control. Matsui….really? Pitiful. And thus this die hard is not glued to every game these days either. And in closing, don’t even get me started about, 30 lbs over weight and can’t move Molina.
As Dandy Don used to sing….”turn out the lights, the party’s over” for 2012
I couldn’t agree more with this article. Over the past two weeks I feel like it is 1998-2007. I even called them the Devil Rays yesterday on an accident. Every year I would get excited and go buy a new shirt or hat, go to about 5 games early on and then the All Star Break came with the realization that the Devil Rays just weren’t going to make the playoffs. I tune in every night, especially the three awful games against the Royals, and hope just maybe we will explode and put together a rally. Some nights it is the defense, or maybe a bad pitch here and there. Most of the time it is like watching a Triple A team who just can’t hit. Before this year I had never heard of Drew Sutton, Will Rhymes, or Brooks Conrad. I probably won’t forget them either. Especially if the Rays end turning it around in the second half of the year.
I’ve been the exact same way. Last year I went to almost every game the final homestand of the season, and overall had over 20 games under my belt each of the last 3 years.
This year, I’ve been to all of ONE game. I’ve been to the Trop this year as many times as I went to Fenway two seasons ago. I’ve got a helluva lot going on at home life right now. Not watching the games is nothing new for me, if I’m not at the game, I’m typically listening to Dave and Andy. There’s just nothing better than listening to a quality baseball radio broadcast. I think the other reason that I love listening to the radio is that they are such fans of the team like we are. When they struggle the radio team doesn’t hold back how awful things are, which validates my feelings for me and makes me feel more like a true fan than the bandwagon fears you are talking about here.
The sad part is, in any other damned market that’s not beat down by the Boston sports network on a weekly basis, it wouldn’t be anything for us to be disenfranchised. When Fenway faithful weren’t faithful, and when Yankee Stadium was empty because those teams were awful, nobody noticed. Oh, but when the young team in the smallest market in baseball struggles, we’re all band-wagoners. Whatever.
Of course, the punishment for not watching is missing last night’s rally…